"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