Anyone who's participated in, or even attended, a sports tournament knows about the intensity of that concentrated frame of competition; for a period of hours or days, time ceases to exist. All that matters is what's happening on the court, on the field, or—in the case of Rita Bullwinkel's debut novel, Headshot—in the ring. Set amid the glow of the fluorescent lights of Bob's Boxing Palace (a converted warehouse) in Reno, Nevada, Headshot recounts the drama that is the 12th Annual Daughters of America Cup, pitting eight of the country's best 18 and under girl boxers against one another over two days in July.

Some of the boxers—like the seemingly prophetically named Artemis Victor (the youngest of the three champion Victor sisters)—are favored to win, while others are longshots at best. Some have family members among the paltry crowd of onlookers while others ...