"Curse of the Savoy"

Ron Base is a former newspaper and magazine journalist and movie critic. His works include twenty novels, two novellas and four non-fiction books. Base lives in Milton, Ontario. Prudence Emery worked as the press and public relations officer at the Savoy Hotel, and later as a publicist on more than a hundred film productions. She is also the author of the bestselling memoir Nanaimo Girl (2020).

Base tasked DCI Lightfoot from their Priscilla Tempest mystery series to apply the Page 69 Test to the latest installment, Curse of the Savoy, with the following results:

Detective Chief Inspector Robert Lightfoot of Scotland Yard here. I play a supporting role in the four Priscilla Tempest novels, usually accusing Miss Tempest of some misdeed or other.

I’ve been asked to take charge of the Page 69 Test investigation, the mystery surrounding it, particularly since it has been revealed that the originator of the test is none other than that famed Canadian philosopher, Marshall McLuhan. Mr. Ron Base, the co-author of the novels, reports to me that he once spent an evening with Mr. McLuhan listening to his thoughts on media theory. He is still scratching his head.

Finding my way to page 69 of Curse of the Savoy, the latest novel in the series, I soon discover that I am not mentioned. More’s the pity. I’m quite an interesting chap.

On page 69, the book’s heroine, Miss Tempest, is preoccupied with the recent murder of a well-known young British diplomat, a cad of the first order. I am the lead detective on that case and since Miss Tempest found the body, I regard her as a person of interest and highly suspicious.

Miss Tempest heads the press office at London’s iconic Savoy Hotel and is a member of the Gossip’s Bridle Club whose other members consist of three of London’s most famous theatrical figures—the renowned playwright Noël Coward and the actors Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud.

On page 69, the club has convened to discuss the gossip of the day—who is failing in a dreadful play, who is sleeping with whom, and, on this occasion, who might have murdered the diplomat.

My examination concludes that the page in question succeeds by throwing the reader into the heart of the novel’s mystery and provides insight into the character of our plucky heroine. Miss Tempest is young, lovely, prone to attracting the wrong men, and getting herself into the sort of trouble that convinces me she is up to no good.

I was pleased to see that the page also touches upon the plot that drives the novel—a mysterious curse involving a black cat, a dinner party hosted by the legendary filmmaker Orson Welles, and the movie star Cary Grant, who, it seems, is attracted to Miss Tempest.

Ah, but the mystery …What is it about the magic of page 69 that draws in readers?

That investigation is ongoing.

Visit Ron Base's website.

--Marshal Zeringue