Dead Girl Summer: A Novel

For two years in a row, the lake town of Tomahawk, Wisconsin has buried its young women. Two drowned the first summer. One more the next.

The locals have a name for it now: Dead Girl Summer.

Disgraced true-crime podcast host Taryn Voss knows all about names—and how quickly they can turn on you. Once the face of a chart-topping show, she was canceled after platforming a deceitful witness whose lies led to an innocent man’s murder. Her audience vanished, advertisers fled, and her credibility collapsed overnight.

So when Taryn hears about Dead Girl Summer—three accidental drownings in a town that survives on being seen as harmless—she sees one last chance at redemption. If she can succeed where law enforcement couldn’t, she won’t just reclaim her career. She’ll reclaim her own story.

But Tomahawk doesn’t want her.

Interim Sheriff Dana Mercer has spent her whole life in this town. Her badge is new, but her name isn’t—and if Tomahawk becomes synonymous with Dead Girl Summer, so does she. She has no intention of letting an outsider turn her town’s darkest chapter into content, especially one with a reputation for chasing a story no matter who gets hurt.

Then a fourth body is found in the lake.

With tourists watching and tensions rising, solving one death means questioning them all.