MENTOR: Sarah Henning
ALTERNATE: Jeremy Hepler
TITLE: The Gardens of Sunray
CATEGORY/GENRE: Adult Mystery + Hint of
Supernatural
WORD COUNT: 80,000
PITCH: When Parker Lundy’s dad is murdered and he learns Malik, a
gifted young boy who was seen fleeing the scene with a gun, is innocent, he
teams up with his new-found sister Cherie and ex-girlfriend Hannah. Together,
they struggle to peel back the layers of deception surrounding the crime and
bring the killer to justice, and also to protect Malik from racist townsfolk
and a relentless, Islamic radical father.
EXCERPT: Other than cursing after each
unsuccessful attempt at trying to reach his uncle, Parker traveled in absolute
silence, knuckles white on the wheel. He and his dad had talked on the phone
regularly, shooting the shit about everything from sex to taxes, and when
they’d talked just ten days ago, his dad hadn’t mentioned having problems with
anyone in town.
Sure,
Will had been in his fair share of disagreements and spats over the years like
everyone else, but he had few if any real enemies. And violent crimes were rare
in Sunray. The last armed robbery happened back in ’11 when a meth head stuck
up the Toot ’n Totum on Highway 55, and the last outright murder happened way
back in ’05 when sixteen-year-old Kim Dawkins stabbed her dad in the crotch
while he slept because she “wanted to poke him the way he’d been poking [her]”
every night since she was twelve. It just didn’t make any sense that someone
would want to shoot Will Lundy. It must’ve been an accident. Or a mistake.
Parker
reached Sunray around five a.m. and rolled down his window for some fresh air
when he turned onto Main Street. A mild fall breeze rushed in, carrying a faint
scent of smoke with it.
Both of
Sunray’s fire trucks were parked in front of Lundy’s Local Luxuries—a brick
one-story building tucked between Hal’s Shoe Store and the Education Federal
Credit Union—and two cop cars, lights flashing, sirens off, blocked the road on
either side of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment