The Full Meal Query Letter: A.K.A. “The Hook, Line & Sinker”

Dear [Agent],

Three childhood friends, now mothers in their late thirties, commit an act of vigilantism against a complete stranger when they become convinced he has abused his stepdaughter and murdered his wife. The three women are swept up by their newfound sense of control and power while they plot against the man, but their so-called “perfect plan” goes terribly awry during execution and they discover, only when it’s too late, that they didn’t know all the facts. Thanks also to their late night activities in a stolen van, the women unwittingly become suspects in a separate murder investigation of a police informant and find out how tenuous their beliefs—and their relationships with one another—have been.

In the end, the man at the center of the women’s vigilantism has a history and identity that none of the women could have ever imagined.

The story starts with Karin, Alaina, and Trisha as children. When they reunite decades later, Karin grieves the death of her only child in a car accident in which her husband was driving in the direction toward his mistress’ house. Trisha confronts childhood traumas involving an alcoholic mother, a father she has never met, molestation by her grandfather, and the regret of giving her baby up for adoption when she was a teenager. Alaina struggles with the guilt of her past failure to speak out against her adopted father’s sexual abuse of boys and, then later, the secret and questionable paternity of her oldest child.

After Alaina’s son reveals that one of his classmates has run away from home because of the horrific deeds of her stepfather, the women’s weekly “girls’ night out” takes on a whole new and tragic misplacement of energy.

THE GRACES OF MERCY & CIRCUMSTANCE, complete at 84,500 words, is commercial women's fiction set within small towns in British Columbia, Canada.

Although I am an unpublished novelist, I spent several years writing investigative reports on the professional and personal misconduct of lawyers. I also have a degree in English literature from the University of Victoria.

I'd be more than happy to send you my complete manuscript for your review. Thank you for your time and consideration.