Freeman's debut thriller, Immoral, won the Macavity Award and was a nominee for the Edgar®, Dagger, Anthony, and Barry awards for best first novel.Freeman applied the Page 69 Test to The Cold Nowhere, the sixth book in the Jonathan Stride Series, and reported the following:
I always enjoy the “page 69” test. Can a single page chosen at random say anything meaningful about the whole book? Sometimes yes, sometimes no — but in the case of The Cold Nowhere, page 69 of the U.S. edition actually encapsulates the essence of Jonathan Stride’s life.Learn more about the book and author at Brian Freeman's official website and blog.
You could even say that it’s a dead-on summary of the whole series.
Stride is talking to Cat Mateo, the teenage runaway he found hiding in his bedroom closet, soaked to the bone, claiming that someone is trying to kill her. Cat shares a connection to Stride because of her mother, who was a woman that Stride tried — and failed — to protect from a vicious ex- husband. It’s one of the great tragedies of his career, and Cat represents a shot at redemption for Stride — if he can trust her.
Cat is drawn to Stride, and like most teenagers, she isn’t afraid to ask questions that put him on the spot. On page 69, she’s asking why Stride lives alone. She forces him to explain about the loss of his wife Cindy (who died of cancer before the start of the first Stride novel Immoral) and about the complex web of relationships with his lover Serena and his partner Maggie. Why Serena doesn’t live there anymore. Why his friendship with Maggie is strained.
Stride and the three women in his life. Cindy. Maggie. Serena. It’s all there on page 69. That’s the series.
The Page 69 Test: Stripped.
My Book, The Movie: Stripped.
The Page 69 Test: Stalked.
My Book, The Movie: Spilled Blood.
--Marshal Zeringue
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