Query Letter: Dark Things I Adore: A Totally Original, Addictive Art-Related Mystery

I have a soft spot for books that combine art and murder (I wrote one after all).  Katie Lattari’s Dark Things I Adore (originally called The Agony Record) is at the top of my list.  Serious, I cannot include enough superlatives about this mesmerizing book.  If I ever meet Lattari in person, I hope I’m sober, or I might rave at her like a teenaged Swiftie at a rock concert… sorry, you get the picture.

The book starts off with Audra, a beautiful, brilliant art student, and her narcissistic horndog teacher driving to Audra’s country house to “look at her paintings.” Teacher thinks he’s in for the sweetest kind of sucking up. But student has something much darker in mind. The story also cuts back and forth to a bohemian artist colony from a generation earlier. Over time, the link between the two plot lines becomes clear. Do yourself a favor and pick up your copy here.

Lattari shared a spoiler redacted version of her query letter.  I’m reposting this pitch from her website, which also contains a ton of interesting information and tips for new and querying writers.  

Dear Sarah,

I’m currently seeking representation for my 85,000-word novel, The Agony Record, an engrossing multiple-POV thriller set in the northern wilds of Maine. The Agony Record is a book that could sit comfortably on a reading list with works like Peter Swanson’s The Kind Worth Killing, Tana French's In The Woods, Gabriel Tallent's My Absolute Darling, and Fiona Barton’s The Child. It's a thriller that puts women at its forefront and which works with themes surrounding the unlikely solidarities that can form around trauma.

It’s mid-October in New England. Lovers Audra Colfax and Max Durant have decided to escape the bustling streets of Boston to weekend at Audra’s family home on the shore of Moosehead Lake in Rockveil, Maine. Twenty-eight-year-old Audra is the star student in the Painting M.F.A. program at the Boston Institute for the Visual Arts, and forty-nine-year-old Max is her professor, mentor and thesis advisor there. For nearly a year the two have indulged in the exquisite pleasures of secrets – secrets both withheld from one another and forged together. And while Max believes their relationship to be born of mutual artistic admiration and erotic passion, it’s a misapprehension that may prove deadly. [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS]

What comes to light, chapter by chapter, [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS]...Told from the alternating perspectives of Audra, Max, Audra’s mother’s diary, and Max’s wife, The Agony Record reveals the deep, deadly, interconnected secrets of four people across nearly three decades.

I hold a B.A. in English (2009) and an M.A. in English (2011) from the University of Maine and an M.F.A. in Fiction Writing/Prose from the University of Notre Dame (2013). In 2016 my debut novel American Vaudeville – a small-press literary novel – was published by Mammoth Books. I have had short stories published in The Writing Disorder, Pennsylvania English, Cabildo Quarterly, and NOO Journal, among others. In 2016 my short horror story “No Protections, Only Powers” was a Top 20 Finalist in the NeoVerse short story competition and was anthologized in the book Threads: A NeoVerse Anthology.

The book is complete and available for review upon request. This is a simultaneous agent submission. Per your submission guidelines, I have pasted the first ten (10) pages of the manuscript below.

I appreciate your time and consideration, and all best,

Katie Lattari