Nancy Grace’s new movie set to premier Sunday night

Macon’s very own Nancy Grace will make a cameo appearance in her new movie, “Hailey Dean Mystery: Deadly Estate,” set to premier on national TV at 9 p.m. Sunday.

The movie is Grace’s second with the Hallmark Channel since she left HLN in October after a dozen years there.

The first movie, “Hailey Dean Mystery: Murder, With Love,” aired late last year, featuring many of the same characters in her mystery crime novels.

“I got the idea for this one because a friend of mine that goes to my church in Atlanta, she wanted to move to New York. She has twin boys. They sat in the row in front of me,” said Grace, a 57-year-old former Atlanta prosecutor and a graduate of Mercer University law school. After her friend’s kids graduated high school, “they just announced out-of-the-blue they’re moving to New York and they have lived (in Atlanta) forever.”

Grace said her friend told her she’d be clearing out the house via an online auction website.

“That got me thinking,” Grace said. “That is the backdrop for the murder.”

The plot unfolds when Dean, a former prosecutor who exits the legal realm to move to New York and is a therapist, suspects foul play after one of her friends disappears during the sale of her friend’s late parents’ estate.

Grace, who co-wrote the screenplay, acknowledged her personal experiences parallel in some ways with Dean’s.

“She is very flawed, she has a lot of problems after the death of her fiance,” said Grace, whose fiance was slain in 1979 in a case of mistaken identity. “It’s that flaw, it’s that crack in the diamond that makes Hailey who she is. ... That’s why she’s devoted to the justice system.”

Grace grew up in south Bibb County and attended Windsor Academy. After law school, Court TV took notice of her feisty passion for victims’ rights. In 1997, Grace was tapped for a legal analysis show “Cochran & Grace,” featuring former O.J. Simpson attorney Johnny Cochran.

So, she moved to New York, where Grace said she was “lonely for Macon.” It was there that Hailey Dean was born onto the pages of her first novels.

In a cameo scene shot in Vancouver, Grace plays a “rude receptionist,” a role she admittedly had no trouble getting into character for. She said an old skit from David Spade on “Saturday Night Live” inspired the minor role.

As for Sunday night’s premier, Grace said she’ll be on the couch with her twins, John David and Lucy, sharing a big bowl of popcorn.

“It’s a murder mystery with the focus on mystery, not blood and gore and violence,” she said.

In other news, Grace recently launched CrimeOnline.com, a dream she said she’s had for years.

“I think at some point, I will re-enter a traditional TV platform,” Grace said. “If I do, I want it to be something that really matters. That, you know, can make a difference in the world. I’m looking at a lot of different things.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Nancy Grace’s new movie set to premier Sunday night."