Ghost Girl

Eva Benefield, the daughter of the victim of the viral ‘Black Swan Murder’ trial, tells her astonishing story about coming of age amid a viral true-crime spectacle.

Eva was still in high school when her mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Within a year, her father married Ashley Byers, a twenty-four-year-old former bikini model and ballerina he had only known for a few weeks.

‘She looked sharp,’ Eva said of her strange new stepmother. ‘Like if you touched her you might bleed.’ 

Ashley soon convinced her new husband to open an international ballet company, but the money soon ran out and Ashley shot and killed Eva’s father. The crime was dubbed in the news media as ‘The Black Swan Murder’. Reeling from the sudden loss of both her parents and the looming criminal trial of her stepmother, Eva begins to navigate the confusing world of adulthood all alone. 

From losing friends who can't understand the nature of her new reality, to processing her grief and anger as she slowly pulls herself together and begins to chart a new path forward, Eva – brimming with dark humour and wisdom beyond her years – confronts the triumphs and challenges of a truly incredible situation head on in this unforgettable memoir.

‘Ghost Girl is a lighthouse for every woman who ever felt erased, overlooked or overshadowed. This book is brave in all the ways that matter' – Jen Hatmaker, New York Times bestselling author of Awake