"Whose Body in the Library"

Eva Gates, also known as Vicki Delany, is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than forty-five books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Catskill Summer Resort mysteries for Penguin Random House, the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane.

Delany is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards. Delany is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. She lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

The latest Lighthouse Library mystery is Whose Body in the Library, the thirteenth title in the series.

Delany applied the Page 69 Test to Whose Body in the Library and reported the following:

From page 69:

Loretta laughed. “Star Trek isn’t one of my Teddy’s areas of expertise, but it is mine. Were you named after the actress?”

“I was.”

“I heartily approve! It’s lovely to meet you. I hope you enjoy it here. I’ve lived in Nags Head my entire life, anything you need to know, I’m happy to help.”

“Everyone’s been so kind,” I said.

“We’ve come in for a reason,” Theodore said. “Apart from meeting Nichelle, of course. We find ourselves in need of your sage advice, Lucy. I insist Mother should go to the police, but she’s reluctant. She doesn’t want to bother them.”

“It isn’t bothering them if you have something they need to know,” Lucy said. “About what?”

“Brian Saunders. Mother knew him.”

That caught my attention. “Did you know him well, Loretta? How long for?”

“Not well, no, and not for long, and that’s why I don’t want to bother the police. We . . . met on one or two occasions, that’s all.”

Lucy lifted her hands. “My days of involving myself in police matters are over. I don’t have any advice, sage or not, to give, except that if Brian Saunders lived in Nags Head, which it seems he did, he would likely know a great many people. Do you know something in particular that might be relevant to his death?”

“No, I do not. And that is my point exactly,” Loretta said triumphantly. “See, Teddy, I told you so.”

Theodore looked as though he was about to argue, but before he could get another word out, the door opened, and a woman came in.

Whose Body in the Library is the thirteenth Lighthouse Library mystery by Eva Gates and it is an almost perfect example of the theory behind the Page 69 Test.

This book is a slight departure from the previous twelve books, as I’ve introduced a new librarian, Nichelle Gilcrest, and given long-time protagonist, Lucy McNeil, a break to take care of her new twin boys. Immediately when this page begins, we have someone commenting on Nichelle’s name. Nichelle says ‘everyone’s been so kind’ indicating that she’s new to the town and the library. Nichelle is presented in the first person POV, presenting her position as the new central character in the series. We also know from this page that the book is set in Nags Head.

Lucy appears in this scene, but as a third person POV character, rather than the first person she has always been before. Lucy clearly states that she is no longer going to be involved in solving mysteries. Thus clearly telling the reader, right here on page 69, what’s new and different about this book.

As well as establishing the new relationships, the mystery itself is hinted at. Who is Brian Saunders, what about his death interests them, and why does Mrs. Kowalski think she needs to talk to the police about him? Also, why does Nichelle care?

Follow Eva Gates on Facebook, and visit Vicki Delany's website.

The Page 69 Test: Death By Beach Read.

Writers Read: Eva Gates (June 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Death Knells and Wedding Bells.

Writers Read: Eva Gates (June 2023).

Writers Read: Eva Gates (May 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Stranger in the Library.

The Page 69 Test: Shot Through the Book.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Magician"

Tracy Lynne Oliver is a writer based in Los Angeles. She has been published online at a variety of places such as Medium, Fanzine, and Occulum. She co-authored the graphic novel, The Sacrifice of Darkness, with Roxane Gay. Her story, “This Weekend” was included in Best Microfiction 2019.

Her new book, Magician, is "dark magic debut novel featuring the Boy who becomes the Magician and the villainous Mother whose sadism might end it all."

Oliver applied the Page 69 Test to Magician with the following results::

From page 69:

Lesson learned, the Son stopped. Ignored the other’s throb against his inside. Swallowed its demanding. Halted all of it, making a sick inside him, offsetting his balance in how he grew in the world until many years faded the lesson and he began to bring small, again. Still afraid of the Mother, afraid of the other’s eager growing larger than he could contain, afraid if it spilled loose, it would take her from him. The Son kept it a marble inside his palm. It was very long before he became bolder, brought larger. The strength of his age skilled his command, and his new confidence matched with a post-child’s wisdom made the demonstrations less scary and easier confined. All of it still strong with secrecy, for buried underneath the passing of years; the scars of the lesson, ribboned and gouged.

My page 69 lends a small encapsulation of the first part of the novel. In this small paragraph it speaks about the Son swallowing his powers due to the fear of his Mother and how, with time and age, he brings that power forth once again, secretly. All of this tackled in the first quarter of the book. So, page 69 lends a shadowed glimpse at the whole, sort of like seeing the bottom half of a statue.

It also illustrates the way I use language in the book. You can tell by these mere 140 words, this novel will not read the same, sound the same, be processed the same as a standard novel.

Those two elements, together, I believe gives a good glimpse into the overall vibe of the book. A reader could be curious to want to find out….

“What was this lesson that scarred?”

“What is the otherness that he halted small until later, he brought it back?”

“Why the fear of the Mother?”

“What demonstrations did he bring later?”

“Why does this writing style feel weirdgood in my mindbrain? How else will she say things and how much (will) I want to take in that different?”

Visit Tracy Lynne Oliver's website.

Q&A with Tracy Lynne Oliver.

Writers Read: Tracy Lynne Oliver.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Twist in the River"

Stig Abell believes that discovering a crime fiction series to enjoy is one of the great pleasures in life. His first novel, Death Under A Little Sky, introduced Jake Jackson and his attempt to get away from his former life in the beautiful area around Little Sky, followed by Death in a Lonely Place, The Burial Place, and now A Twist in the River. Abell is absolutely delighted that there are more on the way. Away from books, he presents the breakfast show on Times Radio, a station he helped to launch in 2020. Before that he was a regular presenter on Radio 4’s Front Row and was the editor and publisher of the Times Literary Supplement. He lives in London with his wife, three children and two independent-minded cats called Boo and Ninja (his children named them, obviously).

Abell applied the Page 69 Test to A Twist in the River and reported the following:

I love the Page 69 Test. For A Twist in the River, it sort of works, at least from a plot point of view. In the novel, women are going missing from a wild stretch of British countryside and being found – unmarked – in the river. Our hero, Jake Jackson (the former detective, long-haired fugitive from the modern world) is drawn in, as are plenty of journalists and online influencers obsessed with true crime stories.

On page 69, we see Dani, the YouTuber, who wants to make her name by solving the case, and is willing to get close to Jake to help achieve that. Here she is archly flirting with him, in front of Jake’s pregnant fiancée, Livia, who is none too amused by it all (“I feel fat and loathsome, not at all helped at seeing you half-naked being felt up by that pasty Kardashian”).

The page captures the dynamic between Jake and Livia, and the forcefulness of Dani, who accidentally became one of my favourite characters in the novel. Jake and Livia’s relationship is at the heart of the whole series (A Twist in the River exists as a stand-alone murder mystery, but is the fourth Jake Jackson book), and an important part – I hope – of what keeps readers engaged. Who doesn’t love a love story?

The main thing missing from page 69 is a sense of the landscape. The countryside and the river are key characters in the book, and I’ve always relished the tactile feel of lingering descriptions of the bucolic setting that create much of the mood of the story.

So not a bad sample all in all. You can come for the sexual tension, then stay for the mystery and sense of fleeting beauty in an otherwise overcrowded world!

Follow Stig Abell on Instagram and Threads.

Q&A with Stig Abell.

The Page 69 Test: The Burial Place.

Writers Read: Stig Abell.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Lovers, the Liars, and Me"

DeAndra Davis is New York–born and Florida-bred. She’s a hopeless musical theater nerd (Wicked is definitely her favorite), a perpetual student and teacher, and always trailed by a kid or a dog because she has way too many of both. She has an opinion for everything, an argument ready, and a hug for everyone, and she thinks you should, too. She is the author of All the Noise at Once, winner of the William C. Morris Award for best young adult debut book, and The Lovers, the Liars, and Me.

Davis applied the Page 69 Test to The Lovers, the Liars, and Me and shared the following:

Page 69 of my book catches Jaliya just as she’s arrived in Jamaica and is video calling her father to check in. Two quotes really sum up the page. The first:

I chew at my lip, suddenly emotional at the sound of his voice. Seeing him makes me feel both better and worse. Have I done the right thing? I left him during my last summer before college to chase a ghost; plus my cousin hates me now.

And the second:

I can’t be totally honest with my dad, not when I’m already lying about why I’m here.

Would I say that this page is the absolute best representation of my book out of all the pages you could flip open to? Probably not. Do I believe it does capture some of the heart of my story very well? Yes!

On this page, we can see Jaliya’s mannerisms that represent her lack of confidence and her anxiety (the lip chewing), we understand how she misses her father, how she’s missing out on time with him to chase a mother that hasn’t proven herself to want Jaliya, how Jaliya’s cousin resents her for her absence over the years, and how she’s built the entire trip to Jamaica on lies and secrecy in order to attempt to find her mom who abandoned her—lying to the most important person in her life: her dad.

That’s a lot to get on one page. We understand, from this page, her hesitation, her regret, her character traits, and even the loss she feels, referring to searching for her mother as looking for a ghost.

So much of The Lovers, the Liars, and Me is about what everyone isn’t saying out loud, what people aren’t admitting, the ways people are searching for love and family wherever they can be. It’s about the characters overcoming themselves and sometimes others. It’s about them finding closure in whatever ways are available, even if it’s not the closure they expected. So, while page 69 may not be the absolute top-notch page to capture that, I still think it’s a darn good one.

Visit DeAndra Davis's website. She can be found on most socials @DeAndraWrites.

My Book, The Movie: The Lovers, the Liars, and Me.

Writers Read: DeAndra Davis.

Q&A with DeAndra Davis.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Shop Girl's Guide to Wooing a Lord"

Shana Galen is an award-winning writer and bestselling author of over fifty historical romances. Galen taught middle and high school English in Houston’s inner city for more than a decade. She is also dedicated to animal rescue and advocacy. She writes full-time, surrounded by four rescued cats and one spoiled rescue dog.

Galen applied the Page 69 Test to her new Regency romance, A Shop Girl's Guide to Wooing a Lord, with the following results:

From page 69:

"You're starving."

She looked at him, seemed to realize just how close they were, his arm about her waist, and tried to back away. "Steady now. Hold on to the table."

She grasped the table with a white-knuckled grip, and he stepped back, not wanting to crowd her. Still holding the edge of the table, she moved around it, putting the furnishing between them. "I am sorry about last night, Mr. Garret. Please don't call the magistrate."

Garret felt a zing of surprise shoot through him. "You know my name?"

"I beg your pardon. I forgot your surname. My head is fuzzy."

"Ye want this toast?" came a deep voice from the back room.

"Yes!" Garret called.

"No!" Miss Archer replied.

It turns out that page 69 is a perfect glimpse into A Shop Girl's Guide to Wooing a Lord. As the novel opens, Tamsin Archer is starving and desperate. She's also proud, as evidenced by her refusal to take offered food from the "deep voice in the back room," who happens to be a friend of hers. Garret, on the other hand, wants to save her. He wants her to be comfortable and safe and cared for. This page also hints that Tamsin knows more about him than he does about her. She knows his name, which indicates they have met before. Garret doesn't seem to remember the meeting, but even after fainting, Tamsin knows exactly who he is and where he stands in relation to her socially.

Page 69 only hints at the sexual tension between the two of them. This scene is in Garret's point-of-view, and he notes that Miss Archer comes to and realizes how close they are physically. We don't know what she's feeling, but presumably she knows physical contact with a person of the opposite sex is inappropriate for the time in which this book is set and she is uncomfortable with it. She immediately puts space between them, though that might also be because she is anticipating the need to escape. She asks him not to call the magistrate, indicating she has done something illegal that Garret knows about.

This is an ideal peek into the novel, and if it raises your interest, then this might be the book for you!

Visit Shana Galen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Every Lie I Told"

Hilary Davidson was a journalist before she turned to the dark side and started writing crime fiction. Her novels include the award-winning Lily Moore series —The Damage Done, The Next One to Fall, and Evil in All Its Disguises — the bestselling Shadows of New York series — One Small Sacrifice and Don’t Look Down — and the standalone novels Blood Always Tells and Her Last Breath. She is also the author of some fifty short stories. Her fiction has won two Anthony Awards, a Derringer Award, and a host of other accolades. Her novels have been translated into French, German, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, and Russian. Toronto born and raised, she moved to New York City in October 2001. She is also the author of eighteen nonfiction books.

Davidson applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Every Lie I Told, and reported the following:

From page 69:

Clicking through old stories about her only steeled my determination. There were glamour shots from her huge corner office at Mortenson Adder, where she was surrounded by fine art and priceless antiques. Vivi herself was the pearl in a gilded shell, a perfectly preserved fifty-something in a peach dress, with flowing blonde hair and a smooth, expressionless face.

I remembered the first time I’d been called to her office. It was a week after I started working at Mortenson Adder.

Oh, you’re the new hire? I’m Vivi. Rhymes with Mimi, she’d said. Have you fucked my husband yet?

The memory made my face hot and red. I was horrified and spluttered out a denial. Vivi’s words were much clearer in my mind.

You know, your body’s an eight but your face is a two. A Cleveland two. Erick definitely prefers a pretty face. Why on earth did he hire you?

The memory recalled by the novel’s narrator, Jackie Swift, is jarring in its bluntness. Vivi Adder is a spoiled socialite who's legendary for her cruelty. This brief interaction with Jackie reveals that beneath Vivi’s wealth and elegance lies something corrosive and predatory.

But the passage doesn’t just hint at Jackie’s past humiliation — it also provides part of her present-day motivation. It’s the psychological groundwork for Jackie’s decision to position Vivi as a suspect in a murder investigation. Jackie knows that her sister, Madi, is guilty of the murder in question, and while Jackie is loyal to her sister, this passage shows that she has her own axe to grind and old scores to settle. She doesn’t want to feed just anyone to the NYPD — she wants it to be her own enemy.

The irony is that Jackie knows full well that Vivi really is guilty of some terrible crimes. However, a draconian nondisclosure agreement and the money she’s been paid to keep quiet mean that Jackie can’t tell the NYPD what she actually does know. Instead, she needs to cast suspicion on Vivi in other ways. So Jackie’s lies about her can be viewed as justice or revenge, or some measure of both, depending on the angle you squint at it.

Jackie’s shameless amorality and willingness to sacrifice anything and (almost) anyone to her ambition lie at the heart of the book, and this passage highlights that perfectly.

Visit the official Hilary Davidson site.

The Page 69 Test: The Damage Done.

The Page 69 Test: Blood Always Tells.

The Page 69 Test: One Small Sacrifice.

Writers Read: Hilary Davidson (July 2019).

The Page 69 Test: Don't Look Down.

The Page 69 Test: Her Last Breath.

Q&A with Hilary Davidson.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Too Deep to Cross"

Kerri Hakoda has worked in and out of Alaska in advertising and marketing, marine transportation, cable television and trade magazine ad sales. She was born and raised in Hawaii, but now calls northwest Washington her home, where she lives with her husband (himself a veteran of the Alaska fishing industry) and writes mystery, historical, and young adult science fiction.

Hakoda applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Too Deep to Cross: A Thriller, and shared the following:

At first, I thought, “No way would page 69 give the reader a good idea of the whole book.” But then, on closer examination, it might be a good test. The top of page 69 is the last section of a flashback, where Beans (the protagonist) comes to an epiphany in his young life. The rest of the page is in present day, and is a conversation between Beans and his sister. It’s a brief summary of events to date, and acts as a contrast to the previous life-changing passage. I think if anything, it might prompt the browser to want to read further.

Visit Kerri Hakoda's website.

Writers Read: Kerri Hakoda.

Q&A with Kerri Hakoda.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sometime This Century"

Samantha Silva is an author and screenwriter based in Idaho. Over her career, she’s sold film projects to Paramount, Universal, and New Line Cinema. Sometime This Century is her third novel, following Love and Fury: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mr. Dickens and His Carol, her debut.

Silva applied the Page 69 Test to Sometime This Century with the following results:

From page 69:

“I’ve been through the whole downstairs,” Annabel told him. “I used blue sticky notes for the Hepplewhites, purple for anything else that might be valuable—for you to decide—and pink for the things that should definitely stay.” She put a hand on her heart. “Sentimental value…”

So begins page 69 of Sometime This Century in which Annabel Blake shows a Mr. Patterson from Sotheby’s around Kidlington House, the "crumbling old country pile” in England she’s tasked with sorting out for her boss. Annabel is explaining her system of sticky notes to indicate what she thinks may have the most value—the Hepplewhite furniture in particular—and should be sold at auction, and what has sentimental value and should stay. They’re both taken by a Hepplewhite settee that probably had a sister once. “Hard to keep sisters together all that time,” Mr. Patterson says. On cue, Annabel’s sister, Cassie, comes in and makes fun of their over-the-top enthusiasm for Hepplewhites, in other words, being such complete nerds.

I was nervous opening to page 69, taking it as a personal challenge. When I teach writing, I often say that at your most successful, the DNA of the whole, however subtle, should be in every scene, on every page. But it is very hard to do. So I was relieved that while the scene appears to be doing rather light-lifting for the set-up of the novel, it actually offers significant clues as to what lies ahead and what the novel’s all about.

The attentive reader turning to this page alone might note several things. That the novel is a comedy. That it’s about two sisters somewhat lost to each other. That it’s probably England in a big old country house. That Annabel loves the Regency period in every detail. That her sister Cassie has mostly contempt for it. That some furniture will be taken away (this could complicate things)! That right now Annabel will leave it Mr. Patterson to decide, but in fact, it could be a novel about what Annabel herself decides: what sentiment matters and what she values most.

Visit Samantha Silva's website.

Q&A with Samantha Silva.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Mad Dogs & Englishmen"

Alan Smale writes science fiction and fantasy. His novella of a Roman invasion of ancient America, "A Clash of Eagles," won the 2010 Sidewise Award for Alternate History. Clash of Eagles and Eagle in Exile are the first books in a trilogy set in the same universe.

Smale applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Mad Dogs & Englishmen, and reported the following:

As luck—or fate—would have it, page 69 of Mad Dogs & Englishmen works magnificently to give readers a good feel for the story. This is especially striking since Mad Dogs is a short novel (like all the other cryptid books in the Systema Paradoxa line), and so page 69 is over halfway through, when the climactic action has already begun. That makes it a little spoilery, but I’d challenge anyone to figure out how the story winds its way from page 1 to page 69 without actually reading the pages in between.

It also marks the beginning of a new chapter. So, as Chapter Twelve begins, my unfortunate protagonist Lindsey Ambler’s already terrible day is getting quite a bit worse as we get reveals of the principal mad dogs in question, both cryptid and human, all within the confined space of a cottage on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales:

The beast was over three feet tall at the shoulder and longer in proportion than a real dog would have been, and it was shaggy, hugely shaggy. But it was not the creature’s coat that drew the eyes first, but those thick, wide claws that now skated across the hardwood floors, leaving deep gouges before the animal braked to a stop. Next it was the great jaws, lined with thick, sharp teeth, in that long snout, and finally the blazing red eyes of the beast, bright with rage. The barghest appeared to fill the room.

Greta looked around at the sudden smashing sound and froze at the sight before her. The piano-wire garotte loosened around Lindsey’s neck and she gasped, sucking air in through a raw throat that still felt constricted. She rocked forward and her hands landed on Greta’s shoulders; had she not done so, she would surely have slid down to the ground.

Men of action, Briggs and Draken reacted far more swiftly, with Atkinson not far behind. Briggs raised his shotgun and fired, and again the crashing noise of the blast slammed into Lindsey’s ears, ratcheting up her sick headache to a new level.

Buckshot raked the barghest’s body, its multiple points of impact evident from the way his fur flew. The creature skidded and howled, its roar of pain almost as loud as the shotgun discharge.

From the floor in front of it, Draken leaned back, swinging the zombie knife, and the serrated blade raked across the barghest’s left foreleg.

Uncanny as the beast was, it was still living flesh and blood. Quite a lot of blood, as it turned out.

Lindsey tried to shove Greta away, but the smaller woman seemed to regain her senses. She raised her knee to pin Lindsey back against the wall and jerked again at the ends of the piano wire.

Phew. OMG. It’s all go, I tell ya.

As page 69 commences we’ve obviously already quite deep into the heat of battle, and stress, and pain, and very loud noises in a very small space, and so there’s a lot to unpack. But up until this point the tale has been very atmospheric, very character-driven, and the tension has ramped up gradually. It’s certainly not this breathless all the way through, thank the feral gods.

Mad Dogs & Englishmen was a labor of love rather than strategy. If I have an author “brand” it’s certainly alternate history rather than alternate zoology. But I couldn’t resist the opportunity to tell a thrilling tale set in the north of England where I grew up, with a landscape and people I feel a very strong affinity with, and featuring the type of mythical beast I’ve always been fascinated by, tossing in several handfuls of gritty British crime drama to spice it up. Writing Mad Dogs & Englishmen really felt very natural … which is perhaps a little scary in itself.

Visit Alan Smale's website.

The Page 69 Test: Clash of Eagles.

The Page 69 Test: Eagle in Exile.

The Page 69 Test: Eagle and Empire.

Writers Read: Alan Smale.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Treason of Magic"

Melissa Marr writes fiction for adults, teens, and children. Her books have been translated into 28 languages to date and been bestsellers in the US (NY Times, LA Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, etc) as well as various countries overseas. She is best known for the Wicked Lovely series for teens and Bunny Roo I Love You for children. She can be found in a kayak or trail with her wife.

Marr applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, A Treason of Magic, and shared the following:

My page 69 starts a new chapter in A Treason of Magic, so the top half of the page is a quote from folklore, Legends and Romances of Brittany by Lewis Spence [1917]. These epigraphs at each chapter ground the reader in the folklore that the character uses. I last did this in my debut novel, Wicked Lovely, which was originally published in 2007 and was reissued in 2025 (by HarperCollins both times).

After that quote, the start of Chapter 8 in A Treason of Magic captures an aspect of the character’s reality—being the Hunter of monsters means that she will be injured. On this occasion, she has defeated a faery/monster, but has been stabbed. This foreshadows more vicious attacks by the monster murdering travelers in her neighbouring area.

I slip inside the house when the morning is still new with a hush gesture to one of the attendants and tiptoe up the staircase. A shadow inside my room makes me pause, but the woman waiting for me is neither my mother nor sister.

“Clarissa?” I call for her, and like all of Maria’s trained healers, she is ready and waiting. A good Hunter cannot focus on the mission and family, so along with the maids and the like, we travel with a skilled physician. Softly, so as not to risk my voice carrying, I say, “I have need of you.”

“Where?” Clarissa’s gaze sweeps over me from where she waits just inside the doorway of the closet. Next to her is a table with bandages, a lit candle, a basin of water, and assorted cannisters.

This section is not just about the world and about the folklore, but also about another driving force for me in writing this book: injury as inevitability.

I have a chronic illness and heart disease, so medical factors are always something not far from my mind. In fiction, I include medical as a very matter-of-fact aspect of life rather than something to be dramatic over. In A Treason of Magic my protagonist, Gabrielle, lives her life expecting to need medical intervention. It simply is.

This page highlights folklore, setting, and a pragmatic approach to injury/illness. I think it’s reflective of my overall story, albeit also one of the slower pages in the overall story.

Visit Melissa Marr's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An Artful Dodge"

Karen Odden received her PhD in English from New York University and taught Victorian literature at UW-Milwaukee. She is the author of several crime novels set in 1870s London, including her award-winning USA Today bestselling debut, A Lady in the Smoke. Her work has been nominated for the Lefty, Anthony, Agatha, and Derringer Awards, and appeared in Best Mystery Stories of the Year.

Odden applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, An Artful Dodge, with the following results:

Page 69 falls in chapter 6, and the passage represents a conversation between Kit Jimeson, my 20-year-old heroine thief, and her sister Sarah, age 14, who is a scullery maid at a wealthy household in Mayfair. One night, as Sarah is leaving work, she spots two thugs from her crime-ridden neighborhood of Elephant and Castle and wonders, What are they doing here? The following day, the newspapers report a nearby Mayfair house was burglarized and two servants murdered. On this page, Kit is asking Sarah if there is any chance that the two men saw her. At first, Sarah insists they couldn’t have; then she admits she can’t be sure; they may have. Kit knows that if the two thugs believe Sarah witnessed them in Mayfair, they’ll kill her to silence her.

The Page 69 Test works amazingly well for An Artful Dodge! As the two sisters only have each other, Kit is always preoccupied with Sarah’s safety. Later in the book, Maggie, the new head of Kit’s thieving gang, kidnaps Sarah to force Kit to run a heist that is incredibly dangerous—but as we see on page 69, Kit’s concern is keeping her sister safe, so she takes on the heist … though not in the way Maggie intends. Furthermore, this conversation highlights other themes in the book—how we bring ourselves with us wherever we go and how London is vast yet interconnected. Sarah can leave seedy Elephant and Castle for wealthy Mayfair—literally, she crosses the River Thames—but her world is still with her.

The idea for this book began with my visit to the Great Scotland Yard Hotel in London, with a bar called “The Forty Elephants.” My daughter and I went in for a drink and a QR code on the table offered more information about the “Forty Elephants.” Of course I clicked. I learned the name referred to an all-women thieving gang that began in the 1870s in the Elephant and Castle neighborhood, south of the Thames, and that targeted the new West End department stores. I was instantly fascinated by this thieving ring and by the bonds that held these women together; was there honor among these thieves? I often feel my mystery plots are the clotheslines upon which I hang my current preoccupations; with this book, I wanted to explore relationships and loyalty among women, and this moment when these two sisters have a conversation with life-and-death implications is central to that concern.

Visit Karen Odden's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Karen Odden and Rosy.

The Page 69 Test: A Lady in the Smoke.

My Book, The Movie: A Lady in the Smoke.

My Book, The Movie: A Dangerous Duet.

The Page 69 Test: A Dangerous Duet.

Writers Read: Karen Odden (January 2020).

Q&A with Karen Odden.

My Book, The Movie: Down a Dark River.

The Page 69 Test: Down a Dark River.

My Book, The Movie: Under a Veiled Moon.

The Page 69 Test: Under a Veiled Moon.

Writers Read: Karen Odden (October 2022).

Writers Read: Karen Odden.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Valet"

J.P. Lacrampe received his MFA in creative writing from Saint Mary’s College. His short fiction has been published by Glimmer Train, McSweeney's, Instant City, and in Howl: A Collection of the Best Contemporary Dog Wit. He is a professor at Santa Clara University & SJSU, where he teaches courses in composition, fiction, and screenwriting.

Lacrampe applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Valet, and reported the following:

Page 69 in Valet drops the reader into the middle of a comedy of errors involving three androids of varying sophistication who are clumsily exchanging valuable information. It includes, of course, the narrator Cy, as well as the principal human character Grayson.

I'm not sure how well the Page 69 Test works for this book. A reader would definitely get a sense of the world (near-future, robots abound, etc.), as well as some of the satire. Most notably how -- much like humans -- robots judge themselves against others, even to the point of talking down the capabilities of those they believe are beneath them. So in those respects, the test works! But I don't think a reader would be able to gather much of the story from this single page (or any one page).

I get the logic of the test! It puts you far enough into the book -- the end of Act 1 or the beginning of Act 2, depending on the length of the story -- where many of the most important elements are set. Right into the middle of the action!

Visit J.P. Lacrampe's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Ishtar Deception"

James L. Cambias is a writer, a game designer, and the cofounder of Zygote Games. He has been nominated for the James Tiptree Jr. Award and the 2001 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

Cambias applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Ishtar Deception, and shared the following:

Page 69 of The Ishtar Deception might seem like an odd digression. It's part of a chapter-length flashback, taking place five millennia before the main action of the book. A group of shady characters are crossing the surface of Venus in an armored crawler, hoping to salvage some valuable ancient technology nobody else knows about. None of them trusts the others, and they're arguing about how much the prize could be worth and how much each of them should get. Superficially, none of this has much to do with the rest of the novel, which has a different cast of characters, and takes place thousands of years later in a completely different location on Venus — which has been completely transformed in the meantime.

So, no, readers would not get an accurate idea of what the book is about. But my page 69 is not irrelevant, either. Readers who have read all of my "Billion Worlds" stories might know my narrator Daslakh's personal history, but I wanted to give new readers a chance to learn about it. In the flashback we see Daslakh (under a different name) behaving pretty badly, giving the reader some understanding of why present-day Daslakh feels guilty about it. Also, some of the actions taken millennia earlier turn out to be of critical importance.

The section also lets me show how the planet Venus itself has changed between the two eras. In the flashback section Venus is basically the real planet as we understand it: a crushingly dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide, temperatures on the surface hot enough to melt lead, sulfuric acid clouds, and winds of deadly power.

Whereas by the time of the main narrative, Venus has been "cryoformed" by means of a giant sunshade, in order to freeze out all the carbon dioxide. The air is pure nitrogen — not breathable, but a lot more pleasant than "natural" Venus atmosphere. The temperature is about as cold as the surface of Mars. People can and do go out on the surface of future Venus with nothing more than oxygen tanks and warm clothing. It's more tolerable for humans and machines. As a result Venus has become tremendously important to the economy of the Solar System, which is what draws spies and secret agents like my protagonist Sabbath Okada there. He's initially investigating a suspicious death in the giant city of Ishtar, but that leads to a bigger plot, and . . . well, let's just say that in a novel called The Ishtar Deception, you should assume nothing is as it seems.

Visit James L. Cambias's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Darkling Sea.

Writers Read: James L. Cambias (January 2019).

My Book, The Movie: Arkad's World.

The Page 69 Test: Arkad's World.

My Book, The Movie: The Godel Operation.

Q&A with James L. Cambias.

The Page 69 Test: The Godel Operation.

The Page 69 Test: The Miranda Conspiracy.

My Book, The Movie: The Miranda Conspiracy.

Writers Read: James L. Cambias (February 2025).

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Architect"

John Katzenbach is the New York Times bestselling author of such novels as the Edgar Award-nominated In the Heat of the Summer, which was adapted for the screen as The Mean Season; The Traveler; Day of Reckoning; Just Cause and Hart's War, which were also made into movies; The Shadow Man, another Edgar nominee; State of Mind; The Analyst; and The Madman's Tale. Katzenbach has been a criminal court reporter for the Miami Herald and Miami News and a featured writer for the Herald's Tropic magazine.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Architect, with the following results:

Well, first off, this is what they say in Latin America is “complicado...”. Readers turning to that page in The Architect might get the right idea – if intrigue is what they’re hunting for. Here is what is on page 69: the architect of the book title gets her first assignment from her new employer. Instead of being explicit --each element of that assignment is a cryptic mystery.

The set-up of The Architect is this: A brilliant young woman graduating at the top of her architecture school class at a moment of personal stress and intensity – a mother that has suddenly disappeared and is seemingly dead and an ex-boyfriend who abruptly starts to stalk her -- is asked to design a memorial by an anonymous wealthy patron. It is the proverbial offer she cannot refuse. He gives her six names to investigate – people he alleges influenced his life profoundly. But as Sloane Connolly researches each name, she discovers that none were particularly worthy of memorializing. Instead of being valuable, they exhibited cruelty, betrayal, bullying, addictions and the sorts of routine evils that make us swallow hard and be grateful that those people aren’t in our lives. Despicable is more accurate, she learns, than saintly. The why of memorializing these names and the what did they do to her employer dominates her unsettled feelings.

And – adding to her unease – she learns each of the six died in unusual and undeniably savage fashions.

Her inquiries lead her into a twisted history, a whirlpool of danger --- where her own past is a major thread, and her life and her future are thrust on balance scales. What she doesn’t know about who she is puts her at great risk.

Page 69 exhibits a first step – one that is slippery and unsteady – but a stride that my character is determined to take. In a fashion, much is said on that page – but it is the undercurrent of what is being asked of young Sloane Connolly that creates the inherent tension in The Architect. What lies hidden beneath the surface is the heat that brings the story to explosion. And that is what is hinted at on page 69.

Like I said above, “complicado.”

But from the author’s perspective – essential.

Visit John Katzenbach's website.

My Book, The Movie: Red 1-2-3.

Writers Read: John Katzenbach (January 2014).

The Page 69 Test: Red 1-2-3.

Writers Read: John Katzenbach.

Q&A with John Katzenbach.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Hot Wings and Homicide"

Carmela Dutra is a Bay Area–based author who writes cozy mysteries with sharp banter, strong sibling bonds, and the vibrant food culture of Northern California’s most eclectic region. Her Food Truck Mystery Series blends culinary competition, small-town secrets, and humor-forward sleuthing, all rooted in the distinctly diverse rhythms of the Bay Area.

Dutra's debut novel, A Murder Most Fowl, received praise from Kirkus Reviews for its “serious set of crimes leavened by plenty of amusing moments,” and from Criminal Element for the “juicy reasoning behind the sabotage [that] was almost as shocking as the murder itself.” New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams called it “the perfect escapist read, brimming with banter and an extra helping of fun.” Dutra has also been featured in CrimeReads.

The second installment in the series, Hot Wings and Homicide, earned additional praise from Kirkus Reviews, which said, “Winner, winner, murder for dinner ... An entertaining mystery with amusing characters—including a pet chicken.” Further cementing the author’s voice in the cozy mystery space.

A frequent podcast guest and live-event panelist, Dutra has appeared on Bookish Flights, The Fiction Lounge, Cozy Crime Reads, and Bookshelf Odyssey, and has spoken at bookstores including Kepler’s Books & Magazines. She is known for her warm, engaging presence and her ability to connect with readers through humor, craft, and community.

Dutra lives in the Bay Area with her husband, two dinosaur-obsessed sons, and an assortment of over-cuddled pets. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found at a bookstore, a farmers’ market, or chasing the perfect chicken wing.

The author applied the Page 69 Test to Hot Wings and Homicide and reported the following:

From page 69:

"He ran 5Ks, ate kale salads, and drank those disgusting green smoothies that smelled like lawn clippings.”

“That was over three years ago,” Rylie reminds me.

“True.” I chew on my bottom lip. “I hate to admit it, but Brad didn’t let himself go after he dumped me. Which honestly feels like an extra slap in the face. Like, couldn’t he have gained fifty pounds or something?”

“At the very least, lost his hair,” she adds.

“It’s important to study all angles.” Seth says. “We have to consider the possibility that someone, maybe the person standing on the path, may have used the rock to kill him.” “Could the person I saw have found Brad, panicked, and fled for no other reason than fear of what they found?” I ask.

“It’s plausible,” he says. “Fear and flight are common reactions for many people.”

The thought of abandoning someone in need is inconceivable to me. Even if that person was my awful ex-boyfriend. My stomach churns with the question I can’t seem to answer.

Did Brad fall?

Did he hit his head?

Or did someone pick up a rock and swing?

Rylie finishes typing her notes. “There,” she says, as our phones ping simultaneously with a message. “Each of us has a copy of the Kluckin’ Clues list.”

“This isn’t your true-crime podcast,” Seth says. “This is a job for the police. My job is to handle things legally. Your job”—Seth shakes a hoof at us—“ is to let the police do theirs.”

Rylie and I share an eye roll.

She grabs a tumbler with our laughing chicken logo on it and pours herself lemonade. We rarely serve fresh drinks—bottles are easier—but Rylie convinced me that summer drinks like lemonade and iced tea would sell well. I caved and bought aftermarket drink dispensers for the festival. Who knows? If we land regular catering gigs, they could come in handy.

On page 69 of Hot Wings and Homicide, Beth Lloyd, her twin brother Seth, and her best friend Rylie are discussing the suspicious death of Beth’s ex-boyfriend, celebrity food critic Brad Dawson. The conversation jumps between murder theories and commentary about Brad’s irritatingly healthy lifestyle.

At one point Beth reflects:

“I hate to admit it, but Brad didn’t let himself go after he dumped me. Which honestly feels like an extra slap in the face. Like, couldn’t he have gained fifty pounds or something?”

Meanwhile, Seth tries to be the rational voice of reason while Beth and Rylie enthusiastically create a shared “Kluckin’ Clues” suspect list instead of leaving the investigation to the police.

I actually think page 69 gives readers a surprisingly accurate snapshot of the book as a whole. Hot Wings and Homicide is very much about the balance between humor and murder, and this page captures both. There’s speculation about whether Brad’s death was an accident or intentional, but there’s also sibling banter, sarcasm, food truck logistics, and Beth’s very complicated feelings about her ex. Most importantly, the page highlights the group dynamic at the center of the story. Beth tends to dive headfirst into trouble, Rylie fully enables her, and Seth desperately tries to keep everyone grounded in reality. That push and pull drives much of the humor throughout the book.

The page also quietly reflects something important about cozy mysteries in general: even in the middle of a murder investigation, everyday life continues. People still argue over lemonade dispensers, complain about exes, and make questionable decisions with their friends. That combination of danger, humor, and ordinary life is exactly the kind of story I love to write.

Visit Carmela Dutra's website.

Q&A with Carmela Dutra.

Writers Read: Carmela Dutra.

My Book, The Movie: Hot Wings and Homicide.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Roaring Ridleys"

K.M. Colley writes thrillers, contemporary mysteries, and cinematic stories that explore legacy and ambition. Her work often centers around powerful families, glamorous settings, and complex characters. Born in Mobile, Alabama, she’s currently based in Tampa and Philadelphia. When not writing or reading, Colley enjoys traveling, learning new languages, and building a creative legacy. She’s also passionate about raising her autistic daughter, who dreams of creating her own comic book one day.

Colley applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Roaring Ridleys, and shared the following:

Okay, I need to know what kind of sorcery this test is. Because, wow, oddly enough, it shows exactly the catalyst of it all. The man who is the reason their secrets could be exposed is remembered in the same gossip column that has brought them down. I absolutely love that the test fits perfectly for my debut! Page 69 is the first page in chapter 9, which follows the aftermath of the return of their annual summer party and the death of a famous gossip columnist.

Chapter 9

KAVITA RIDLEY

The Manhattan Herald
July 11, 1927
FAREWELL TO DALE CAIMEN

It is with our saddest regrets that we announce our beloved Dale Caimen passed away suddenly Saturday night. Dale has worked for The Manhattan Herald since he was in high school. He started as an intern, assisting anyone in need of help. It wasn't until he began his column, Metropolitan Musings, that he surprised New York City. People finally learned about social events and got a glimpse of life through the eyes of New York's elite. He had the wit to boot, along with charm and class, as he reported on goings-on from the city we all clambered to read first thing in the morning, before our first cup of coffee. Dale Caimen was adopted by the late Donald and Phoebe Caimen, leaving behind his legacy in his voice at the column.

His passing has shaken the Ridley family, as his unexpected death happened at Saturday's gala.

Readers will get a fantastic first impression of the book. If anything, they get the fast track pass straight into the juiciness of this story. It also gives Dale humanity, even though he is the source of pain for the Ridley siblings. I love how, on this page, the reader sees how eerily similar his background is to being adopted, just like them.

The Roaring Ridleys follows seven siblings who are adopted from around the world. They are thrust into the luxurious life of one of the wealthiest and most famous families in 1920s New York. Life isn't just filled with the privilege they are born into, but a world filled with secrets and danger that one of them feels is worth killing for.

Visit K.M. Colley’s website.

My Book, The Movie: The Roaring Ridleys.

Q&A with K.M. Colley.

--Marshal Zeringue

"This Isn’t New"

Cynthia Swanson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the psychological suspense novels The Bookseller, The Glass Forest, and Anyone But Her, and the new short story collection This Isn’t New: Women’s Historical Stories. Swanson was named 2025 Indie Author of the Year by the Indie Author Project, has received the Colorado Book Award (twice) and the WILLA Literary Award, won the Indie Author Project contest, and been a finalist for the High Plains Book Award, the WILLA Literary Award, and the CAL Award. She is also the editor of the award-winning anthology Denver Noir. She lives with her family in Denver.

Swanson applied the Page 69 Test to This Isn’t New with the following results:

Because This Isn’t New: Women's Historical Stories is a relatively short book (170 pages), page 69 is not quite halfway into the text. It’s part of a story called “The Unlived,” the fourth of nine in the collection. The scene on page 69 is toward the end of this story. Because I don’t want to give away the full story, I’ll summarize the situation: Claire, the main character in “The Unlived,” has an abortion in 1932. The procedure was illegal then in all of the United States, but Claire lives in Denver, which I learned via my research was at the time considered an “abortion capital of the country.” Claire also gets lucky: she’s given the name of a doctor who performs her procedure safely and she suffers few physical repercussions.

However, the event impacts her emotionally for the rest of her life. On page 69, it’s fifteen years later, and Claire reads an article in the newspaper titled “Smashing Denver’s Abortion Racket!” (This is an actual article that I found via my research.) Claire wonders, as she reads the article, if the chief investigator in the case asked the women who were given procedures by the arrested doctors what their stories were—why each woman sought an abortion in the first place.

Is this a good test of the entire book? I think it is. The intent of This Isn’t New is to demonstrate, via the power of storytelling, that many of the same things women fight for today, many of the same issues they face, have been happening throughout time. While I’m sensitive to the fact that not everyone believes abortion should be legal, my personal view is that people deserve the right to control their own bodies. This is an issue that has, in my opinion, taken a backslide in recent years. Are we in the same space that Claire was in 1932? Not completely, but Claire chose abortion for medical reasons, and women today in many parts of the country face the same challenge. They either have to go elsewhere for an abortion or carry on with their pregnancies, regardless of risks.

“The Unlived” is one of nine stories in the collection. While it’s mostly about Claire and what she experiences, the story is indicative of the collection as a whole. Each of the stories features a different woman, in a different era, facing a particular challenge. By highlighting stories spanning more than a century, my intent with This Isn’t New is to provide, via a storytelling lens, a view into women’s challenges historically and how they relate to today’s world.

Visit Cynthia Swanson's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Bookseller.

The Page 69 Test: The Glass Forest.

Writers Read: Cynthia Swanson (February 2018).

Q&A with Cynthia Swanson.

The Page 69 Test: Anyone But Her.

My Book, The Movie: This Isn't New.

Writers Read: Cynthia Swanson.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine"

Robert J. Sawyer -- "the dean of Canadian science fiction," according to the CBC, and a Globe and Mail and Maclean's bestseller -- is the only Canadian to have won all three of the world's top awards for best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. A member of both The Order of Canada and The Order of Ontario, Sawyer has won more Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards ("Auroras") than anyone else in history.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine, and reported the following:

Here’s page 69 of The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine in its entirety. The first character speaking is cosmonaut Mikhail Sidorov. He’s talking to Roscoe Koudoulian, mayor of their small community of postapocalyptic survivors in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Roscoe has fractured his spine in an accident that also killed a woman named Marie. The other speaker, Chang, is the only medical doctor left alive on Earth.

The Russian looked at me, beaming. “So you can download!”

Download? That didn’t make any sense — I was already in the real world. “Pardon?” I said.

Mikhail was excited, even for him. “You can do same as I have done! Download into another body!”

What in hell was he proposing? Killing one of the Mennonite men — who I guess he figured would be dead soon anyway — so I could appropriate the corpse? “Jesus, Mikhail,” I said. “I can’t do that.”

“You can!” he insisted. “Marie’s body is right here!”

The idea stunned me. My wonderful Marie was dead, but apparently the Martian technology had indeed restarted her heart, so she was more or less now on the equivalent of life support.

“Would … would her legs heal?” I asked, very aware that my own ones would never work again.

Chang frowned, considering. “If someone downloaded into her body, you mean? It’d take time, but sure.”

“And internal injuries?” demanded Mikhail, moving back to scrutinize her bio-scanner.

Chang nodded slowly. “They’d heal, too.”

“So you see!” the Russian crowed.

My head was pounding. Yes, it was true that Mikhail had adapted to a different body, but … but it had been Valentina’s discarded male body. And, yes, I’d fallen in love with a trans woman once, but I had no desire to be trans myself. “No,” I said. “That’s not …” I trailed off, but then, after a moment, I simply said, “No” again.

Mikhail looked shocked, but eventually he nodded, accepting my decision. “Still,” he said softly, “body of Marie should not go to waste.”

“It won’t,” said Chang, almost gleefully. “I’ll harvest her organs and tissues. The ark has liquid nitrogen for cooling its reactor; I can siphon some off to cryopreserve the organs until they’re needed.”

The Downloaded, my twenty-fifth novel, came out as an Audible Original in 2023, followed by print and ebook editions in 2024. It ended up being a big hit for Audible, peaking at #1 on their science-fiction bestsellers list (and #5 for all fiction titles store-wide). The print edition did just fine, too, getting a starred review in Publishers Weekly (denoting a book of exceptional merit) in the US, being named one of the month’s best SF novels by New Scientist in the UK, and hitting several bestsellers lists in my native Canada, including #1 for both the Calgary Herald and the Hamilton Review of Books.

And so Audible commissioned a sequel from me. Only problem was, I’d done everything I could to wrap up almost all the storylines in the original, including tacking on an epilogue set centuries in the future. Not only had I never intended to write a follow-up, but I had to rack my brain for weeks to even come up with a notion for one. But in the end, I did, and I think this second volume, The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine, is even better than the first.

Academy Award-winner Brendan Fraser had narrated the original The Downloaded along with Dora Award-winning Broadway actress Vanessa Sears, and we got them both back into the recording studio for the sequel; it was pure joy sitting in on their sessions and hearing such talented performers bring my words to life. Brendan again read the part of Mayor Roscoe Koudoulian (named after my friend Greg Koudoulian, who chronicles genre history, including that of San Diego Comic-Con), and Vanessa, who is currently starring as Juliet in the Toronto production of the hit musical & Juliet, and who sang the Canadian and US national anthems at the 2026 Toronto Blue Jays opening baseball game, returned to voice starship captain Letitia Garvey.

In October 2025, two years after the original came out, The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine dropped on Audible, and the print and ebook editions were published on May 19, 2026. And, speaking of the print edition, how representative of the whole thing is its sixty-ninth page?

Actually, I couldn’t have asked for a better teaser for what’s to come! See, the original The Downloaded dealt with people who’d had their consciousnesses uploaded for centuries finally decanting back into physical bodies on Earth. One of them, an astronaut, had transitioned in cyberspace from male to female, and she was traumatized when she was forcibly downloaded back into her original male body. Nonetheless, she and Roscoe fell in love — and their story was the one thing left unresolved in the original. Readers and listeners had been clamoring for me to provide a suitable conclusion to their star-crossed romance, something I finally get to do here in The Downloaded 2.

When I conceived the original The Downloaded in 2020, the rights of trans people were finally being respected in much of the United States and the rest of the world. But by the time I was writing The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine, Donald Trump was once again president of the United States, and those rights are being heartlessly clawed back. And so what started as a simple love story has ended up being part of the resistance … and I’m very proud of that.

Visit Robert J. Sawyer's website.

The Page 69 Test: WWW: Wake.

The Page 69 Test: WWW: Watch.

The Page 69 Test: WWW: Wonder.

The Page 69 Test: Triggers.

The Page 69 Test: Red Planet Blues.

The Page 69 Test: Quantum Night.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Crossing the Bronx"

David Hirshberg is the pseudonym for a biotech executive who prefers to keep his business activities separate from his writing endeavors. He adopted the first name of his father-in-law and the last name of his maternal grandfather as a tribute to their impact on his life.He is the author of two previous novels, My Mother's Son and Jacobo's Rainbow, each of which has won multiple awards. In addition, he has published four short stories and written the introduction for a nonfiction book. Hirshberg holds an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He lives with his wife and two dogs in Westchester County, New York.

Hirshberg applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Crossing the Bronx, and shared the following:

From page 69:

Nicky picked up street English within a few months and proper English at school, where his foreignness was offset by the fluent French that his family spoke at home. He’d never been taught Arabic, a sign that his parents had already made the decision to abandon Lebanon and head west, literally and figuratively. He excelled at school to such an extent that he was able to enroll at Columbia, a finishing school of a sort that gave him the wherewithal to navigate through and around a different class of people—a trait that would serve him well when he became a thread in the fabric of upper-crust New York life. Nicky was as much at home at the fish market, the Arthur Avenue clubs, ball parks, subways, newsstands, and shoe shine parlors as he was at the Fifth Avenue mansions, exclusive clubs on the upper east side, and private offices of the leading Catholic clergy within the five boroughs.

Eric recounted Nicky’s description of how the construction scheme unfolded in detail; here’s how I remembered what he told me. Nicky entered the office of Billy O’Boyle, the director of the Department of Buildings, despite not having an appointment after being waved in by the secretary once the intercom squawked, “Okay, send him on in.” Billy was close to sixty, yet never used William, preferring the name his mother used, an acknowledgment that her youngest was still her little boy. The pleasantries went on for longer than Nicky preferred. He wanted to get down to “bidnez,” yet he understood that to interrupt Billy would deprive him of the pride he felt being solicited by a personality as famous as Nicky Shark. So, Nicky played the game, remarking on the lovely photos of Billy’s family, knowing full well that Billy dipped his stick in Asian sauce, habituating Chinese whorehouses at noon while telling his staff he was going out to get something to eat in Chinatown—a double-entendre that he shared with his drinking buddies. It was through one of them that Nicky first got the tip and then the photos, which was the reason he knew he could always get a meeting with Billy even without having scheduled it in advance. Nicky signaled to Billy that it was time to talk about buildings issues by making a pretend camera with both of his hands and moving his right index finger up and down to resemble the clicking that would indicate a photo had been taken. I practically memorized the back and forth between Nicky and Billy that Eric told me, recalling it from how Nicky mentioned it to my father…

In a nutshell, the Page 69 Test works well as it pertains to the style, tone, and intrigue of the novel, which is set in the mid-nineteen fifties in New York, when certain ethnic groups dominated particular industries, such as the Italians in construction, the Irish in the police force and bureaucracy of city government, and the Jews in retail establishments. The language reflects how representatives of groups speak in terms of vocabulary, colloquialisms, and off-color remarks. The tête-à-tête interaction of a Lebanese social-climbing immigrant of Greek origin with an Irish immigrant head of the buildings department presages hints, feints, and misdirections that are characteristic of how the novel is constructed.

Page 69 includes two minor characters—Nicky Shark and Billy O’Boyle. But the way the novel is set up, minor characters can have a major impact on the story. Nicky Shark is the ‘Inquiring Fotographer’ for the New York Mirror, a character whose photos have caught many prominent New Yorkers in compromising positions, and thus is able to squeeze his marks for cash and favors. He is also on the payroll of Alberto (2-Cig) Giaquinto, the mobbed-up boss of a construction company which has managed to win the bid on the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway (and, by definition, the firm that is going to tear down the middle of the Tremont section of The Bronx to make room for the highway). So, Nicky Shark showing up at the office of the head of the Department of Buildings is a ‘tell’ that something is up…and not on the up-and-up.

Billy O’Boyle represents the down-to-earth fellow who climbed the ladder slowly, step-by-step, by dint of hard work, his immigrant working class roots still embedded in his clothes and manner of speaking. However, his peccadillos open him up to manipulation by Nicky Shark, who was sent to his office to make sure that the decision to construct the Cross Bronx Expressway is through the route that 2-Cig knows will benefit the mob and the city officials who depend on the cash from bloated contracts to fuel their political campaigns. In the end, Billy O’Boyle knows he will bend the knee, as he is simply the pawn in a game that he knows he can’t win.

The pages that immediately follow number 69 show Billy folding his cards, and Nicky getting the information he needs to make sure the illicit scheme that is being cooked up is set in motion.

Forty one minor characters support the architecture of the novel, bringing their different ethnicities, eccentricities, and personalities in supportive, but critical roles, which illustrate the makeup of the city and how it works.

Visit David Hirshberg's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Foursome"

Christina Baker Kline is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including Orphan Train, The Exiles, Please Don’t Lie (with Anne Burt), and the newly released The Foursome. Published in more than forty countries, her novels have received the New England Prize for Fiction, the Maine Literary Award, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Award, among others, and have been chosen by hundreds of communities, schools, and universities as “One Book” selections.

Kline applied the Page 69 Test to The Foursome with the following results:

Page 69 of my new novel The Foursome contains only a few lines of dialogue, but it cuts straight to the heart of the novel.

Sallie Yates is on the porch with her father, who is trying to dissuade her from marrying Eng Bunker, one of the world-famous conjoined twins. He wants her to choose an easier life, or at least a more conventional one. Her sister Addie is already entangled in the same extraordinary arrangement with Eng’s brother, Chang.

Their father has tried reason, tried offering alternatives — a trip to Charleston, the promise of a "normal" young man with prospects. Now he's out of strategies, and what surfaces instead is something more honest: his thoughts about his own flawed marriage. When Sallie questions him, he answers, “Happiness is relative, Sallie. I sought security. Respectability. I have those things.”

That sentence could stand as one of the novel’s central questions. What do people choose freely, and what do they accept because the world has narrowed around them? What is the difference between love, duty, ambition, and accommodation? In nineteenth-century North Carolina, especially for women, marriage was rarely a simple matter of the heart. It was bound up with property, family reputation, social standing, and survival.

Page 69 doesn’t show anything about the spectacle surrounding Chang and Eng, or the sweep of the Civil War years to come. It is an intimate scene, a father warning his daughter against a life he cannot imagine, even as his own life has been shaped by compromise. “The road you’re considering – I fear where it leads,” he tells her.

He’s not entirely wrong. But neither is Sallie.

She hasn't said yes to anything yet. She's still in the space between curiosity and commitment. Her father's warning isn't villainous or unreasonable — it comes from love, and from his own experience of settling. But it also reveals the limits of his imagination. He cannot conceive of a life outside the narrow bounds of what their community considers acceptable.

The Foursome lives in these charged, quiet moments: two people on a porch, not quite saying what they mean, the real conversation happening underneath the words. The novel spans five decades, but its engine is the small negotiations of loyalty, desire, and self-knowledge that happen inside families, behind closed doors, in the silence between what's spoken aloud and what's left unsaid.

Visit Christina Baker Kline's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Christina Baker Kline & Lucy.

The Page 69 Test: Bird in Hand.

Writers Read: Christina Baker Kline (March 2017).

--Marshal Zeringue