Bless Your Heart - by Leigh Dunlap

Book Synopsis

Motherhood and murder link five very different women when a working-class detective clashes with wealthy moms in this upmarket thriller in the vein of May Cobb and Jeneva Rose.

Anderson Tupper, a member of one of Atlanta's richest families, has been 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.

With the exclusive area of Buckhead threatening to secede from the city of Atlanta and take its tax revenue with it, Shay is under pressure to solve the murder of one of Buckhead's own. 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. One of them might be a murderer, but who? Is it the old-money queen of Buckhead? The mysterious new girl in town? The drug-dealing trophy wife?

It seems secrets and lies are as plentiful as luxury handbags in Atlanta and everyone's guilty of something. Shay's investigation will make her examine her own prejudices and discover that, as a woman and a mother, she might not be that different from the Betties after all. And if she isn't careful, they just might take her down with them.

Review Quotes

Praise for Bless Your Heart
"A little bit Desperate Housewives, a little bit Jacqueline Susann, and the delicious whiff of camp . . . This is a hoot."
--Publishers Weekly

"Dunlap masterfully weaves class tension and maternal instinct into a heart-pounding thriller that grips you from the first page. Detective Shay Claypool crashes through the pristine veneer of Buckhead society, exposing the dark secrets lurking beneath designer handbags and country club memberships. The "Buckhead Betties" circle their wagons as Shay hunts for a killer among Atlanta's elite, challenging everyone's assumptions about privilege and justice. Brimming with southern charm and lethal ambition, Bless Your Heart delivers a wickedly entertaining reminder that motherhood might unite women across social divides, but murder reveals who they truly are."
--Kaira Rouda, USA Today bestselling author of Jill Is Not Happy and We Were Never Friends

"Equal parts murder mystery and social satire, Leigh Dunlap's Bless Your Heart is a savagely gleeful take on the Atlanta elite, Law & Order meets Desperate Housewives. Beneath the glamorous surface, though, Dunlap considers weighty issues such as race, class, and money. As a longtime resident of Atlanta, when reading Dunlap's debut I both laughed out loud and squirmed in my seat, although I laughed more often. Dunlap is a witty and vicious satirist in addition to being a compelling mystery writer. Murder mysteries open all kinds of doors, allowing readers access to hidden truths that are both shocking and shallow. Dunlap accomplishes this with particular verve and skill, sparing no one. "Who killed Anderson Tupper?" may be the question at the heart of the plot, but as Dunlap leads us inside the privileged walls of Atlanta mansions and into the worlds of both the Buckhead Betties and the detective searching for a killer, we may start wondering if there are more deserving victims."
--Christopher Swann, award-winning author of Never Back Down

About the Author

Leigh Dunlap is the screenwriter of the hit Warner Bros. movie A Cinderella Story. A native of Los Angeles, she attended film school at the University of Southern California. She now splits time and personalities between South Carolina and South Kensington and dreams of one day giving it all up and searching for buried treasure. Until then, she writes movies and books. Including this one. Her debut novel.