Title: Canary Hill

Age Category: Adult

Genre: Thriller

Word Count: 94,000

Pitch: Struggling veteran Raleigh Taylor makes a deal with Sheriff John Boone to help solve his family’s grizzly murder. In exchange, John offers Raleigh a chance to piece his life back together.

Assuming they both survive.

First 250 Word of Manuscript:

It wasn’t even noon yet, and Sheriff John Boone stood in the middle of a trailer park with his Colt 1911 pistol leveled at a piss-drunk, stark-naked white supremacist.

“Jesus H. Christ, Ricky,” he said, doing his best to keep his gun aimed at the skinny, swastika-tattooed son of a bitch, and his eyes aimed anywhere but.

Perks of a small town: he knew just about everybody’s name, down to the lowest sacks of coal dirt in the county. Downside was, he knew he’d run into Ricky again before long, and John didn’t think he’d be able to look him in the eye after this. “Put the damn gun down and put on some clothes.”

Ricky swayed a little on his bare feet, a mostly-empty mason jar in one hand and a hunting rifle in the other. A row of cans sat untouched on the fence; the fence and the tree behind it weren’t quite so lucky. All things considered, John wasn’t too worried about taking a bullet. Not as long as Ricky was aiming for him.

“Get off my property.” Ricky’s tongue was as clumsy as the rest of him, tripping over itself every other syllable. “You’re trespassing.”

“And you’re about two sheets too far to the wind to be handling that rifle, so how about you put it down and save me the trouble of hauling you back to the station.” He tipped his hat back with his free hand to block a little more of the glaring West Virginia sun.