Query Letter: In Spite of Murder: A Pitch that Won Representation for A Veteran Cosy Writer

Joyce Tremel is known for her charming cosies, including her World War II-era Homefront News Mysteries series about an ambitious female reporter carving out a place for herself in the male-dominated newsroom while solving murders.  

Currently, Tremel is getting wonderful reviews for her upcoming book Deadly to the Core, about a young widow who inherits an orchard and is suddenly confronted by a body. Deadly to the Core releases January 16, 2024 but you can preorder the book that Kirkus Reviews calls “[s]urprising, sensible, and satisfying” here.

Tremel was kind enough to share a query for In Spite of Murder, another book project that’s not yet published, but that did land her representation. It's a fun premise, so hopefully we'll get to read it one day!

Dear XXXXX:

Police secretary Irma Jean Bennett’s day goes to hell when the Chief drops dead in her office. It’s bad enough that the mayor wants to keep the murder investigation quiet, but the new acting chief of the Spite Police Department (who happens to be her ex-husband) agrees with him. Since her ex isn’t exactly Einstein, she figures the only way to find the killer is to do it herself.

When her pink-Cadillac-driving mother shows up on her doorstep, Irma Jean realizes finding a killer might be an easier task than putting a halt to Mama’s matchmaking attempts. Even though Mama’s run out on husband number five, it doesn’t stop her from trying to fix her daughter up with the hunky guy renovating the downtown hotel.

Between dealing with Mama, keeping her ex at bay, fending off the hunky guy, and avoiding the mayor, Irma Jean discovers the Chief had more than a few secrets. Before she can figure out which one got him killed, her main suspect ends up dead. On top of all this, she loses her job when the mayor gets wind of her activities. Now if she doesn’t find the killer, she’ll never get her job back. Even worse—she’ll have to move in with Mama.

IN SPITE OF MURDER, a mystery, is complete at 78,000 words.

I was a police secretary for ten years and more than once envisioned the demise of certain co-workers. I figured writing was a better way to keep myself out of jail. My fiction has appeared in Mysterical-e, and my non-fiction has been published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police magazine. I am a member of Pennwriters as well as Sisters in Crime, and a founding member of the crime writing blog, Working Stiffs.

I would be happy to send you the completed manuscript. Please see below for sample pages.

Sincerely,

Joyce Tremel

Query Letter: Never Name the Dead: A Thoughtful, Award Nominated Debut

Never Name the Dead, D.M. Rowell’s wonderful debut, centers on Mae “Mud” Sawpole, a successful Silicon Valley professional, who is unexpectedly called home to her Kiowa community by a cryptic message from her grandfather.  There, she quickly gets caught up in a mystery involving stolen cultural property, greed, and murder.  It's easy to see why this book was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark award. The story is extremely engaging, and Mud is an intelligent, multi-dimensional heroine who is impossible not to root for. 

You can check out this excellent book, which Eric Redman called “mystical and magical” here. Next on your reading list: the upcoming sequel, Silent Are the Dead, which I'll be ordering.

Rowell was kind enough to share the query that got a deal for Never Name the Dead (originally titled My Name is Mud):

In my book, My Name is Mud (Malice domestic mystery, 85,876 Words), I blend Silicon Valley ingenuity and Native American spirituality to solve a murder in Kiowa Country.

No one called her Mud in Silicon Valley. There, Mae was a respected professional who had left her Kiowa roots far behind. But when her grandfather called, she had to go back and face her childhood rejection by the tribe. She owed him that. What she didn’t expect was that this visit was only the start of a traditional four-day vision quest that would take her into dark places involving theft, betrayal, murder—and a charging buffalo. And that was only Day One. 

My Name is Mud is the first in a planned murder mystery series. The first four books follow successive days with each day flowing to the next, emulating stages in a Kiowa spiritual vision quest as Mud stumbles, rights herself and finds her place in both worlds, Silicon Valley and Kiowa Country, all while solving murders. The quest begins with Mud discovering her spirit animal while she struggles to solve a theft and murder in Kiowa country. 

Like Mud, I come from a long line of Storytellers. I’m an award-winning and nominated producer/writer on several documentaries, including Vanishing Link: My Spiritual Return to the Kiowa Way, winner of TrailDance 2007 Best Oklahoma Documentary. It premiered on PBS and was accepted in the Kiowa Tribe Plains Indian Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. Two other award-winning documentaries have premiered on Showtime and aired on LOGO. 

As a child, I was heavily influenced by my traditional Kiowa Grandfather, C. E. Rowell. He was the tribe’s recognized historian, the Reader of our Calendars and a master storyteller. I was twelve when my Grandfather pointed at me with his chin, in the style of the old ones, and decreed, “You. You will keep these stories alive. You are next.” I have never forgotten that moment or responsibility.

After a thirty-two-year career spinning stories for corporations and Startups with a few escapes into independent documentaries, I have given myself permission to do what I have always wanted to do, write a murder mystery series that entertains while sharing the traditions of my Plains Indian tribe, the Kiowas. 

I have worked with Professor/Author Carolyn Wheat to complete the third draft of my novel. Carolyn has deemed it ready and has encouraged me to “get it out there.” I created a site to promote the book at www.dmrowell.com and made the first twenty pages available. Visitors are enjoying the pages and demanding more. You can see comments here, http://www.dmrowell.com/readers-comments.html

Thank you for your time,

[Name and contact]

Query Letter: Pike Island: A Political Thriller that Landed an Agent

Tony Wirt’s gotten a lot of attention for his suburban/creepy child thriller, Just Stay Away, about a dad trying to finish his novel and take care for his kid, when a sinister neighborhood boy enters both of their lives. Reviewers flocked to the delightfully creepy pageturner.  Zoje Stage said it “literally had be reading with my shoulders hunched.”  Mindy Mejia warned readers to “[c]ancel your plans and find a good chair because once you start Just Stay Away, you won’t be able to stop.”

In addition to Just Stay Away, Wirt has written a political thriller called Pike Island (originally titled Where the Truth Lies), which is coming out on September 10, 2024.  He was kind enough to share the query that landed him representation for his upcoming work:

Dear Ms. Saul-

I saw in your bio you worked for Sourcebooks. My good friend Shana Drehs had nothing but good things to say about you and suggested I send along a query for my novel WHERE THE TRUTH LIES.

Krista Walsh fixes problems and isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. She’s guided Harry Leonard from a rural Minnesota city council to the halls of Congress in just a few short years. Now they’re just a step away from the White House, where they have grand plans to shake up the political establishment.

Then a postcard arrives. Someone wants to bring Harry down and is peddling a wild story about stolen drug money. The story is true, but Harry didn’t just blow his share on beer. He used it to put himself though college and start a career in public service. 

If Krista can’t bury it, their careers are over and all the good they’re doing will be wiped out. But as she digs deeper into Harry’s past, she realizes the man she’s shaped into her agent of change may not be as righteous as he claims.

Krista has to decide if that matters as long as Harry can be the transformative president the country desperately needs.

WHERE THE TRUTH LIES (73,000) is a suspense novel with dual timelines that should appeal to fans of LEAVE NO TRACE and IN A DARK, DARK WOOD.

My debut novel, A NECESSARY ACT, was named 2017 Reader’s Choice Novel of the Year by Underground Book Reviews. It spent the summer of 2016 in the Amazon Kindle Top 100 for both Psychological Suspense and Psychological Thrillers, and has more than 1.15 million pages read on Kindle Unlimited.

Thank you for your time and consideration. 

Tony Wirt