LESLIE BRADFORD-SCOTT
Bestselling Author • Entrepreneur •
The Truth is Rarely Simple. The stories we inherit are a whole other crime scene.
The Liar’s Playbook
A memoir of family & crime • Simon & Schuster • A National Bestseller
I grew up with a charming narcissist of a father who, in his secret prison manuscript, claims he was fencing jewels stolen from foreign dignitaries and was forced into running arms for the CIA and FBI. I set out to investigate whether he was telling the truth or may have just been the world’s most committed liar.
My memoir digs into the mess he left behind in my personal life, how growing up with a criminal father shaped my adult life, and how years of running from his legacy finally caught up with me. The Liar’s Playbook is the real story of what happens when you finally stop protecting the people who hurt you and, instead of running from the past, turn around and face it head on.
If you’re rooting for anyone who has ever crawled out of the wreckage and rebuilt from scratch, this is your moment to click.

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About Leslie
About Leslie
Leslie Bradford-Scott is a bestselling, award-winning writer published by Simon & Schuster. She is also the founder of Walton Wood Farm, a multi-million-dollar personal care company she sold in 2022.
She takes a backhoe approach to digging up buried truths and writes about messy families with reckless disregard for the consequences.
Her work pairs uncomfortable honesty with dark humor, usually at the expense of people who would prefer she leave well enough alone.
Her memoir, The Liar’s Playbook, untangles two investigations:
Whether her father wasn’t the villain she believed, but a man doing whatever it took to keep his family safe. Or just a master storyteller.
How family secrets ricochet across generations and shape the stories we tell ourselves to survive
She writes for readers who understand that truth is complicated, memory is subjective, and resilience often sounds like sarcasm.
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Invite Leslie to Your Book Club or Event
Leslie loves book clubs and events, mostly because they ask the questions no journalist has the nerve to. Bring her into your living room, library, or Zoom window for an unforgettable conversation about truth, lies, resilience, unreliable narrators, and what happens when family secrets refuse to stay put.
She’ll read, answer questions, spill what she can…
and politely sidestep the parts her lawyer said to avoid.





