Burning
Girl by Ben Neihart
A young scholarship student, the rich girl who
befriends him, her handsome brother who wedges himself dangerously
between the two; a rape, a murder, horrifying photographs found at
the crime scene; and the undeniably sensual draw our hero feels to
both sister and brother, who may or may not have blood on their
hands. Fresh from the success of his critically acclaimed debut, Hey,
Joe, Ben Neihart delivers a searingly intelligent,
emotionally gripping thriller with a triangle of betrayal at its
heart.
Drew Burke is twenty -- a working class college
student in Baltimore. Seduced by the wealth that surrounds him,
Drew finds himself drawn into a complex and sensually charged
friendship with fellow student Bahar Richards and her brother,
Jake. With Bahar, its a soulmates bond, with Jake, it's a romance
born of a fierce sexual attraction. But a strange wall of mystery
surrounds Jake, which Drew can't seem to penetrate. Then over an
intimate long weekend at the Richards' family home, Jake confides
to Drew that in high school he was wrongly accused of a grisly
crime. The more details Drew learns, the more he suspects he
hasn't heard the entire truth -- from Jake or Bahar. Torn between
brother and sister, whose versions of the story don't quite match,
Drew becomes caught in a maze of half lies and manipulations as he
tries to figure out who to trust and, ultimately, who to love.
Fierce, haunting and fuelled by an undeniably powerful voice,
Burning Girl established Ben Neihart as a major new talent of his
generation.
About the Author
Ben Neihart is the author of Hey,
Joe. He received his M.A. from Johns Hopkins University in
1994, and was also educated at George Washinton University and the
University of Southern Mississippi. His fiction has appeared in
The New Yorker.
