Fiery legal star Nancy Grace unleashes her latest mystery novel and upcoming made-for-TV movie as she prepares to exit her long-running HLN show

This is what happens when you try and go in the 'secret back gate' to Area 51: Two mysterious men in camouflage pull guns on bikers
Billy Bush 'will get the axe from NBC' after he was caught on Trump tape - as the network DENIES it was planning to edit him out of recording before it was leaked to newspaper
'The shackles have been taken off': Trump hits out at 'weak and ineffective' Paul Ryan as his split with the 'disloyal' GOP establishment boils over
First post-debate poll shows Clinton gained NOTHING although voters think she won - and three quarters of Republicans want to keep Trump on ticket
Black winner of The Apprentice says Trump called him 'lazy' and wanted him to share his prize with 'pretty young white woman'
Al Bore is back! Defeated 2000 candidate hits the trail to woo millennials - and while he claims climate change is making mosquitoes bite you more they check their phones
Lean in! Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg gave Hillary Clinton research on 'gender and leadership' weeks before launch of presidential campaign
Wikileaks emails show Hillary Clinton's staff thought RUBIO was the new Obama - and didn't see Donald Trump as a threat at all
Starbucks chief Howard Schultz warned Clinton campaign her 'stale' approach couldn't reach millennials
The black man claiming to be Bill Clinton's love child likens his treatment by the former first couple to the child of a master and SLAVE who is banished by the wife - Hillary Clinton
Clinton's advisers wanted her to set the record straight on her secret email when it was first revealed - with a bizarre 'light-hearted' chat with Comedy Central's Larry Wilmore
'I don't characterize that as sexual assault': Senator backs Trump saying grabbing a woman's genitals is not a sex attack
'Happy Father's Day to me!': Disgraced TV host Billy Bush posed in front of a van for topless maids and posted video on his Instagram
Pressure grows on producer to release Apprentice tapes over claims Donald Trump is caught on film saying the N-word
Marvel is on the move! Ivanka Trump bundles up against the New York chill in a chic blue coat as she is escorted to work by her Secret Service detail
Clinton's war on Putin: Why did she launch astonishing attack over Russian 'war crimes' and claim Kremlin was behind leaks to get Trump elected?
'We cannot be complacent. We cannot rest. Do not grow weary,' Clinton tells supporters after polls give her big lead over Trump
The inside story of Trump's Comedy Central roast: The Donald 'edited jokes to make himself seem richer, banned discussion of his bankruptcies and was sensitive about his hair'
'Forty one years ago I married my best friend': Bill Clinton salutes Hillary on their anniversary - just days after his infidelities nearly overshadowed debate
Trump ad goes after Hillary's health - and shows her struggling to get into the Scooby van - as he says Clinton lacks the 'fortitude, strength or stamina' to run the country
Inside the Clintons' weird world: Q-tip DJing for Chelsea's birthday party, Bill's secret eye problems, and a relationship with Goldman Sachs so cozy they helped find office space
Billy Bush 'BRAGGED to his NBC co-workers about lewd Trump tape over the summer - and then broke down in tears believing his career was over when it was released last week'
Donald Trump's Scottish golf courses lost more than $14million last year as US pressure group calls for probe into 'significant accounting discrepancies'
Samsung begins sending fire resistant 'recovery boxes' for customers to return their Galaxy Note 7 handsets - complete with protective gloves

TV host Nancy Grace is leaving her eponymous HLN show this week
Her latest novel, Murder in the Courthouse: A Hailey Dean Mystery will be released tomorrow
Grace, who wanted to be a literature professor, became a prosecutor after her fiancé Keith Griffin, 23, was murdered before her wedding day in 1979
Tough-talking Grace, now the mother of twins, says she named her character 'after the daughter I never thought I'd have
In the book, Dean becomes embroiled in the mysterious death of a sheriff found sliced in half by a garage door
Kellie Martin stars in the Hallmark made-for-TV movie airing October 23
Nancy will also appear in the movie - as a defense lawyer!

Published: 10:51 EST, 10 October 2016 | Updated: 16:39 EST, 10 October 2016

e-mail

View
comments

She's known for battle cry: 'Unleash the lawyers!' on her no-holds-barred TV show.

But Nancy Grace has unleashed her own writing talent with her new crime novel - Murder in the Courthouse: A Hailey Dean Mystery - just two days before the final episode of her long-running TV show airs on HLN.

Grace, a controversial tough-as-nails host, has presented her eponymous show since 2005. She has become an outspoken media fixture following her coverage of high profile cases including Michael Jackson's trial and Anna Nicole Smith's death.

Grace pictured at her home last year for an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com. She is leaving her eponymous show later this month

Grace and her movie's star, Kellie Martin. Grace will have a cameo in an upcoming Hailey Dean movie for Hallmark - as a defense lawyer

But Grace is leaving when her contract expires this month. The series, which focuses on high profile legal issues, is HLN's highest-rated show.

In the TV star's latest thriller - the third in the series - heroine Hailey Dean has a perfect prosecution record - just like Grace, who studied the law after her fiancé Keith Griffin, 23, was murdered right before her wedding day in 1979.

'I named her [Dean] after the daughter I never thought I'd have after my fiancé was killed. She is brave, brilliant and beautiful...a crack sharpshooter that hates guns and a crime sleuth!' Grace told the DailyMail.com.

In the book, Dean becomes embroiled in the mysterious death of a sheriff found sliced in half by a garage door.

The character will also be front and center in an upcoming movie for Hallmark, Murder With Love, which premieres October 23. The leading role will be played by Kellie Martin.

Grace is an executive producer on the film - but will also make an appearance as a defense lawyer, the complete opposite role to her days as a prosecutor.

'The twins are staying up late!! We are going to celebrate with friends and family watching with us! And lots of popcorn, of course!' Grace told DailyMail.com,

'I dedicated the book to my dad, Mac Grace, who read every book and never missed my crime show, not even once! He went to Heaven just before I finished it. I know he will be with me Sunday night, cheering with the angels.'

Grace with her fiancé Keith Griffin, left, who was just 23 when he was murdered by one of his coworkers. Grace is now married to investment banker David Linch

After the murder of her fiancé Nancy, 19, gave up her dreams of becoming a literature professor and switched to law school instead, determined to crack down on violent crime.

As a prosecutor in inner-city Atlanta, Georgia, she built up a perfect prosecution record, convicting some 100 felons with no losses.

After a chance meeting with the founder of Court TV, Steven Brill, she began co-hosting a show with James Cochran, OJ Simpson's defense attorney.

The Nancy Grace show on HLN, CNN's sister network, began in February 2005 and the final episode will air on October 13.

The timeslot will be taken over by Ashleigh Banfield, former anchor of the Legal View on CNN.

Grace is known for her combative manner on her TV series, which has run since 2005

Grace announced her departure from HLN in June.

At the time she said: 'This fall, I'll be leaving HLN, my longtime TV home, with a full heart and endless gratitude.

'The network has been my extended family for nearly a dozen years, and I am proud of the amazing work we've produced together.

'We created an unparalleled platform that gave crime victims a voice and succeeded in helping to find missing people and spotlight unsolved homicides.'

Grace's legal-analysis program is famous for its host's combative manner.

'As long as there's breath in my body I intend to keep fighting for crime victims in whatever capacity I can,' she exclusively told DailyMail.com last year.

Grace has attracted controversy for her strongly opinionated coverage of crime cases.

In one incident she came under fire for her coverage of the death of toddler Caylee Anthony. The two-year-old vanished in 2008 and her skeletal remains were found in the woods five months after she disappeared.

Grace pursued the case across multiple episodes of her show and became a vocal critic of Caylee's mother Casey.

After Casey was found not guilty, Grace said 'somewhere out there, the devil is dancing tonight'.

Grace, 56, is married to investment banker David - whom she has described as 'the guy everybody wants to find and marry' - and the couple have twin children, Lucy Elizabeth and John David, 8.

Murder In The Courthouse, which comes out on October 11, is her fifth book, and her third in the Hailey Dean series.

Her first book, Objection! was published in 2005 and lays out Grace's concerns with the American legal system.