SUN VS SNOW BLOG HOP!


Query:

Dear Amazing Agent,

Sasha’s father made a career out of pilfering jewels from the world’s richest families, and he taught her every scheme he knew. After his death Sasha attempts her biggest heist ever, the one job her father planned to every last detail, but left undone. The theft of a priceless sapphire will be her way of mourning the loss of the only parent she’s ever known. But one disaster follows another, and Sasha ends up minus the sapphire and framed for its disappearance.

While searching for the real thief, she stumbles upon her father’s darkest secret. Old newspaper articles surface, telling the story of an abducted child, and an identical twin left behind. Her father stole more than jewels. He stole Sasha as well.

A case of mistaken identity leaves the sister Sasha can’t remember accused of having taken the sapphire. Her sister’s freedom in jeopardy, Sasha must unravel the tangled knots of their father’s past and find the missing jewel. Meanwhile, Sasha’s beloved older brother, and partner-in-crime, has reasons of his own for making certain some family secrets stay buried.

My YA thriller VANISHED is complete at 78,000 words. VANISHED will appeal to readers of Ally Carter. I envision this title as the first in a two-book series. I am working on the second book now.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

FIRST 250:

My brother Raj and I waited amongst the trees at the edge of Signora D’Agnelli’s driveway, watching her limousine disappear into the dusky evening. A breeze swept in off the sea, filling the air with a marshy, damp scent. In autumn, the terrain on the Italian coast was perpetually wet, but by the time anyone thought to scout around for footprints in the muddy earth, Raj and I would be long gone.

When we could no longer see the taillights, Raj shot me his sly grin. Rather than force a smile in return, I picked up one end of the ladder he’d purchased at a hardware store fifty miles away. He grabbed the other end and we jogged up the gravel driveway towards Signora’s villa.  

We’d both dressed in black. Jeans, sweatshirt, gloves, boots. No jewelry. Nothing that might slip off or be forgotten. My hair was in a tight braid, dyed from pale blond to brown. I’d popped in brown contacts to disguise my blue eyes. Raj had pulled his black hair into a ponytail and removed all his earrings. The sweatshirt masked a tattoo on his left bicep of the Chinese characters for genius.

On the deck by the pool Raj took his laptop out of his backpack and sat down in a wooden chair.  “She’s practically inviting us inside, Sasha,” he said as he hacked into the website for Tele-Italia.

Not quite, but Signora’s alarm and motion detectors did run on landlines rather than a cellular network.