"The Ninth Day"

Jamie Freveletti is a trial attorney, martial artist, and runner. She has crewed for an elite ultra-marathon runner at 50 mile, 100 mile, and twenty-four hour races across the country, and holds a black belt in aikido, a Japanese martial art. Her debut thriller, Running from the Devil, was chosen as a “Notable Book” by the Independent Booksellers of America, awarded "Best First Novel" by the International Thriller Writers, awarded a Barry Award for "Best First Novel" by Deadly Pleasures Magazine, and nominated for a Macavity Award for "Best First Mystery" by the Mystery Readers International and "Favorite First Novel of 2009" by Crimespree Magazine.

Her second novel, Running Dark, hit both the Chicagoland and South Florida bestseller lists and won a Lovey award for Best Novel 2010. In January 2011, she was tapped by the Estate of Robert Ludlum to write the next book in the Covert One series.

Freveletti applied the Page 69 Test to her third novel, The Ninth Day, and reported the following:

Is anything fated? Can fate be changed?

The Page 69 test, when applied to The Ninth Day, lands on a portion of the book where a medicine man and my protagonist, Emma Caldridge, are discussing the meaning of fate. The medicine man has administered a hallucinogen to a group of migrant workers in an attempt to cure them of a terrible sickness that’s killing them. According to the medicine man, what is said by a person while under the influence of this drug is the absolute truth. Emma is appalled to learn that one man claims that they will all die at three o’clock that morning.

The medicine man accepts this prophecy and prepares to die, but Emma adamantly refuses to believe that what the man speaks is fated. She begins her frantic quest to solve the puzzle of the deadly disease before it kills them all.

I hope you enjoy The Ninth Day. It raises some issues of life, the value of life and how we each act in the face of death.

Learn more about the book and author at Jamie Freveletti's website and blog.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue