Steve McManus

When an amateur web sleuth with anger issues helps free a wrongfully convicted killer, she confronts public outrage over his release, her growing doubts about his innocence, and the suspicious deaths of witnesses connected to the case. THE SAWVILLE PROMISE is a 91,000-word standalone commercial mystery with series potential and will appeal to fans of rural grit like SMALL TOWN SINS by Ken Jaworowski and the evocative twists of books like INNOCENCE ROAD by Laura Griffin.

EVELYN McCURDLES has been obsessed with murder cases and the hairline cracks of reasonable doubt running through some of them ever since her father was arrested for the unthinkable when she was ten. After dismantling the case against Charlie Hayward, who was convicted of two murders based on a confession Evelyn believes was coerced, his lawyers used her work to get his sentence overturned, a decision that’s made her as unpopular as Charlie is in his rural hometown.

But when a woman Charlie knew is found dead hours after his release, local hostility toward Evelyn quickly turns to violence. With Charlie nowhere to be found and everyone laying the blame for his latest murder at her feet, Evelyn must figure out if she’s made a colossal mistake about Charlie, or if whoever helped the real killer escape justice is out to silence them both.

steve@stevemcmanus.com