{Exclusive} Julia Heaberlin’s Texas-Set Thriller “Black-Eyed Susans” Blooms On The Market

〉Heaberlin is the author of popular Texas-based thrillers Playing Dead and Lie Still

The rights to the latest Texas-set psychological thriller from Julia Heaberlin, BLACK-EYED SUSANS, have officially moseyed their way onto the market.

Black-Eyed Susans, which was published by Ballantine Books in July, is repped by Pamela Ahearn of The Ahearn Agency, with Paradigm’s Dana Spector handling TV and film rights.

The story centers around Tessa Cartwright, who, as a sixteen-year-old, was found in a Texas field, barely alive amid a scattering of bones, with only fragments of memory as to how she got there. Ever since, the press has pursued her as the lone surviving “Black-Eyed Susan,” the nickname given to the murder victims because of the yellow carpet of wildflowers that flourished above their shared grave. Tessa’s testimony about those tragic hours put a man on death row.

Now, almost two decades later, Tessa is shocked to discover a freshly planted patch of black-eyed susans just outside her bedroom window. Terrified that she sent the wrong man to prison and the real killer remains at large, Tessa turns to the lawyers working to exonerate the man awaiting execution. The legal team appeals to Tessa to undergo hypnosis to retrieve lost memories—and to share the drawings she produced as part of an experimental therapy shortly after her rescue.

As the clock ticks toward the execution, Tessa fears for her sanity–and for the safety of her teenaged daughter. Is a serial killer still roaming free, taunting Tessa with a trail of clues?

Immediately upon its release, Heaberlin’s suspense story drew favorable comparisons to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Her experience as an editor for Texas area newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News and the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, shines, as she expertly captures the unique atmosphere of the regional culture, providing a specific landscape in which the twisted mystery can play out.

Between the success of the aforementioned Gone Girl, and the buzz surrounding the upcoming The Girl On The Train, Black-Eyed Susans could prove to be a hot commodity for any production company eyeing a female-driven thriller of its own.

Heaberlin lives in Dallas with her husband and son.

—TO SEE ALL THE PROJECT DETAILS CLICK HERE—

Josh Lyons | Staff Writer