I’m currently querying Harts Divided. Below is the query blurb.
HARTS DIVIDED, winner of SinC’s 2023 Eleanor Taylor Bland Award, SinC’s 2023 Pride Award, and finalist for MWA-Midwest’s Hugh Holton Award is about Neema Hart, a black, bisexual thief-turned-PI who owns Hart to Hart, a private investigation agency and therapy office with her psychologist wife Genie Hart in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Specializing in “love crimes,” the Harts spend more time dealing with their clients’ relationship issues than working on their own. And it shows. Genie moved out months ago, Neema’s been left pining, and there’s no time to make things right because a new client is knocking at their door.
Miriam Laghari, the wife of Milwaukee’s most prominent philanthropist, has hired Hart to Hart for what should be a straightforward infidelity case and lucrative payday. But the case grows complicated when Miriam’s house goes up in flames, her husband reveals himself to have mob ties, and women start getting burned. As the situation intensifies, Neema is torn between working the case, repairing her marriage, and pursuing a hot lead in the cold case closest to her heart.
I’ve been describing HARTS DIVIDED as a mashup of FINLAY DONOVAN IS KILLING IT, THE FLASH (CW), and HARLEM SHUFFLE. It’s a commercial mystery that explores its dark plot with a sense of humor like FINLAY. It has the heart of THE FLASH with its focus on found family, community, teamwork, and romance. But it also has a real place/time setting and set of character backstories that give it a bit of that HARLEM SHUFFLE grit.
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