QK Agent Round 13: Tequila Mockingbird, Adult Mystery

Title: Day of the Dead

Entry Nickname: Tequila Mockingbird

Word count: 89K

Genre: Adult Comedic Mystery



Query


Claire Giannini is about to take the most terrifying step of her life – marriage. But she’ll have to find her missing fiancé first. When Andre vanishes in colonial San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, during their annual Day of the Dead festival, Claire overcomes her fears of enclosed spaces, mummified bodies, stampeding bulls and short bald men named Cyril, in order to search for him.

Still reeling from her father’s death, Claire can’t bear to lose another person she loves. Not without a fight, anyway. Relying on her journalism skills and Italian-Irish tenacity, she finally tracks down the man who can give her answers. But he inconveniently drops dead, leaving Claire as the prime suspect and in danger of becoming the next victim.

DAY OF THE DEAD is a story of lost love and what happens when you discover more about your partner – and yourself – than you bargained for. It is a humorous mystery in the vein of Carl Hiaasen and Janet Evanovich.

As a freelance writer, I’ve contributed to, among others, Seventeen Magazine, Chatelaine, The Globe and Mail and Cottage Life. My blog, GoodDeedADay, was also featured on Global Television.



First Page



The pregnant one frightened Claire most of all. Face twisted in agony as if the woman died mid-labour pain. Mouth frozen in a permanent scream. Midsection caved in like a collapsed soufflé.

“No epidural for you, I guess,” Claire whispered to herself. She looked around at the glass cases that lined the walls of the Museo de las momias and shuddered. When Danny said Andre was last seen in a museum, Claire pictured displays of old coins and broken pottery, not skeletal corpses with parchment skin and bared teeth. The mummified cadaver stretched out before her was naked to the ankles – resting for all eternity wearing nothing but a pair of filthy socks.

As horrified as she was, Claire couldn’t look away. Like the time her mother sang “I’m Every Woman” at karaoke.

She spun around to shake off the memory and spotted three teen girls snapping photos of themselves with the exhibits.

Mummy selfies. Peachy.

Between the jet lag and the sleepless nights since she got Danny’s call telling her that his nephew, Andre, was missing, Claire felt her head spin. What day was it again? Tuesday?

She’d intended to come down to Mexico to reconcile with Andre, not search for him. And to end up here? The thought that her plane had crashed and she was in hell crossed her mind.

What on earth had Andre been doing in this ghoulish place? He winced at the sight of a dead bird.