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Ghost Girl: Surviving the Black Swan Murder—A Memoir by Eva Benefield

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Hardcover:

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Eva Benefield, the daughter of the victim of the viral “Black Swan Murder,” describes coming of age amid grief, violence, and a true-crime spectacle, in a poignant memoir "relatable to anyone who’s experienced grief or witnessed evil up close. Eva tells her story with grace and even humor in these pages” (Shari Franke, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The House of My Mother).

When Eva Benefield was in high school, her mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Less than a year later, her father remarried a much younger woman, Ashley Byers, and the two set out to launch an international ballet company in Charleston, South Carolina. Eva did her best to build a life alongside a stepmother she barely knew, even as the new marriage and the new business began to unravel.

When the ballet company's finances collapsed, Ashley shot and killed Eva's father—a crime the media would come to call "The Black Swan Murder." Eva was left orphaned in college, forced to grieve her father in public while the case against her stepmother played out on the news and across social media.

Ghost Girl is Eva's account of what came after: piecing together a life from what was left, sitting through a murder trial for the woman who once shared her home, and finding, against the odds, her own voice. Written with the lyrical feel of the Lowcountry she calls home and the dark humor she's known for online, it's a memoir about grief, resilience, and refusing to be defined by tragedy.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Eva Benefield, the daughter of the victim of the viral “Black Swan Murder,” describes coming of age amid grief, violence, and a true-crime spectacle, in a poignant memoir "relatable to anyone who’s experienced grief or witnessed evil up close. Eva tells her story with grace and even humor in these pages” (Shari Franke, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The House of My Mother).

When Eva Benefield was in high school, her mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Less than a year later, her father remarried a much younger woman, Ashley Byers, and the two set out to launch an international ballet company in Charleston, South Carolina. Eva did her best to build a life alongside a stepmother she barely knew, even as the new marriage and the new business began to unravel.

When the ballet company's finances collapsed, Ashley shot and killed Eva's father—a crime the media would come to call "The Black Swan Murder." Eva was left orphaned in college, forced to grieve her father in public while the case against her stepmother played out on the news and across social media.

Ghost Girl is Eva's account of what came after: piecing together a life from what was left, sitting through a murder trial for the woman who once shared her home, and finding, against the odds, her own voice. Written with the lyrical feel of the Lowcountry she calls home and the dark humor she's known for online, it's a memoir about grief, resilience, and refusing to be defined by tragedy.

  • Publisher: Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster)

    Title: Ghost Girl: Surviving the Black Swan Murder—A Memoir

    Author: Eva Benefield

    On Sale Date: July 21, 2026

    ISBN 13: 9781668043356

    ISBN 10: 1668043351

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $29.00

    BISAC: Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs; True Crime / Murder; Family & Relationships / Death, Grief, Bereavement

    Page Count: 272

  • Eva Benefield is a writer, artist, and TikTok content creator based in Charleston, South Carolina, where she owns the apparel company Ghost Cowboy. Ghost Girl is her debut book, chronicling the sudden loss of her mother, her father's murder in the case the media dubbed "The Black Swan Murder," and the years of grief, public scrutiny, and rebuilding that followed.

  • Critics and fellow bestselling authors are calling it intimate, darkly funny, and startlingly wise:

    • "Eva's voice is intimate, darkly funny, and startlingly wise. She doesn't just survive the unthinkable—she confronts it directly." — Jen Hatmaker, New York Times bestselling author

    • "Raw and vulnerable... Eva's independence and optimism are inspiring." — Shari Franke, #1 New York Times bestselling author

    • "Blends lyrical passages about South Carolina's Low Country with irreverent humor and internet vernacular." — Library Journal

This book is for you if

  • You've wondered what happens to a family after the true-crime cameras move on.

  • You want a memoir that's honest about grief without being heavy-handed about it.

  • You're drawn to stories about rebuilding an identity after it's been defined by tragedy in the headlines.

  • You like your true crime told from inside the family, not by an outside narrator.

  • You appreciate dark humor and internet-native voice alongside real emotional weight.

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