NoQS Agent Round: A FEARFUL THING - Adult Suspense/Thriller

Name: Angie Romines

Twitter Handle: @Angelaface
Title: A FEARFUL THING
Genre: Adult Suspense/Thriller
Word Count: 80,000

My Main Character's Most Stressful Relationship is:

Mia’s most stressful relationship is with her deceased brother’s best friend, Julian. The two bicker constantly as they both work toward the common goal of solving the mystery of Michael’s death at the monastery where he was studying the history of the occult in the Roman Catholic Church. Julian has never taken anything seriously in his life (probably why he got booted out of seminary), whereas Mia is forever pushing aside a social life to prioritize her theological studies.

Query:

Studious Mia Landry isn’t a risk taker, that is, until her brother, Michael, dies suspiciously at his Romanian monastery. After discovering Michael’s death was anything but accidental, Mia, an agnostic theology student who never quite fit in with her Catholic family, becomes obsessed with finding out who took her only brother’s life. Reaching out to his former seminary roommate, Julian, she hopes together they can decipher the secrets Michael embedded in his occult research, secrets that most likely led to his demise.

With peril lurking in bone-filled ossuaries and isolated monasteries, Julian and Mia chase Michael’s leads and find themselves running from not only the police but also an ancient order of priests, The Order of the Holy Blood, who will stop at nothing to keep their secret safe. Despite the enemies that pursue them, Mia is also in danger of being distracted by Julian, a trust fund kid who’s as reckless as Mia is cautious. When it comes to Julian, Mia is unsure in any given moment whether she wants to slap him or rip his clothes off…or perhaps a bit of both. Unfortunately, neither will happen if Mia and Julian aren’t able to outwit The Order and escape Michael’s fate.

First 250:

The young man tore through the Hoia-Baciu forest, his cassock catching on branches as he ran. Leaves and twigs crunched beneath his bare feet. He winced when he hit stone but did not slow down. He felt his heart thumping blood through his body, and he heard the rushing sound it made in his head. His lungs began to burn and contract, struggling to keep up.

He had made mistakes. God, so many mistakes. The man turned to see if he had evaded his captors, and this was his final mistake. His robes tangled his stride and he hit the forest floor hard. They were on him almost instantly, weathered but strong hands that grabbed his legs, arms, and the back of his neck. He writhed and screamed, trying to use what little energy he had left to break free, to call for help. But who was there to hear the young priest in the middle of the dense Transylvanian woods, home of so many horrors, real and imagined?

The men, much older than the priest, dragged the clergyman—now weeping openly—to an old, strong tree with low, thick branches. These were the type of trees drawing logging companies deep into the forest, threatening the wild, untamed beauty of the Carpathian Mountains. But the man did not take in the beauty of his surroundings. To him, the woods were savage, unforgiving, and the last piece of God’s earth he would ever live to see.