“A compelling family mystery that kept me turning the pages. Highly recommended.”---Margaret Maron, New York Times bestselling author of Three Day Town “[Julia Heaberlin’s] voice is pitch perfect, and her story of one woman’s fierce struggle to reconcile her past with her present is gripping and powerful. An outstanding debut.”---Carla Buckley, author of Invisible
Praise for Julia Heaberlin and PLAYING DEAD:
"Tommie is a smart, sassy, loving, and doggedly persistent narrator in this fast-moving mystery that occasionally tugs at the heartstrings. A promising debut." --Booklist
" PLAYING DEAD is an accomplished thriller, with twists that cut like barbed wire. Sure-footed, suspenseful, and full of heart." --Meg Gardiner, Edgar-award winning author
"Absolutely gripping! Julia Heaberlin’s PLAYING DEAD whirls the reader from the open spaces of rural Texas to the crowded Chicago streets as the stakes grow ever higher and the truth ever more elusive. I couldn’t put down this compelling novel of a life turned inside out in a world where no one is what they seem. More, please!" --Vicki Lane, author of THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS
"One I began reading PLAYING DEAD, I couldn’t put it down. Heaberlin’s voice is pitch perfect, and her story of one woman’s fierce struggle to reconcile her past with her present is gripping and powerful. An outstanding debut." --Carla Buckley, author of INVISIBLE
"I loved PLAYING DEAD from cover to cover--pulled me in and wouldn’t let me go until I finished in the wee morning hours. Best fiction I’ve read in a very, very long time." --Taylor Stevens, author of THEINNOCENT
"A compelling family mystery that kept me turning the pages. Highly recommended." --Margaret Maron, author of THREE-DAY TOWN
"Julia Heaberlin’s PLAYING DEAD is a wonderfully suspenseful debut. Heroine Tommie McCloud is scrappy, sassy and has a heart as big as her home state of Texas." --Heather Gudenkauf, author of ONE BREATH AWAY
"A terrific debut . . . Like the Chicken-Fried Steak that its characters love, PLAYING DEAD combines Texas and Noir in unexpectedly wonderful ways, with a refreshingly real heroine and a plot that moves and twists with the unpredictability of a rodeo bull." --Susanna Kearsley, author of ROSE GARDEN
"We’re head-over-heels about PLAYING DEAD....Heaberlin makes her literary debut with this page turner of a paperback that combines an ever-twisting plot with a lead character...who seems equal parts smart, sassy, sexy, and completely unhinged. --Indulge Magazine
Rights to PLAYING DEAD are sold to: Dutch (Mistral), German (DTV), Russian (Book Family Leisure). A two book deal, including PLAYING DEAD and LIE STILL was closed UK (Faber & Faber).
We closed a two-book deal for UK and British Commonwealth rights with Michael Joseph/Penguin UK for six figures (in British Pounds).