[QCRIT]: HANGMAN’S PROOF; Literary Fiction; 76K words (+ First 300)

Hello PubTips community! I’m back with another QCrit submission. I stepped away from my query letter for a few months to focus on line-editing my manuscript, but I’m now deep in the trenches. The following iteration has already gone out to a batch of agents, but I’d be grateful for any commentary you might have. Thank you in advance!

Dear Agent,

HANGMAN'S PROOF is a work of literary fiction complete at 76,000 words. It combines the transgenerational sibling rivalry of Sally Rooney's Intermezzo with the tough moral scrutinizing of Danya Kukafka’s Notes on an Execution, all set to the tempo of Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood.

Ever since her father’s testimony put an innocent man to death, Andy Amherst has been trying to make up for it. Even though it ruined her relationship with her sister, Heather, she has dedicated her life to representing death row inmates, hoping to bring an end to the death penalty once and for all. But nothing could prepare her for her latest client, a world-renowned mathematician named Rodney Peng. Scheduled to die in Texas for the murders of a colleague, his wife, and a cop, Rodney has sought her out—for reasons he refuses to explain in a letter.

As his execution nears, Andy learns that Rodney is closing in on solving a centuries-old theorem, and Heather believes his proof could unify several disparate mathematical fields. Motivated as much by sentiment as by a need to keep an eye on her younger sister, Andy decides to help her write an exposé that will motivate the governor to issue a stay. In the meantime, Andy will investigate the rumors of prosecutorial misconduct that have encircled this case for years.

To save Rodney’s life, Andy will bring to bear her training, experience, and professional network, all while facing roadblocks and threats from a shady district attorney all too eager to prove his 'law and order' bona fides before the next election. And even if Andy can’t convince her sister of capital punishment’s blanket immorality, it’s clear to them both what mathematics stands to lose if they fail.

All the best, Author

[BIO - how my personal history informed key elements of this story]

[First 300]

On the morning the judge set a date for his execution, Rodney Peng felt more lucid than he had in years. It was as if the news had roused the once-venerated mathematician from a fugue, a years-long state of uncertainty whose effects he had kept hidden from everyone, even those hired to defend him. Gone was the endless confusion, the nagging suspicion that the history which had been presented back to him by prosecutors and expert witnesses and law enforcement officers had never truly been his own. It was a bad trip, now in its eighth year, one whose inevitable through line was ever-present paranoia. But now, by reserving a year, a day, and an hour for death, the rush of events overcame him like floodwaters cleansing a gulch. Rodney was remembering things, finally, watching with relief as the past unfolded beneath him as plainly and unalterably as his fast approaching end.

Rodney’s attorneys considered execution dates, with the devastating anxiety their countdowns aroused, to be cruel and unusual. Rodney couldn’t have disagreed more. A death date, like a birth, anchors our little lives to history’s preposterously intricate weaving. For Rodney, to see his own life bracketed in advance conferred the grim satisfaction of no longer having to worry about what he might or might not accomplish tomorrow, a long-held insecurity he had dedicated his life to silencing. Things were simpler now. It was that very relief which he heard most acutely, a note sounding louder than the symphonies of terror and indignation and regret which had taken turns exhausting his bewildered heart. This coda, court-ordered and cold, sat unopened in an envelope deposited carelessly beneath his cell bars. Rodney didn't open it right away. He knew the letter’s contents already, as surely as if he had written them himself.