Monday, July 27, 2015

New Agent 23: No Can Do, Adult Comedic Thriller

Title: No Can Do
Word Count: 97,000
Genre: Comedic Thriller, adult


Query:
Kate Shepherd has spent her career leaning in, speaking out, and going nowhere. After a disastrous encounter with the new VP, Kate must make a choice: audit the Chinese contractor where her company’s world-famous smartphones are made (without antagonizing the tyrannical owner), or face a future with no job, no prospects and, in all likelihood, twelve cats.

Kate heads to Shenzhen, where the managers resent her, the workers distrust her, and a recent security breach has everyone on edge. First a mysterious prototype disappears, and then the worker who lost it turns up brutally beaten. Kate suspects the ruthless factory owner of foul play, but proving it won’t be easy — the worker’s too scared to talk, and her bosses just want the incident buried. But Kate’s never let a little thing like futility stop her.

Determined to expose the truth, even if it kills her career, Kate’s new mission gets an unexpected boost from an Asian playboy with a dubious interest in the audit. But their alliance backfires when a case of mistaken identity makes Kate the prime suspect in the prototype’s disappearance. Pursued by dodgy cops and deadly mercenaries, Kate joins the hunt for a piece of technology so valuable it has her questioning her sanity along with her judgment. She was ready to sacrifice her job for her principles, but will she risk her freedom, her life, and her beloved In-N-Out Burgers for them?


First 250 Words: 

“The first rule of business,” said my last boss, “is knowing when to keep your mouth shut.” It seemed like good advice, coming from the man I’d just caught having sex in the Mount Rushmore conference room. Unfortunately, working at Prism Inc. had taught me to question all advice. And to never eat off conference room tables.

Mount Rushmore had been the first of my boss's truly terrible decisions, but plenty more followed. In typical Prism fashion, he was removed without warning: one day he was in his office, extorting suppliers, and the next it was like he’d never existed. There were whispers that he’d left Palo Alto, but I forgot all about him when I landed a job in Ethics & Compliance — a job I nearly ruined, because apparently I don’t learn by example.

Turns out the first rule of business was keeping my mouth shut and my drunken lips off the new vice president. It happened at the holiday party last month, when I was feeling merry, if not bright. And while a few kisses were nothing compared to Mount Rushmore, photos of my monumental lapse in judgment were circulating long before the evening had ended. I had hoped they'd be either forgotten or laughed at, but the people who run Prism have extensive memories and little humor. They don’t accept excuses. And they don’t ignore employees who misbehave.

They send them to China.

3 comments:

  1. Jennifer Johnson-BlalockJuly 27, 2015 at 2:26 PM

    Could I please see the first 50 pages as a Word document to queryjennifer [at] lizadawson [dot] com? Thank you! -Jennifer Johnson-Blalock

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  2. Would love to see more! Please feel free to send the query, 1-2 page synopsis, and first ten pages to acquisitions@curiosityquills.com Good luck!

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