Feedback Request

Note to EE:

This query reflects changes made after my initial query was posted (Face-Lift 963) two years ago. Why has it taken two years? Aside from recovery time necessitated by the hernia I got when laughing at your hilarious comments, I’ve also spent the past two years caring for my father, whom I’ve finally convinced to employ three professional care-givers instead. Now I’m free to write again.

So, here you go—you and my fellow minions can have at it!



Dear Mr. Gerecke:

I am seeking representation for "Death in Living Color,” an 83,000-word mystery in which a decorated WWII veteran, who only wants to forget the war and straighten out his life, becomes entangled with gangsters and implicated in murder.

In 1950, badly scarred WWII veteran J.C. Dix moves to Scottsdale, Arizona to practice law—only to discover the dusty desert town needs another lawyer like it needs central heating. When community leader Thelma Fogue walks into Dix’s law office, things seem to be looking up. But Fogue doesn’t seek legal help. She hires him to recover a pornographic film of her younger sister.

The girl didn’t just fall prey to a couple of perverts, however. The film was made by hardened gangsters, as part of a scheme using a brand new color process to provide cheap professional-grade color porn movies for L.A. mob backers—and they’re not about to part with it. But when a farm girl commits suicide, because they used her in a movie, her brother steals the films. The gangsters track him down, torturing him to get the films back, killing him when they realize he no longer has them.

Encountering the carnage only hours after it took place, Dix is overwhelmed by guilt; he’d swiped the films from the boy’s hiding place, the day before. But his guilt is quickly replaced by other concerns. He’s spotted at the farm, and becomes the prime suspect. When another client’s fiancé is killed in a similar manner, Dix’s proximity to the crime has him scrambling to avoid arrest. Meanwhile, the killers discover he’s got their films; Dix has to use his brains and all his combat skills to survive the ensuing gun battle and clear his name.

I am a combat veteran (ex-Special Forces Engineer Sergeant—i.e.: Green Beret Explosives Expert), hold a BA in Journalism/Mass Communications from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and have sold short fiction to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (Janet Hutchings, editor of EQMM, called my short story "Dancing in Mozambique" (July, 2010) “one of the best mysteries of the year…”) I also blog with several other successful writers at: http://www.sleuthsayers.org

A synopsis and the first 50 pages of the manuscript are attached to this email.

Sincerely,