of 10 mystery novels and two nonfiction books, and editor of a short-story anthology
His latest novel, The Mailman, is a Library Journal pick of the month. Publishers Weekly said of the thriller: “With full-throttle pacing from start to finish, this will have Jack Reacher fans hoping Carter is back in action soon.”
Welsh-Huggins applied the Page 69 Test to The Mailman and reported the following:
For The Mailman, the Page 69 Test locates the narrative in media res with suggestions of secrets being kept and hints of drama to come.Visit Andrew Welsh-Huggins's website.
The top of the page finds my protagonist, freelance courier Mercury Carter, quizzing Glenn Vaughn, a passenger in Carter’s Chevy Suburban, about Glenn’s work for Xeneconn, an Indianapolis pharmaceutical company. Xeneconn has been in the news lately as it works on medication to treat addiction. Carter is struck by Glenn’s reluctance bordering on hostility to discuss his work.
Glenn interrupts Carter and asks him to clarify something Glenn overheard Carter say in a phone conversation a minute earlier about Chicago. Carter confirms the city is their destination and Glenn appears to suffer a panic attack. Glenn reveals that his teenage daughter, Abby, attends a private boarding school in Chicago.
“What if they…?” Glenn says as the page ends.
The backdrop for this conversation took place less than two hours earlier when Carter interrupted a home invasion at the suburban Indianapolis house that Glenn, an attorney, shares with his wife, Rachel Stanfield, also an attorney. In the seconds before Carter rang the doorbell with a delivery for Rachel, a four-person team led by an uncompromising brute called Finn was on the cusp of torturing Glenn and Rachel to pry information from them about a woman Rachel’s firm is in litigation with.
As Rachel begs for their lives, telling Finn she’s divulged all the information she has, Glenn blurts out that he has millions of dollars he can give the men. The revelation shocks Rachel even in the depths of her fear.
Carter has never missed a delivery and will do just about anything to keep that streak alive, a motto he unleashes when he realizes what’s going on inside Rachel and Glenn’s house, to the detriment of Finn and his gang. Despite Carter’s best efforts, however, Finn and company escape with Rachel as a hostage and head to Chicago. Unbeknownst to them, Carter—with Glenn in tow—is in close pursuit.
The plot of The Mailman is transparent from the start: can Carter rescue Rachel in time? Page 69 reveals layers of that dilemma and raises questions about how well Rachel and Glenn know each other, with their lives and their daughter’s life at stake.
My Book, The Movie: An Empty Grave.
Q&A with Andrew Welsh-Huggins.
The Page 69 Test: An Empty Grave.
Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins (April 2023).
My Book, The Movie: The End of the Road.
The Page 69 Test: The End of the Road.
Writers Read: Andrew Welsh-Huggins (November 2024).
My Book, The Movie: Sick to Death.
The Page 69 Test: Sick to Death.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
