She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, A Face at the Window, and reported the following:On page 69 of A Face at the Window, a couple of creeps have kidnapped a toddler and her babysitter, and taken them into the woods. The rest of the book, in a setting as harshly beautiful as it is unforgiving, pits the babysitter against her captors and her rescuers against the plot’s evil mastermind, who is using the plucky toddler as bait.Read an excerpt from A Face at the Window, and learn more about the book and author at the official Sarah Graves website.
Here, from a bit farther on in the book, is the babysitter’s assessment of her situation:
It hit her, then, that this was happening to her and there was nothing she could do about it. To stop it, or make it happen any differently.
Or at some other time... Any time but now. That it was real, and that she, Helen Nevelson, was really and truly about to die.
Suddenly the world seemed so precious and good to her, she thought she must surely get another chance just for knowing it so certainly. That it was good to be alive...
As if from a long distance and in slow motion she heard the trigger move, metal sliding against metal. Then came the spring-loaded creak of the hammer and the cylinder’s oiled whisper...
In the sky, early stars hung around a round, white moon even as the last blood-red shreds of the dying day hung stubbornly on.
Through her tears, Helen gazed lovingly at them.
A Face at the Window is either a cozy with a thriller under the hood, or a thriller with a cozy heroine at the wheel. Saying any more than that spoils several surprises, so I won’t.
Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.
--Marshal Zeringue
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