Here is the query I sent out for HUNTING ANNABELLE (then titled COPPER SHADOWS). My agent is the inimitable Lauren Spieller with Triada. I love my agency so much, and Lauren is one of the best and brightest in the business. She's smart, relentless, and a top notch editor. I feel lucky every day.
Here's the query!
Dear Lauren,
Thank you for the opportunity to submit my query for COPPER SHADOWS, a psychological thriller and twisted love story about **redacted for spoilers.** COPPER SHADOWS is set in 1986 and is complete at 71,000 words.
After serving three years in a psychiatric prison, Sean is determined to stay away from any potential victims. He can’t resist Annabelle, though, and when she’s kidnapped on their first date, he’s driven to extremes in his quest to find her. Haunted by the fear that it might be better for her if he never does, he is tormented by the belief that in saving her lies his only chance at redemption. His investigation leads him through her troubled past in rural Texas and brings him face-to-face with a killer more ruthless than he.
Thank you again for your consideration. I have pasted the first chapter into the body of this email and am happy to provide a partial or full manuscript for your review. Thanks to your first page/query swap project a couple of years ago, I've created a Critique Partner matching site where I play matchmaker for aspiring authors. It's going really well! I thank you for your work on that.
All the best,
Wendy Heard
Final back cover copy:
Sean Suh is done with killing. After serving three years in a psychiatric prison, he’s determined to stay away from temptation. But he can't resist Annabelle--beautiful, confident, incandescent Annabelle--who alone can see past the monster to the man inside. The man he's desperately trying to be.
Then Annabelle disappears.
Sean is sure she’s been kidnapped—he witnessed her being taken first hand—but the police are convinced that Sean himself is at the centre of this crime. And he must admit, his illness has caused him to “lose time” before. What if there’s more to what happened than he’s able to remember?
Though haunted by the fear that it might be better for Annabelle if he never finds her, Sean can’t bring himself to let go of her without a fight. To save her, he’ll have to do more than confront his own demons… He'll have to let them loose.