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Table of Contents
About The Book
The remarkable, true story of an unusual childhood, complete with gangsters, guns, diamonds, drug smuggling, and fraud—just like any other little girl’s life.
At twelve years old, Leslie Bradford-Scott watched police cars swarm her family’s suburban home in Ontario. Hours later, she, her mom, and her grandmother were fleeing across the border into Florida with no explanation and no questions allowed. In an instant, her idyllic childhood turned into a maelstrom of grift, guns, and tragedy.
Decades later, Leslie’s mother handed her a blue binder—her father’s secret prison manuscript dubbed the Liar’s Playbook. Inside was a confession to trafficking goods, running arms, and playing both sides between international intelligence and the mafia. For most of her life, Leslie believed her father was a drug dealer with delusions of grandeur. Instead, she discovered a shadow world of espionage, organized crime, and explosive family secrets, including her father’s claim that he smuggled jewels to fund CIA-backed operations for the Contras. Her investigation leads to Hamilton’s violent “Bomb City” era, where mobsters like the Musitanos settled scores with dynamite, and some of the blood trails lead straight to her family.
Part true-crime thriller, part intimate memoir, The Liar’s Playbook tracks a daughter’s search for truth through unreliable memories, corrupt intelligence agents, and the long echo of her father’s double life. As she pieces together what really happened, Leslie must ask the one question that still haunts her: Can you forgive someone whose actions nearly destroyed you?
At twelve years old, Leslie Bradford-Scott watched police cars swarm her family’s suburban home in Ontario. Hours later, she, her mom, and her grandmother were fleeing across the border into Florida with no explanation and no questions allowed. In an instant, her idyllic childhood turned into a maelstrom of grift, guns, and tragedy.
Decades later, Leslie’s mother handed her a blue binder—her father’s secret prison manuscript dubbed the Liar’s Playbook. Inside was a confession to trafficking goods, running arms, and playing both sides between international intelligence and the mafia. For most of her life, Leslie believed her father was a drug dealer with delusions of grandeur. Instead, she discovered a shadow world of espionage, organized crime, and explosive family secrets, including her father’s claim that he smuggled jewels to fund CIA-backed operations for the Contras. Her investigation leads to Hamilton’s violent “Bomb City” era, where mobsters like the Musitanos settled scores with dynamite, and some of the blood trails lead straight to her family.
Part true-crime thriller, part intimate memoir, The Liar’s Playbook tracks a daughter’s search for truth through unreliable memories, corrupt intelligence agents, and the long echo of her father’s double life. As she pieces together what really happened, Leslie must ask the one question that still haunts her: Can you forgive someone whose actions nearly destroyed you?
Reading Group Guide
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The Liar's Playbook Reading Group Guide
On Truth and Memory
1. Leslie and Jean Claude tell completely different versions of the same events. Whose version did you find yourself believing, and did that shift as you read?
2. Jean Claude wrote 175,000 words in prison. What do you think he was trying to control: the truth, his legacy, or how he would be remembered? Do you think he wanted his manuscript published?
3. Leslie suggests memory is both unreliable and all we have. Did this memoir make you question your own memories of your family?
On Fathers and Daughters
4. Jean Claude told Leslie he had no use for children, yet others describe him as loving and brilliant. How do you reconcile those two versions of the same man?
5. How does growing up with both neglect and real danger shape a person?
6. Before reading his manuscript, what did the line “To Bradley, may you find peace. There is none here.” suggest to you about who he was?
On Family Silence
7. Margot knew the truth for decades and said nothing. Did her silence feel like protection, betrayal, or something more complicated?
8. When Leslie's mother handed over the binder and said “burn it,” what do you think she actually wanted?
9. How much of the family's silence felt cultural, and how much felt specific to the damage Jean Claude caused?
10. When have you told yourself you were keeping a secret to protect someone else and what were you actually protecting?
On Identity and Inheritance
11. Leslie learns that her father's criminal case helped shape Canadian law. What does it mean to inherit a legacy that is both harmful and protective?
12. By the end of the memoir, do you think Leslie is destined to repeat her father's patterns, or has she broken them?
13. Jean Claude built his life on reinvention. Is reinvention survival, erasure, or both?
14. Leslie also rebuilds her life repeatedly. How do you see her strength as both separate from and connected to her father?
On Investigation and Cost
15. Leslie investigates a man who is already dead. What do you think she was really searching for beyond the facts?
16. When told to “just let it go,” why do you think she couldn't?
17. By the end, Leslie understands her father saw her clearly but could never show it. Is that knowledge a gift or another wound?
The Question That Stays With You
18. The epigraph reads: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
What do you think Jean Claude was pretending to be, and what did that pretending make him?
On Truth and Memory
1. Leslie and Jean Claude tell completely different versions of the same events. Whose version did you find yourself believing, and did that shift as you read?
2. Jean Claude wrote 175,000 words in prison. What do you think he was trying to control: the truth, his legacy, or how he would be remembered? Do you think he wanted his manuscript published?
3. Leslie suggests memory is both unreliable and all we have. Did this memoir make you question your own memories of your family?
On Fathers and Daughters
4. Jean Claude told Leslie he had no use for children, yet others describe him as loving and brilliant. How do you reconcile those two versions of the same man?
5. How does growing up with both neglect and real danger shape a person?
6. Before reading his manuscript, what did the line “To Bradley, may you find peace. There is none here.” suggest to you about who he was?
On Family Silence
7. Margot knew the truth for decades and said nothing. Did her silence feel like protection, betrayal, or something more complicated?
8. When Leslie's mother handed over the binder and said “burn it,” what do you think she actually wanted?
9. How much of the family's silence felt cultural, and how much felt specific to the damage Jean Claude caused?
10. When have you told yourself you were keeping a secret to protect someone else and what were you actually protecting?
On Identity and Inheritance
11. Leslie learns that her father's criminal case helped shape Canadian law. What does it mean to inherit a legacy that is both harmful and protective?
12. By the end of the memoir, do you think Leslie is destined to repeat her father's patterns, or has she broken them?
13. Jean Claude built his life on reinvention. Is reinvention survival, erasure, or both?
14. Leslie also rebuilds her life repeatedly. How do you see her strength as both separate from and connected to her father?
On Investigation and Cost
15. Leslie investigates a man who is already dead. What do you think she was really searching for beyond the facts?
16. When told to “just let it go,” why do you think she couldn't?
17. By the end, Leslie understands her father saw her clearly but could never show it. Is that knowledge a gift or another wound?
The Question That Stays With You
18. The epigraph reads: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
What do you think Jean Claude was pretending to be, and what did that pretending make him?
About The Author
Ash Nayler
Leslie Bradford-Scott is an award-winning writer, entrepreneur, and podcaster, and the founder of WaltonWoodFarm.com. She grew up in Grimsby, Ontario, and Florida.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 26, 2026)
- Length: 336 pages
- ISBN13: 9781668069417
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Raves and Reviews
"A stranger-than-fiction account . . . propulsive and emotionally nuanced."--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“How well do we really know those closest to us, and is the truth better left unknown? The Liar’s Playbook explores one woman's family dynamics when it comes to lies, memories and ethics. But what impressed me most was the author’s resilience as she faced countless challenges, often feeling like and treated like a stranger within her own family. A memorable read!”
— CEA SUNRISE PERSON, author of North of Normal and Nearly Normal
“The Liar’s Playbook is an unflinching, honest, and deeply brave memoir. Leslie Bradford-Scott opens the door to a family shaped by secrecy, where love and deception are tightly entwined. With extraordinary clarity and compassion, she explores the cost of inherited lies and the courage it takes to rewrite the stories we were raised to believe.”
— MARISSA STAPLEY, New York Times-bestselling author of Lucky
“Leslie Bradford-Scott’s gutsy, riveting memoir traces her lifelong search for the continuously shifting truth about her father—a charming, reckless, law-breaking man who frequently and casually put her young life at risk. Her investigation uncovers disturbing facts about her family, yet it also exposes an integral part of her inheritance: an astounding capacity for survival and creative re-invention.”
— KATH JONATHAN, author of The Resistance Painter
“This unflinchingly honest debut is a riveting account of a daughter’s struggle to come to terms with her father’s abusive, felonious past, and of the self-awareness that comes with healing. What is so extraordinary about Leslie Bradford-Scott is her unwavering strength, wisdom and courage to follow her dreams and create a fulfilling life for herself and her children, despite a volatile past rife with betrayal, trauma, rejection, secrets and lies. Told with a visceral understanding of the human condition, in compellingly wrought prose, The Liar’s Playbook captures the resilience and loneliness of one woman’s search for truth, identity, love, and a safe place to call home.”
— SHELLY SANDERS, author of The Night Sparrow and Daughters of the Occupation
“This book is beautifully written and I was captivated by the story. The Liar’s Playbook is suspenseful, surprising, heartbreaking, and ultimately, hopeful.”
— LORI THICKE, author of Dreamer’s Daughter
“The Liar’s Playbook is a riveting ride through a wacky childhood to accomplished adulthood, and then a sharp U-turn to separate the truth from the lies. Its generous sprinkling of guns, gems and getaways, and how a little girl fits into it all, makes for a story Tarantino could direct.”
— SUE HINCENBERGS, author of The Retirement Plan
Resources and Downloads
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