Adam Plantinga’s perfectly-paced action thriller, The Ascent, is garnering killer reviews and praise from heavy hitters like Harlan Coben, James Rollins, and Lou Bernie. I’m partly through the audio book and have already found myself sitting in my car like a weirdo after reaching my destination, waiting to see what happens next. The book follows a experienced ex-cop who ends up in prison on trumped-up charges when a security fail releases a slew of inmates on the same day that the governor’s daughter is visiting. It’s a great premise that Plantinga pulls off with a combination of writing chops and real-world experience. Plantinga’s decades as a police officer gives the book a dose realism that makes the story all the more frightening.
Plantinga was kind enough to share the query that landed him representation. It should be particularly helpful to any aspiring writers with a law enforcement background. Plantinga cautioned that his agent later told him the query’s start could have been stronger. That’s a good reminder that few pitches are perfect. A query just has to be solid enough for your writing skills and your book’s quality shine through.
Dear
I’m seeking representation for my novel THE ASCENT, a thriller complete at 90,000 words. Writer Bill Mesce Jr. (author of Inside the Rise of HBO and The Advocate) said of it, “You've got a hell of a book here, both commercial (it's like the best parts of DIE HARD, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, with a little bit of FIRST BLOOD mixed together to come up with something that is welcomingly familiar but still has its own distinctive flavor), and at the same time nicely written.”
KURT OCASIO is an ex-Detroit street cop mourning the recent death of his wife. While passing through a small town in Missouri, he runs afoul of a corrupt local sheriff's department and is imprisoned at Whitehall Correctional Institute, a privately run maximum security lockup with bad morale and even worse staffing. His arrival there coincides with that of JULIE WAKEFIELD, the governor's daughter, who is taking a tour for grad school. A malfunction in the prison's automatic security system lets a horde of prisoners free inside Whitehall, touching off a fierce struggle for survival as OCASIO helps a small band of staff and civilians, including JULIE and her two state trooper handlers, make their way from the bottom floor to the roof to safety. All that stands in their way are six floors of the most dangerous convicts in Missouri.
I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Marquette University with a degree in English. I am currently a patrol sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department and have written two nonfiction books about police work. The first, 400 Things Cops Know, was nominated for an Agatha and won the 2015 Silver Falchion award for best nonfiction crime reference. It was deemed “the new Bible for crime writers” by The Wall Street Journal. The second, endorsed by Dennis Lehane, is Police Craft. Although it’s fiction, THE ASCENT is born out of my twenty years in law enforcement. After praising 400 Things Cops Know in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, author Lee Child said, “I hope Adam writes a novel one day.” I took his advice with THE ASCENT.
Thanks for your time.
Adam Plantinga
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