Query Letter: Line of Sight: A smart, socially conscious thriller

It’s a good sign when Michael Connelly raves “AN AMAZING FIRST NOVEL.” Line Of Sight is LA Times crime writer James Queally’s awesome debut about a journalist-turned-PI looking into a police shooting that rocked the city. The book is socially conscious, engaging, and careful to explore multiple perspectives of a complex issue. Not surprising, since Queally has the perfect background to write this book. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Line-Sight-James-Queally/dp/1947993895

Next up on your reading list - his Booklist Starred Review sequel, All These Ashes.

Queally was kind enough to share the query that landed him an agent:

I'd like to share with you my debut novel, LINE OF SIGHT, a crime thriller informed by my time working as a reporter on the streets of Newark, New Jersey, which wrestles with disparities in power between police and the people they are sworn to protect and serve. It clocks in around 85,000 words. 

In all the years he spent as a crime reporter, Russell Avery thought he understood Newark: The good guys wore blue. The bad guys had teardrop tattoos. If you got killed in the city’s South or West Ward at a certain time of night, you probably deserved to have your ticket punched. That all changed when Russell went from watchdog to lapdog. Forced out of the newspaper game, Russell cashed in on a few favors to get his private investigator’s license. Those favors came with a cost, and now Russell spends most of his days working as a fixer for sideways cops, keeping them out of Internal Affairs’ cross hairs and keeping himself up at night. As his frustrations with the city’s police boil over, Russell comes across a troubling video: a made-for-YouTube cell phone snippet chronicling the same kind of questionable use-of-force that had set New York City, Ferguson and Cleveland on fire in recent years.

The man who filmed it is dead. That man’s father wants to know why.

But the more questions Russell asks, the less his old cop buddies seem to like him. For the first time in his life, Russell finds himself on the wrong side of the guys with the badges and guns. As details of the shooting become public -- and a city with race riots in its DNA flirts with the idea of letting history repeat itself -- Russell finds himself allying with ex-lovers, street activists and even gang members, racing to put together the biggest story of his life before the city he needs to tell it to burns down around him.

LINE OF SIGHT is informed by the decade I’ve spent writing about criminal justice: first covering hundreds of homicides at The Star-Ledger in New Jersey and later on following national use-of-force controversies and the Black Lives Matter movement for the Los Angeles Times, which included a trip to Ferguson, Mo. during the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death in 2014. I still cover criminal justice for the Times, and was a member of the reporting team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News coverage after the terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, CA. My reporting has also won or been nominated for awards by the California News Publishers Association, the New Jersey Press Association and the New Jersey chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. 

Though LINE OF SIGHT is my debut novel, my short stories and flash fiction have also appeared in Thuglit, Inside Jersey Magazine, Literary Orphans, All Due Respect, Crime Syndicate Magazine and Shotgun Honey.  

Thank you for your time and consideration.

James Queally

Query Letter: The Art of the Decoy: Crime Meets Antiques

Trish Esden is a multi-talented person who splits her time between writing engaging mysteries and selling antiques. So it's not surprising that her Scandal Mountain Antiques series would center on an antique dealer turned sleuth. The first in the series, The Art of the Decoy, is high on my TBR pile. I recently bought a copy for the top antique lover in my life, who raved about it. You can pick up a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Decoy-Scandal-Mountain-Antiques-Mystery-ebook/dp/B098PXZNDF

Trish was kind enough to share her succesful query for The Art of the Decoy:

Art of the Decoy (A Scandal Mountain Antique Novel) is an 83,000-word mystery featuring a crafty antique dealer, similar to the main character in the BBC’s classic Lovejoy. It will appeal to readers who enjoy the rural settings, quirky characters, and slightly dark tone of Louise Penny’s novels, or an insider’s view of a profession like in B.A. Shapiro’s The Art Forger.

It should have been a simple appraisal. If it weren’t for the thief.

After her mother is sent to prison for art forgery, Edie Brown returns to Northern Vermont to rebuild her family’s fine art and antiques business. She’s certain she can do it now that her mother’s gone. After all, butting heads with her mom over bad business practices was what drove Edie away three years ago, including a screwup that landed Edie on probation for selling stolen property.

When Edie scores a job appraising a waterfowl decoy collection at a hoarder’s farmhouse, she’s determined to take advantage of the situation to rebuild the business’s tarnished reputation and dwindling coffers. In lieu of payment, Edie intends to cherry-pick an exceptional decoy carved by the client’s renowned Quebecoise folk artist ancestors. Only the tables turn when the collection vanishes.

Accused of the theft, Edie’s terrified that the fallout will destroy the business and land her in prison next to her mom. She convinces the client to give her five days to find and return the decoys before calling the authorities. Desperate, she digs into the underbelly of the local antiques and art world. When Edie uncovers a possible link between the decoy theft and a deadly robbery at a Quebec museum, she longs to ask her ex-probation officer, and ex-lover, for help. But she suspects his recent interest in rekindling their romance may hide a darker motive.

With the help of her eccentric uncle Tuck and Kala, their enigmatic new employee, Edie must risk all she holds dear to expose the thieves and recover the decoys before the FBI’s Art Crime Team or the ruthless thieves themselves catch up with her.

I’ve been an antique dealer since my teens. I’m the author of two contemporary fantasy series with Kensington Publishing. DARK HEART( Kensington Books, 2016-2017) and NORTHERN CIRCLE COVEN (Lyrical Press, 2018-2020). I’m also a member of Sisters in Crime, RWA, and on the board of directors of the League of Vermont Writers.

I’m seeking new representation after my agent left the industry (XXX agent, at XXX agency).

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing back from you,

[Name]

Query Letter: Fadeaway Joe: An Aging Crimester with Dementia Goes for Revenge

Hugh Lessig's acclaimed debut, Fadeaway Joe, is high up on my TBR pile. Library Journal said it "catches fire." Booklist called the main character "[a]n antihero with a twist," and the South Florida Sun Sentinel heralds Lessig as "a new talent." The eponymous Joe is an aging hitman with dementia at the end of his rope, who decides to do something meaningful in his last act and take out a powerful loan shark. I'm a sucker for noir and this one sounds appealingly dark. You can pick up a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Fadeaway-Joe-Novel-Hugh-Lessig/dp/1639104364 (in fact, after reading his stellar author blurbs, I just did).

Hugh was kind enough to share his query for Fadeaway Joe:

I am seeking representation for my crime novel, FADEAWAY JOE, the story of an aging thug battling dementia and seeking revenge against the boss who abandoned him.

Joe Pendergast spent 40 years working for Maxie Smith, a loan shark who runs a gambling ring. Joe’s dementia leads to a bitter falling out with his old boss. As the story opens, Joe is running a food truck, dealing with “foggy” spells, and planning to kill Maxie before dementia takes over.

But then Joe meets 22-year-old Paula Jessup, who is homeless and running from human traffickers. The two form an uneasy bond, and Paula has a suggestion for Joe: Instead of killing Maxie, why don’t you ruin him? Playing the long con will give you something to live for. As their relationship progresses, Joe finds himself caring more for Paula’s future than his boss’s demise.

FADEAWAY JOE is about choices made as lives are winding down, and what matters most in the end. The manuscript is complete at 68,500 words and the genre is mystery/crime.

This would be my first published novel. My short stories have appeared in the following publications from Down & Out Books: Volumes 1 and 2 of “Mickey Finn 21st Century Noir,” a novelette in the series Guns + Tacos, and a story in “Groovy Gumshoes: PI Tales from the Sixties,” which came out in April. I will have a story in the fourth volume of “Mickey Finn” as well. Other stories have appeared in Thuglit, Crime Factory and Shotgun Honey.