6 Agents Looking for Your Mystery Now!

There are a lot of literary agents out there. AgentQuery lists more than 950 who represent mysteries. But, many of them are not taking on new clients. Some are interested only in referrals. Some, as I discovered during my research, are dead. The good news is that there are still a lot of agents looking to build up their lists. Here are six of them.

Six Agents Looking for Mysteries

1. Jolene Haley is an agent at the renowned Donald Maass Literary Agency. She’d love to see:
   • Cozy mysteries with a lovable detective. Bonus points if it reminds me of Murder, She Wrote.
   • Any and all mysteries and true crime novels.
   • Romantic suspense featuring a strong lead and a hot, irresistible love interest, working together to solve a crime.
   • Feel-good romance that can make a reader laugh and swoon simultaneously, especially small town romantic comedies.
   • A ghost hunter rom-com or a tarot reader / psychic rom-com.
   • Any and all ghost stories or stories about hauntings.

2. Rebecca Scherer began her publishing career at Jane Rotrosen Agency in 2010 while earning a BA in English Literature, Political Science, and German from the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter. Immediately upon graduating, she was offered the unique opportunity to work within each department at the agency to gain a deep understanding of the business before going on to become an agent. She represents commercial fiction across genres, with particular interest in women’s fiction, crime/mystery, suspense, book club fiction, and upmarket/literary-leaning fiction.

3. Emily Glenister of DHH Literary is looking for female-led commercial and upmarket commercial fiction, with a very strong emphasis on diverse / own voices. She loves crime / psychological thrillers and is desperately searching for fresh and unique ideas in this area (such as Nikki May’s Wahala, Gillian McAllister’s Wrong Place, Wrong Time or The Club by Ellery Lloyd) – even better if it has a speculative twist; 

4. Rachelle Gardner Agency As a literary agent since 2007, Rachelle has negotiated 300+ contracts with more than 20 publishers, and worked with more than 200 authors to bring their books to publication and build their careers. She’s been in publishing since 1995, worked in-house at two publishing companies, and edited books published by Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, and many more. Nowadays she feels lucky to work at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. She’s looking for suspense and twisty psychological thrillers.

5. Lisa Erbach Vance is at Aaron Priest Agency. She’s looking for propulsive, emotionally engaging thrillers—contemporary or historical, domestic or international. Moody psychological and domestic suspense. Lisa looks for a powerful premise and characters she’ll be passionate about, in addition to great writing. Her goal is not only to sell books, but also to build long and ever-growing careers for her clients, giving each of them close and thorough attention as well as being an advocate in all aspects of the publishing process, including licensing foreign rights, audio rights, dramatic rights and more.

6. Margaret Sutherland Brown brings a strong background in editorial to the Emma Sweeney Agency as an agent. She previously worked as an Associate Editor at Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press and as a freelance editor. She’s particularly interested in commercial and literary fiction, literary mysteries and thrillers, narrative non-fiction, and lifestyle books. She graduated from Wake Forest University with a BA in English and minors in Spanish and Journalism.

Do you have any suggestions? Join the conversation, and good luck!