Book
Below is the logline and synopsis for the mystery that I have finished: working title, A Man of Twisted Words. It will soon be offered to publishers by my fabulous agent, Paula Munier, of Talcott Notch Literary Agency, and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that it finds a home.
A Man of Twisted Words
When an Ivory Tower academic in forensic linguistics is handed a packet of puzzling, coded documents, he is told he has three weeks to unravel its secrets to save the UK from a Prime Minister who is possibly a Russian agent.
Renowned forensic linguist, British peer, and cousin to Winston, Dr. Peter Churchill, is an Ivory Tower academic at the University of London. It’s a safe, cerebral job… or so he thinks.
After a year of grief from divorce, death, and survivor’s guilt, all Peter wants is a quiet holiday with the remaining members of his family. Instead, an elderly French academic appears, warning Peter that his mother is in danger, that his uncle’s death in 1968 was a murder, and that the Churchill family has a cupboard full of dangerous secrets.
The visitor hands Peter camouflaged historical documents alleging that the murder of Peter’s uncle was committed by the Sorbonne Seven, activists during Paris unrest in 1968. Peter’s help as a forensic linguist is crucial to decode the document and to discover which of the former radicals is the murderer of Peter’s uncle and agent for Russia… now possibly a candidate for Prime Minister of the UK. With the clock ticking toward the upcoming election, Peter has three weeks to work a miracle and identify the traitor and murderer.
When Peter discovers period photos of his uncle and his mother with Sorbonne Seven, he realizes that his family was involved with these former activists and could be implicated in the crimes. Within days, he must make the leap from research geek to James Bond. Peter’s quirky girlfriend, artist Cassie Kendall, and best friend, Detective Inspector Jinx Jarrett, help him as he works against the clock to make headway past mounting personal and lexical roadblocks.
Will he be able to keep his family and his country safe, and bring the traitor and murderer to justice before the upcoming election?
I envision this as a Peter Churchill series entitled The Linguist, with this as Book One: A Man of Twisted Words. I am in the process of working on the second Peter Churchill book.
