"The Secrets of Midwives"

Sally Hepworth has lived around the world, spending extended periods in Singapore, the U.K., and Canada, where she worked in event management and Human Resources. She is the author of Love Like The French, published by Random House Germany in February 2014. She lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two children.

Hepworth applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Secrets of Midwives, and reported the following:

From page 69:

“How is Laura?” I asked.

One of us had to bring her up. True to his word, Sean had married the Texan cashier from his grocery store. With frizzy, peroxide-blonde hair and hips to match her generous breasts, she was far from classically beautiful, but she had a pretty face and a friendly disposition. The kind of woman who, after three years being married to an OBGYN still got choked up when he told her about a delivery. Not the kind of woman you felt good about betraying.

“Fine,” he said. “Thanks for asking.”

“Tumor’s still shrinking?”

He nodded. “Now they’re saying it’s the size of a pea.”

Nine months ago, the tumor had been the size of a baseball. It had started with a headache. Sean had popped Laura a couple of Tylenol before work one morning and by the time he got home, it was a migraine. Three days later, she was blind in one eye. Thanks to Sean’s connections at St. Mary’s, Laura was able to get in for a CT scan right away. The prognosis hadn’t been good. But according to Sean, Laura liked nothing more than proving people wrong.
“She thinks it’s this green tea diet she’s been on. Loves telling me that doctors know less than nothing when it comes to people’s health.” Sean laughed, shaking his head. “It’s more likely to be the surgery, chemo and radiation therapy, but I’ll credit the tea, if it makes her happy.

“Whatever it is, I’m glad it’s working.”

“Yes,” Sean said. “Me too.”

So … what the heck is going on here?

In this snippet, my character, Neva, is reassuring her very married friend, Sean—with whom she shared a regrettable one-night fling some months ago—that he is not, in fact, the father of her baby. This snippet also reveals that Sean’s wife has been very ill.

This page is actually a pretty good representation of the book, as it touches upon the main storyline of the novel – the mystery of who has fathered Neva’s baby. This page also does a remarkably good job at giving a flavor of the book, hinting at mystery and the complications in the lives of the players involved.

Visit Sally Hepworth's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

--Marshal Zeringue