24-year veteran of the Army Reserve with deployments to Kosovo and Iraq. He is a police officer in a New England City and the married father of two boys.
Colt applied the Page 69 Test to his new Andy Roark mystery, Death at Fort Devens, and reported the following:
If you were to flip to Page 69 of Death at Fort Devens one would find Andy Roark doing what he does best. Snooping. He has been asked by an old Army buddy who saved his life in Vietnam to find his runaway daughter. On page 69 Andy is going through the daughter’s diary after having just searched her room. Then he slips into the bathroom and goes through his friend’s medicine cabinet out of habit. Lastly, he sees his friend in his Army uniform and it serves to remind Andy of the life he walked away from and desperately misses.Visit Peter Colt's website.
Page 69 works for my book. It gives the reader a few insights into the character and the case. A girl is missing, and PI Andy Roark is going through her stuff, being nosey. It gives the reader an idea about the case and insight into Andy. He can’t help himself from snooping in his friend’s medicine cabinet. He is so focused on the case that he defaults to PI habits. Then he sees his friend in uniform and it forces Andy to contemplate a career that he left and what he might have left behind in doing so.
These are central themes in the book. Andy being forced to confront and acknowledge his own nature. Very few of us like to be faced with our flaws and Andy is no different. Andy left the Army after Vietnam and misses the Army. Being back at Fort Devens, being around Special Forces soldiers forces him to wonder what he gave up.
My Book, The Movie: Back Bay Blues.
The Page 69 Test: Back Bay Blues.
Q&A with Peter Colt.
--Marshal Zeringue
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