good use writing historical mysteries. Beyond the page, Westbury teaches Latin and dreams of moving to an English village with crimes to solve.
She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies, and reported the following:
From page 69:Visit Kate Westbury's website.He and Ginevra Bishop were very different sorts of people, but both were broken, brittle creatures with shadows dusting their heels. She needed his help, and walking away from someone with a real need was impossible for him.Though it’s a historical mystery, Oxford Guide is very much a character-driven story, too. My two protagonists, Sidney and Ginevra, are an ex-serviceman and a debutante-turned-scholar, and their clashing partnership while working for MI5 encapsulates the lingering class divide that was breaking down in 1950s England. This particular page falls at the very end of Act I and highlights both Sidney’s struggles with his personal ghosts and the pull toward Ginevra that he’s resisting. The only thing that page doesn’t include that colors a good bit of the story is humor, but I think it’s still an excellent representation of the rest of the novel and tells a reader if they would enjoy spending time with these characters.
A maelstrom of defensive emotions swirled, but Sidney shunted them to the back of his mind. He knew he was more than capable of tracking down the informant, and the money would be useful, much as he was loath to admit it. A break from squeezing in odd jobs, from long nights studying to compensate. […] He would become the Rook’s ideal agent, compartmentalized and cold, and keep his contact with Ginevra Bishop professional and brief—which was best, as he didn’t have the time nor capacity to train her properly. Despite the Rook’s appreciation of her charm, Sidney still thought her dynamic personality would be hard to restrain when needed.
Sidney’s brooding, however, is only half the picture. Ginevra is his opposite in upbringing, taste, and temperament, but money doesn’t buy happiness. Her mother died while she was away at finishing school, her father is emotionally distant, and she’s fighting for a fulfilling life in a world that expects her to marry well and become a domestic ornament. She is buoyed by an irrepressible optimism and curiosity that makes her an excellent recruit for the Security Service, and also a first-rate thorn in Sidney’s side trying to work with her. This kind of opposites-thrown-together pairing makes for all kinds of natural comedy, but I think the best part of their relationship is the slow turn toward mutual understanding and respect that starts to blossom into something more.
Q&A with Kate Westbury.
--Marshal Zeringue
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