u/Due_Offer_9816

Dear [Agent/Publisher Name],
Men don’t die bravely. They die slowly.
Complete at 120,000 words, DIG is a dark gothic historical thriller/horror set in 1960s Australia. Blending psychological suspense, literary horror, colonial guilt, and institutional corruption, it will appeal to readers of character-driven atmospheric thrillers such as THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET by Catriona Ward and THE NIGHT GUEST by Fiona McFarlane. I particularly think that DIG will appeal to you [due to your interest in…/as you represent XXX, whose novel XXX would sit alongside my own work in a bookshop.

In 1960s coastal Australia, 26 year old Fisher is a paramedic who has seen too much death and is quietly planning his own. Burnt out, suicidal, and barely tethered to the world, he is called to the scene of a hanging: a disgraced former priest found dead in an isolated house in Bulli.
The scene is wrong. The body is already cold, Catholic officials arrive too quickly. The room is stripped clean, the story is controlled and Fisher is ordered to accept the official explanation. Instead, acting on defiance and a desperation he does not understand, he pockets the cryptic handwritten notes the dead priest left behind.

The clues lead Fisher to Fillie, a reclusive painter whose disturbing work uses human ashes, and to the story of a twenty-year-old storm in which four children vanished into the Australian wilderness. Local legend blames the Yowie, a mythological creature of the Australian wilderness, but Fisher soon uncovers something far more human, deliberate and horrifying: a buried history of institutional violence, stolen Aboriginal children, and powerful men who have spent decades protecting themselves and are willing to kill to keep the past buried.

As Fisher follows the trail through orphanages, psychiatric wards, Church records, and the fractured memories of survivors, his own mind begins to collapse. Visions stalk him and his suicidal compulsions sharpen as the men behind the conspiracy close in. For the first time in so long, Fisher may have found a reason to live: to save Fillie, expose the truth, and stop the crimes still unfolding around him. But in this slow drag to hell, survival for Fisher means facing both the horror pursuing him and the horror inside him.

My name is xxx and I write under the pen name xxx. I am a paramedic from Australia, and my fiction draws on my frontline experience across Australia, London, and Ukraine. My short stories have appeared on various literary and horror blogs, and I was recently featured on xxxx
Thank you for your time and consideration.

Men don’t die bravely, they die slowly. 

Fisher is unraveling. 
Haunted by suicidal compulsions and determined to kill himself before year’s end, a young paramedic attends the call he dreads: a hanging of a man of faith. 
The scene is heavily guarded and the narrative is tightly controlled by a shadowy sect of the Catholic Church. Fisher pockets several handwritten clues the priest left behind out of pure defiance and a force within him he cannot explain. Fisher becomes obsessed with not only with the motive that surrounds a man's choice to die but also with the strange woman who called the ambulance, a reclusive painter who paints human ashes into art. 
As Fisher digs deeper, he uncovers a trail of institutional violence, buried crimes, a mythological creature of the Australian wilderness and secrets tied to one of Australia’s darkest historical atrocities that lead to shocking and brutal scenes in the final chapter. What began as a suspected suicide becomes something far more terrifying: a conspiracy guarded by powerful men willing to kill to keep the past buried. 
Stalked by visions of the Yowie, hunted by Church foot soldiers and plagued by his own deteriorating mind, every revelation becomes a race against time. The horrifying reality sets in that this is not a thing of the past but happening in the present. 
Fisher is torn: Hang himself or be hung by them.  
Dig is a 120,000 word contemporary literary thriller of obsession, madness, PTSD and colonial guilt set against the stark Gothic backdrop of 1960’s Australia. 
It would fit alongside other character driven historical thrillers such as The last house on Needless street by Catriona Ward and The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane.
In a slow drag into hell, Fisher must decide if the horrors within him are worse than the horrors around him. 
And they are coming. 

My name is xxxx and am a healthcare worker from Australia. I have several short stories published in blogs and use my experiences as a paramedic to incorporate into fiction.

Dear Agent,

Dig is a 130,000 worded Australian Gothic horror that I seek representation for. 
Set in a bleak coastal Australian town on the night of JFK’s assassination, it is a story of obsession, madness, and the horrors buried beneath national myth.
Manically suicidal and unraveling beneath the weight of his own mind, Paramedic  John Fisher attends what appears to be a straightforward call: a priest found hanging. One witness heard the body hang only minutes before the call was placed. Yet the body is cold. Before he can query this, the Church officials descend, sealing the room, confiscating evidence, and insisting on silence. Before they can erase it all, Fisher discovers several scrawled, cryptic notes left behind by the priest.

Driven by equal parts obsession and self-destruction, Fisher follows the priest’s clues into the shadows of a twenty-year-old tragedy: a violent storm in which several children vanished and their deaths blamed on the Yowie, the monstrous figure of Australian folklore said to stalk the bush. The dead priest was one of only two surviving children.

As Fisher digs deeper, he finds himself hunted by Church foot soldiers determined to bury the truth and by forces he cannot explain, along with his own deteriorating mind. With a vow to kill himself before year’s end, every revelation becomes a race against time. A soldier from the emu war, a psychiatric facility, a painter that uses human ashes for her art all combine against the backdrop of 1960's Australia as Fisher experiences the true cost of curiosity and rebellion. The trail leads him toward one of Australia’s darkest chapters, where institutional violence, colonial sins, and ancient terror intertwine.

Dig is a standalone novel with potential in the market. It explores morality, PTSD, colonial guilt, and suicidal obsession against the stark, gothic backdrop of conservative Australia.
With a growing number of suicides in emergency service workers and veterans memoir regarding several real and satirical takes coping with trauamtic jobs in which the character surrounds himself with chaos in order to cope. 

Thankyou for your time.