Pitch Madness SJ-16 Slush Reader Save: The Serenity Killer

Genre: YA psychological suspense

Word Count: 70,000

Pitch: When Haley’s best friend becomes the victim of a serial killer, she uses her ability to see and feel death to exact revenge, but the killer is a lot closer to her than she realizes.

Excerpt: 

I will die in seventy-eight years, three months, and two days, surrounded by people I love. At least I assume I love them. I haven’t met them yet, so it’s hard to say for sure, but I do know that ninety-four years is a long time to live. Not everyone is this lucky. In fact, most people are not.

“Haley,” my mom says as she sets a glass of orange juice down in front of me. “Have you heard a single word I’ve said to you?”

With wide eyes, I glance up. “Um…” This is the part where I should continue talking, but I know I won’t win any points by telling her I was pondering my own mortality. Like most people, my mom tends to frown upon the discussion of death before breakfast, so I say nothing as usual.

She narrows her eyes and stares at me as if she’s trying to access my mind. “What’s going on with you?”

Well, for starters, I’m a freak, but since this answer is also among the taboo subjects of breakfast table topics, I opt for action instead of words. I roll my eyes at her. This seems kinder than telling her I witness her death almost every day. At least, it’s kinder to me, because I want to discuss her death even less than I want to see it. And, because no righteous deed goes unpunished, my silence elicits one of her award winning sighs. For something so subtle, just one of them can fill every square inch of a room.

CLUE: Mr. Boddy is found in the courtyard, his head a bloody 

mess. The sprinklers are running, the yard flooded. Beside the

control valves sits an open tool box. A pin with the logo WWJD on 

it.