Steve McManus

Three missing girls lead two reporters to a wealthy neighborhood where everyone seems to be hiding something in CORRIDOR, my new 98,000-word commercial mystery. A standalone with series potential, CORRIDOR is told in dual POV and will appeal to fans of sharp and twisty character-driven stories like IF YOU WERE HERE by Alafair Burke, VANISHED by Kendra Elliot, and LOCAL WOMAN MISSING by Mary Kubica.  

Up-and-coming journalist Kenya McGowan is thrust into the spotlight after she proves the prime suspect in a teenager’s widely-publicized abduction is innocent. When she links the disappearance to another girl’s kidnapping two years ago, Kenya stirs up old ghosts, earning editorial pressure at her job—and drawing personal threats to her door.   

Scrappy freelance news stringer Oscar Pine discovers that the young victim of a fatal hit and run vanished a year ago, across town and a world away from the affluent neighborhood where her body was found. Sifting through residents’ scant details and abundant lies, Oscar builds the timeline of the girl’s frantic last minutes pounding on doors that refused to open so she could escape from someone he suspects lives nearby.  

As they talk to family members, potential witnesses, and each other, Kenya and Oscar realize that all three girls were taken by the same man, a genteel predator who likes to phone the mothers of his victims. With clues indicating two of the girls are still alive, Kenya and Oscar will risk their reputations—and possibly their lives—to expose the danger smoldering like a coal seam fire beneath the tony neighborhood’s polished veneer.

steve@stevemcmanus.com