Amazon.com description: Product Description: In Memphis, where the heat clings heavy like a second skin, it has been a summer of murders. Olivia Dale's job as a novice crime reporter is at once surreal--stepping in and out of strangers' lives with her notebook--and all too real. As she looks down on the twisted body of a young woman who has been kidnapped and gruesomely killed, she wonders if she could have been that girl. After all, as she chases a lead story, she discovers that Allison Avery--so all-American, so like Olivia in age and looks--was just like her except wilder. Drawn deep into the shadows and secrets of Allison's life, Olivia becomes caught up in exploring her own wild side and finds herself seduced by a perilous world where her life may be in danger. Hypnotic, compelling, and gorgeously written, Body of a Girl is a "must" summer read.

"The secret at its heart will astonish you." --Manette Ansay, author of Vinegar Hill

"This isn't John Grisham's Memphis; it's way more dangerous. Leah Stewart mates the breakneck pacing of Sue Grafton and the creepy depth of Laura Kasischke." --Stewart O'Nan, author of A Prayer for the Dying

"A compelling novel--a thoughtful thriller and page-turner about the rewards and perils of empathy in a culture dominated by sex, drugs, and violence" --Charles Baxter, author of Shadow Play and The Believers