"Pro Bono"

Thomas Perry is the bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Murder Book, the critically acclaimed Jane Whitefield series, The Old Man, and The Butcher’s Boy, which won the Edgar Award. He lives in Southern California.

Perry applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Pro Bono, and reported the following:

I think that the Page 69 Test works pretty well for Pro Bono, It gives the reader a sense of the mystery over what has happened to lawyer Charlie Warren's client Vesper Ellis, and what he is willing to do about it.

At the top of the page, Warren has asked the police to come to the house of his client to do a welfare check, and he is watching the officer drive away after knocking on the doors, examining the house and grounds, and interviewing neighbors. Nothing has been found, nothing has been learned, and there are no grounds for the police to do anything else. Warren proceeds to find a way into her house and take a closer look. Vesper had brought him financial records that she believed proved someone has been stealing money from her accounts. He has done a preliminary assessment and agrees. She hasn't returned his many phone calls or those from her friends. Has she been murdered? Kidnapped?

He knows that what he's doing is illegal, and could easily cause him to be disbarred, but he'll take the chance. On the rest of page 69, we learn that he has noticed that there are screened windows on the second floor of the big house, and knows that many people sometimes open those windows for ventilation before the weather gets too hot. He climbs onto the roof to see if he can find one that hasn't been properly latched shut, so he can force it open and search for signs of what has happened to her. We also learn that one of the reasons he showed up and accompanied the police officer on her welfare check was so that the neighbors would assume he is a police officer too, and not what he is--a lawyer ignoring the law. This page, along with others, lets the reader know that there's something that needs to be investigated, and that Charlie is not a person who will give up when someone is in danger.

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The Page 69 Test: Silence.

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The Page 69/99 Test: Fidelity.

The Page 69/99 Test: Runner.

The Page 69 Test: Strip.

The Page 69 Test: The Informant.

The Page 69 Test: The Boyfriend.

The Page 69 Test: A String of Beads.

The Page 69 Test: Forty Thieves.

The Page 69 Test: The Old Man.

The Page 69 Test: The Bomb Maker.

The Page 69 Test: The Burglar.

The Page 69 Test: A Small Town.

Writers Read: Thomas Perry (December 2019).

Q&A with Thomas Perry.

The Page 69 Test: Eddie's Boy.

The Page 69 Test: The Left-Handed Twin.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Book.

The Page 69 Test: Hero.

--Marshal Zeringue