Book Launch: Bless Your Heart

From the venue:

“Bless your heart.” In the South, that’s often not as sweet as it sounds, and can be loaded with underlying harsh intent—sarcasm, pity, disdain and even animosity. And so, , which Crooked Lane Books will publish in hardcover on August 12, 2025, is a fitting title for Leigh Dunlap’s twisty and complex thriller about a Southern upscale community where no one is really who they seem, and everyone is lying to each other.

About the book:
Anderson Tupper, a member of one of Atlanta’s richest families, has been found murdered in the dugout of the Little League field where he was a volunteer coach, and it’s up to Detective Shay Claypool, a single mother from the other side of town, to find his killer. Accustomed to handling drug dealers and prostitutes, she must now contend with an even more sinister group: the Buckhead Betties, the insufferably entitled women of Georgia’s most affluent zip code. 

About the author:
Leigh Dunlap is the screenwriter behind the hit movie, A Cinderella Story starring Hilary Duff. She also wrote Spy Girls, based on the popular teen book series, for producer Lawrence Bender (Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting) and Camp Rockaway for Sony Pictures and producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher (Gladiator, Stuart Little). Her movie, 16-Love was one of Gravitas’ and Warner Digital’s top titles and The Standoff, starring Olivia Holt and Alex Wolff, was released on Netflix. She is a member of the International Thriller Writers and the Mystery Writers of America. Leigh has lived in many places, including Buckhead, and currently splits time between Johns Island, South Carolina and London, England.