Sherrilyn Kenyon, Author of 'Dark-Hunter' Series, Accuses Husband of Poisoning Her for Years

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Sherrilyn Kenyon appearing at the 2017 Phoenix Comicon. Gage Skidmore

Urban fantasy novelist Sherrilyn Kenyon, best known for her bestselling Dark-Hunter series of paranormal romances, has accused her husband of poisoning her over a period of years. He did so with the help of a hired tutor who became, allegedly, a central figure in a years-long conspiracy to take control of copyrights on the millions of novels she's sold across multiple book series.

The accusations are outlined both in her "Menyon" newsletter to fans and an 81-page lawsuit alleging years of manipulation, financial chicanery, business interference, identity theft and violence, filed to the Circuit Court of Williamson County, in Franklin, Tenn.

"Last year was a weird, crazy year," Kenyon wrote in a blog post celebrating the arrival of 2019. "Or a cautionary tale :)." After relaying birthday experiences, recipes, book signing tour dates and fan club updates, Kenyon outlined her husband's alleged efforts to wrest control of her work from her, followed by the description of "a bevy of strange, inexplicable and baffling symptoms," Kenyon would come to believe were the result of intentional poisoning plot against her.

"I'm coping with the dissolution of my twenty-eight year marriage to a man I made the mistake of putting through law school by working three jobs so that he wouldn't have to work any while he studied," Kenyon wrote to fans in her newsletter. "A man who is now turning the skills I paid for against me as he ruthlessly lies about me and fights me for *MY* copyright of characters, series and worlds that I had long before I ever met him (something he has admitted to on record time and again) and to books he knows he never helped to write or plot because he forbid me to even talk about my writing in front of him."

The couple, married in 1990, have three children together. The lawsuit—which Kenyon II's lawyers moved to consolidate with the ongoing divorce case—goes into greater detail, laying out a 119-point complaint, describing everything from hacking her computers to poisoning Kenyon and her cat.

"It was unclear to Plaintiff why her husband, Lawrence Kenyon, would orchestrate this Shakespearian plot against her when he was lavished with expensive cars and other personal services that could only be obtained through Plaintiff's career success," the lawsuit filed by Kenyon and her attorneys reads. "Plaintiff now believes that it was more than the profuse insecurity and insidious jealousy of her success, but Lawrence Kenyon stood to gain millions of dollars upon her demise through life insurance and the value of her estate, including her copyrights and trademarks."

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Kenyon's "Deadman's Cross" series is part horror-fantasy, part pirate epic. Tor Books

The lawsuit's narrative emphasizes the work Kenyon did to build her career independent of (and sometimes under protest from) her husband, but also outlines areas where her husband's involvement, such as in negotiating her first publishing contract, were more harmful than helpful.

"His actions caused such bad feelings in the industry toward Ms. Kenyon," the lawsuit reads, "that for about four years, she couldn't sell any more books in any series to any publisher."

"To lay claim to someone's mind and to their creativity is wrong," Kenyon wrote in her newsletter. "Yet that is what he's trying to do with the help of our court system. To enslave me to him for eternity so that he won't have to work again for the rest of his life, even though he has a law degree I bought for him, and that he refuses to use, except to hurt me and our innocent children because he thinks he's too good to work a job like the rest of us."

The lawsuit lays out the details surrounding the alleged poisoning, which began in 2014. By the fall of 2015, Kenyon describes suffering cysts, alopecia, extreme nausea, brittle nails, respiratory problems, bone loss, face swelling, tongue numbness, disorientation, back pain, tremors and a "peculiar metallic taste in her mouth." Kenyon's hairdresser was alarmed by the "handfuls" of hair coming loose. By 2017, Kenyon's "teeth were routinely crumbling" and "her bones were breaking from very minor pressure," but doctors couldn't find a cause.

The couple filed for divorce in March 2018, after which Kenyon had her blood, hair and nails tested for poison. The tests found high levels of lithium, tin, barium, platinum and thorium, evidence that, according to the lawsuit, Kenyon was being "systematically poisoned" by her husband, with the help of Kerrie Ann Plump, a tutor and co-defendant in the lawsuit brought by Kenyon, which describes Plump as conspiring with Kenyon's husband, controlling her food and undermining the author's reputation with fans and publishers.

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The Dark-Hunters face off against an army of demons and vampires in "One Silent Night." St. Martin's Paperbacks

"There can be no question that Sherrilyn Kenyon is a brilliant fiction writer, but it is apparent that she has irreparably blurred the line between fiction and reality. These astonishing and unsubstantiated allegations may stand as her best fantasy creation yet," lawyers for Kenyon II said in a statement to The Guardian. "When Lawrence Kenyon filed for divorce a year ago, he wanted nothing more from his wife other than an amicable divorce. He is saddened that the stress of these proceedings has brought out the worst in such a talented writer."

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Williamson County Sheriff's Office confirmed to The Tennessean that a detective had been assigned to investigate the poisoning accusation.

"Please be patient with me as I fight one of the hardest battles of my life against these monstrous liars who are trying their best to tear down my career and to take the things that do not belong to them," Kenyon wrote her fans.

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