Steve McManus

As a teenager’s abduction captivates Los Angeles, a fatal hit and run kills a girl who disappeared a year ago—and two reporters uncover a wealthy neighborhood’s connections to those crimes and more in BLOOD CORRIDOR, my new 83,000-word commercial mystery. Told in dual POV, BLOOD CORRIDOR is a standalone with series potential and will appeal to fans of propulsive and compelling character-driven stories like AS THE WICKED WATCH by Tamron Hall and NOTORIOUS by Allison Brennan.

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 a girl’s kidnapping two years ago, Kenya stirs up old ghosts, earning disdain from colleagues, editorial pressure at work—and drawing personal threats to her door.

Freelance news stringer Oscar Pine identifies the young victim of a fatal hit and run as a girl who vanished a year ago, across town and a world away from the affluent neighborhood where her body was found. Sifting through residents’ honest memories, guarded recollections, and outright lies, Oscar builds the timeline of the girl’s frantic last minutes trying to 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 the girls he takes. With clues indicating two of the girls are still alive, Kenya and Oscar risk their reputations—and their lives—to expose the danger smoldering like a coal seam fire beneath the tony neighborhood’s polished veneer.

steve@stevemcmanus.com