"Darkness the Color of Snow"

Thomas Cobb is the author of Crazy Heart, which was adapted into a 2009 Academy Award-winning film starring Jeff Bridges, and Shavetail, among other books.

Cobb applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Darkness the Color of Snow, and reported the following:

Page 69 of Darkness the Color of Snow is the end of the chapter in which patrolman Ronald Forbert of the Lydell Police Department writes his report on the traffic stop two nights before in which his ex friend was killed in a horrific accident. Or was it an accident?

Two of the other major characters—Police Chief Gordon Hawkins and Sergeant Pete Mancuso discuss the effect of the accident on Forbert, who is a young, relatively inexperienced policeman. They worry that perhaps Forbert will take too much blame for the event onto himself, which, of course, he will. The Chief responds that Forbert has a “good head and a good heart,” which is true, but raises questions about how much stress a “good head” and a “good heart” are capable of handling. And that’s one of the main issues that Darkness deals with.

Learn more about the author and his work at Thomas Cobb's website.

The Page 69 Test: Shavetail.

My Book, The Movie: Crazy Heart.

--Marshal Zeringue