FINALIST, Readers' Favorite Book Awards ""Brilliantly entertaining "" When a suddenly divorced, big-city lawyer named Will comes South to lick his wounds and write the great American crime novel, he meets Jasmine, a mysterious, beguiling waitress whose late night, black-humored tales of Gothic crime and coldblooded murder draw him into her hazardous world. But as two new murders grip the tightly-knit swamp community, Will soon realizes that not only is he falling for Jasmine, but that her dark stories may all be true, implicating Jasmine herself. Hellbent to discover the truth, Will soon finds himself descending into a precarious underworld determined to keep its secrets -- secrets that may either exonerate Jasmine, or find Will face down in the swamp, left to the kindness of alligators.