"My Best French Wedding"

Amanda Sellet (pronounced Sell-ay) is a former journalist who has written book reviews for The Washington Post, personal essays for NPR, and music and movie coverage for VH1. She has an M.A. in Cinema Studies from NYU. After a mostly coastal childhood, she now lives in Kansas with her husband, daughter, and cats.

Sellet applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, My Best French Wedding, and shared the following:

Page 69 of My Best French Wedding opens a new chapter, so we get important information even before the first line.

As the banner held aloft by a pair of doves informs us, this is a “Now” scene, narrated by Hildy, one of the dual (and dueling) POV characters. More specifically—since the book’s alternating timelines run in opposite directions, and there is a lot of jumping around—the action takes place one week before the epic destination wedding referenced in the title.

Finally, we see a newspaper-style dateline (TAMNIÈS, France—) as both a clue to the current location in the glorious French countryside and a nod to the fact that our main characters are rival journalists, since the story is a loose retelling of the classic screwball comedy His Girl Friday.

After the reader has (hopefully!) digested all that context, we dive straight into the scene, featuring Hildy and her wisecracking sidekick:

“Do you think I’m being punished?” Hildy asked Corinne. She’d already given a blow- by-blow account of her confrontation with Walter and his new girlfriend, during which Corinne had remained surprisingly calm. Hildy suspected it had something to do with the two-hour massage that had left the hotel room smelling like a field of lavender.

“Let’s not make it more than it is.” Corinne sipped her detoxifying lemon water. She’d turned down Hildy’s offer of wine on the grounds that she planned to drink her body weight in rosé tonight.

That was the theme of this evening’s welcome party: Roses and Rosé. Hildy had been planning to repaint her nails a delicate pink, but the bloody red she was currently rocking seemed more fitting under the circumstances. The goal was warrior queen, not bubblegum princess. Which Corinne would understand if she hadn’t had all the stress pounded out of her.

“Walter being here is not a small thing,” Hildy argued. “It’s an outrage. How dare he pull a stunt like that?”

Corinne rubbed more lotion into the back of her hand. “A wedding reporter chasing the biggest wedding of the year? Shocking.”

What does this scene tell us? Beyond the set dressing (luxury, French delicacies, and a wedding celebration stretching far beyond the standard ceremony and reception), we glimpse two key pieces of Hildy’s personality: she cares deeply about her image, and she’s always obsessing over Walter Burns, her alleged nemesis.

Corinne, by contrast, is deliberately blasé, and has been calling out Hildy’s exaggerations and histrionics since they met a decade ago. Her deadpan reactions are one of my favorite parts of the book, though it’s not until the next page that she gets in one of her best zingers, about “how hard it is for some people to tell the difference between destiny and dysfunction. They have so many of the same letters.”

So yes, this is a very representative sampling of the whole. The place, the premise, the people, and the eternal question of destiny vs. dysfunction are all there on page 69 of My Best French Wedding.

Visit Amanda Sellet's website.

Q&A with Amanda Sellet.

The Page 69 Test: By the Book.

Writers Read: Amanda Sellet (December 2022).

Writers Read: Amanda Sellet (August 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Odds of Getting Even.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Thousand Painted Hours"

Barbara O’Neal is the author of more than a dozen award-winning, bestselling novels, including the runaway bestseller, When We Believed in Mermaids, which has been published in 21 countries and spent many months on both the most sold and most read Amazon Charts, as well as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller lists. O’Neal is an avid traveler and passionate cook, and discovered the Oregon coast on a pandemic-era trip with her husband. She now lives on that rocky, moody coast in a quirky beach house and writes her books from a room overlooking the sea. She lives with her British husband, who has promised to never lose his accent, and their cats and dogs.

O’Neal applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, A Thousand Painted Hours, and reported the following:

Page 69 of my book is a divider. It reads "Bread, Vinegar, And Runner Beans." 1940 London.

I suppose it give a little whiff of the story, but not very much.

I will say it goes to the fascination I felt over the way people fed themselves in wartime London. Who knew, for example, that you could make more vinegar with vinegar? A useful trick. Elsie is trying to keep her ill mother as healthy as possible on rations that were quite slim, so she supplements with a garden ("it was a very good year for carrots") and trades with neighbors. A friend keeps hens, so she has the glory of extra eggs. Everyone in London was quite thin by the time it was all over.

Visit Barbara O'Neal's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Thousand Painted Hours.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Where There’s Smoke…"

E.J. Copperman is the nom de plume for Jeff Cohen, writer of intentionally funny murder mysteries. As E.J., he is the author of the Haunted Guest house series, the Agent to the Paws series and the Jersey Girl Legal mysteries, as well as the Fran and Ken Stein mysteries. As Jeff, he is the author of the Double Feature and Aaron Tucker series; and he collaborates with himself on the Samuel Hoenig Asperger's mysteries.

Copperman applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Where There’s Smoke…, with the following results:

I’ve done this test a few times now, and I’m struck by the realization that page 69 in my books tends to be the dullest, most plot-driven page in the whole enterprise. I should have picked another page.

In this case, the book in question is Where There’s Smoke…, the second book in the Haunted Paint Store mystery series. By this point in the story, Laura Meehan, who owns the paint (and wallpaper) store in question, is dealing with a situation that doesn’t involve choosing just the right color. The local library, a place that Laura considers her personal sanctuary from the days when she was growing up in town, has suffered some damage in a fire that is, at least, suspicious. She feels personally insulted.

So Laura, whose deceased father is currently occupying the office in her store (she inherited it from him and he doesn’t let go easily), goes to a meeting of the library board at which it is promised news about the library’s restoration and a possible target date for its reopening will be discussed.

Now, just because I said it might be the dullest page in the book, I do not encourage you to skip page 69. For one thing, I try to make every page entertaining, so even the dullest one should have something to recommend it. But also, there is story information being given here that you’ll need for page 70 and the rest.

Visit E. J. Copperman's website and Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: The Thrill of the Haunt.

Writers Read: E. J. Copperman (November 2013).

The Page 69 Test: The Thrill of the Haunt.

My Book, The Movie: Ukulele of Death.

The Page 69 Test: Ukulele of Death.

Q&A with E. J. Copperman.

The Page 69 Test: Same Difference.

Writers Read: E. J. Copperman (February 2025).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Breathing Under Water"

Jacqueline Friedland is the USA Today and Amazon bestselling author of both historical and contemporary women’s fiction. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and NYU Law School, she practiced as a commercial litigator for as long as she could stand it. She then returned to school to earn her Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College and has been writing ever since.

Friedland’s books have been awarded the 2020 and 2021 gold medals in fiction from Readers’ Favorite. Her novels have also been named the 2021 Kirkus Reviews Best Indie Book of the Year, the SheReads Best Book Club Pick of 2021, and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association Star finalist for 2022. She regularly reviews fiction for trade publications and appears at schools and other locations as a guest lecturer.

Friedland lives in Westchester, New York with her husband, four children, and two dogs.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Breathing Under Water, and shared the following:

On page 69 of Breathing Under Water, one of the main characters, Berry, is just getting home from work. She works as an assistant principal at a fancy prep school, and she's vying for promotion. One of her challenges is that her sixteen-year-old son, Leo, is on the spectrum, and she's worried that she doesn't have time to take on a more demanding role at work. As she gets home on page 69, she's thinking about Leo's older brother Harrison and how the family is always asking Harrison to pinch hit and help with Leo one way or another. Berry doesn't want to keep putting so many requests on her older son. But taking on the new position might require Berry to rely more on her other family members for help with Leo. The remainder of the page is about Berry's internal conflict over whether she could handle the job of principal and how badly she wants it.

Do we find out the main themes of the story from looking at page 69?

If this book were entirely about Berry, the answer would be yes. She is a mother who has struggled with the question of how to best raise each of her very different sons. She has a job she loves, but juggling it with her complicated home life has always been tough. You see all of that on page 69. However, the book has another main character, McKenna, who narrates several of the chapters. She's a college athlete with many challenges of her own. During the story, she gets framed for something she didn't do, and she's at risk of losing everything. McKenna's chapters are very focused on the unreasonable demands on college athletes, friendship, and ambition. What connects Berry and McKenna is Leo. I would say you get the gist of about fifty percent of the relevant story by looking at page 69.

Visit Jacqueline Friedland's website.

Writers Read: Jacqueline Friedland.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Where Her Secrets Lie"

Katie Tallo has more than three decades of experience as an award-winning screenwriter and director. After winning an international novel contest, she began writing mystery thrillers. In 2020, her debut thriller, Dark August, was an instant bestseller, earning acclaim as a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and an Apple Book of the Month. It also made the Globe 100 list. Since then, Tallo has written two more novels in the critically acclaimed Gus Monet trilogy including Poison Lilies and Buried Road. Her first standalone crime thriller, Where Her Secrets Lie, comes out August 2026 and her next thriller, The Last Villa, comes out in June 2027. Tallo lives with her husband in Ottawa where she is currently cooking up her next novel.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Where Her Secrets Lie and reported the following:

If you were to open my book to page 69, you might not understand everything about the novel’s plot but you would be dropped into the middle of Lenny’s trauma as she sits at a bar with her friend ruminating on the death of her daughter over a pint. They talk of the unsolved murder, the abusive relationship her daughter was involved in, and the feeling of helplessness that Lenny has because she didn’t do more to prevent the tragedy. The past swirls around them, permeating Lenny’s conversation and signalling that something has happened in her present to bring the past roaring back. That page is really a reflection of what the entire novel is about—the past seeping into this woman’s daily life and forcing her to come to terms with secrets she long ago buried—literally in her back yard.

Visit Katie Tallo's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dark August.

Q&A with Katie Tallo.

Writers Read: Katie Tallo (June 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Buried Road.

Writers Read: Katie Tallo (December 2024).

My Book, The Movie: Where Her Secrets Lie.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Killing Sadie"

Rachel Peterson graduated from Miami University of Ohio with a degree in English and creative writing. Born and raised in Ohio, she started her career in advertising before spending nearly a decade in New York City as a marketing executive for technology companies. An avid traveler, Peterson now splits her time between Manhattan and the Midwest, where she lives with her husband, Ken; their dog, Olive; and horse, Hope.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Killing Sadie, with the following results:

While the Page 69 Test is new to me as an author and reader, I think it holds a lot of truth for Killing Sadie. My writing style is very stream of conscious, with our cast of unreliable teen narrators constantly surprising me! That means I was honestly curious where page 69 might take us in this twisty thriller … okay, here we go!

Flipping to page 69 of Killing Sadie, we find ourselves in the middle of a flashback before the murder from bestie Liz. The page features an exchange between Sadie and her twin sister Jayne talking about the upcoming McClain family barn party – the party where everything happens – and Liz hints (via internal dialogue) at the biggest mistake she ever made from her party girl days. Murder? Maybe.

Jayne shares a haunting, deliciously foreboding line just after agreeing to cover for Sadie and Liz so they can go to the party:

“What are sisters for? I swear to God, though, you’d better not do anything too crazy tonight. I don’t mind covering for you, but it’s a lot easier if things stay chill at Trevor’s.”

I let out a short laugh.

“Something funny?” Jayne asks.

“No, it just … Come on, when has anything about Trevor’s ever been chill?”

I will say, giving credit to Marshall McLuhan and his Page 69 Test, that this page does give readers a good idea of Killing Sadie, but I think moreover, makes us crave the page turn to 70, which is even better!

Visit Rachel Peterson's website.

My Book, The Movie: Killing Sadie.

Writers Read: Rachel Peterson.

Q&A with Rachel Peterson.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Clean Slate"

Brianna Labuskes is the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Lies You Wrote, The Truth You Told, and By the Time You Read This in the Raisa Susanto series; See It End, What Can’t Be Seen, and A Familiar Sight in the Dr. Gretchen White series; and Her Beautiful Life, Her Final Words, Black Rock Bay, Girls of Glass, and It Ends with Her.

Labuskes applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Clean Slate, and shared the following:

From page 69:

Anthony Last had grown up in the old building and then volunteered there when he graduated from college. Sometime not long after that, the PTCC nearly shut down for good.

Then Cutter Sutton, one of Atlanta’s wealthiest businessmen and Anthony’s childhood friend, stepped forward. He’d donated an obscene amount of money that had gotten his name into the official title—even though everyone still called it the PTCC. And while he deserved plenty of credit, it still felt like it had been Anthony Last who had saved the place.

I was thankful to both of them. Even on my mother’s best days, she’d been difficult to live with. She only had those “best days” because all her strict rules and regulations were in place in our house. My mother’s anxiety dictated my wardrobe, my hygiene, my diet. My life.

I did everything I could to kill most of my days at places like the PT-Dub or Leah’s house. Maybe the library, in a pinch, though I hadn’t been a big reader. Still, the ladies there had been nice and hadn’t kicked me out. They seemed to sense I needed a place to escape to. I made a point to volunteer my cleaning services for them at least once a year now.

The PTCC didn’t need that from me—the kids were all given chores so that they would feel a sense of responsibility for the place—but I did pitch in for special events and volunteer days when I could.

The staff loved both Leah and me for that reason, which was why Mrs. Spencer beamed when we stopped by the front desk.

“My girls,” she said. I was pretty sure she’d had thousands of “my girls” over her lifetime behind that counter, but Leah and I told ourselves we were actually special to her.

“Mrs. S, do you remember a girl named Jessie Hayes?” I asked after the requisite small talk.

“Oh, yes.” Mrs. Spencer’s friendly expression darkened into a deep frown. “Poor girl.”

“I’ve heard,” I murmured. “I don’t remember meeting her, though the name rang a distant bell.”

My mind was a little blown by how well the Page 69 Test worked. I believed in the secret magic that spawned the fun idea in the first place, but not to this extent.

Clean Slate’s mystery revolves around billionaire Cutter Sutton who is linked to the main character Olive Hunt through his childhood friendship with Anthony Last, her father figure. Within two sentences on page 69, the reader is clued in on that complicated dynamic central to the plot. It goes on to explain the connection all three of them have to the Peach Tree Community Center, another central piece of the mystery.

In thinking about her connection to the PTCC, Olive also reveals her background. While it doesn’t explicitly mention that her mother has contamination OCD, it does give enough of a sense of her childhood that the reader can immediately understand she was spending her time avoiding an abusive mother with an anxiety-related disorder.

The page then goes on to make clear just how tight Olive’s relationship with Leah is—a concept that is central to not just this book but the whole series. Leah is Olive’s rock, even when their friendship is tested, and that will come up over and over again through Olive’s journey.

And, finally, the page introduces Jessie Hayes, the victim at the heart of the story. Her decade-old death has reverberated out, affecting so many lives in the current day. The question is, of course, why.

The only way that the test “fails” in terms of giving the readers a full picture of what they’d be signing up for by picking up this book is the fact that Olive is a crime scene cleaner. And even still, she mentions that she volunteers her cleaning services to the library, something that could be extrapolated out to mean she’s a professional at that. This is such a good representation of the mystery and the characters, I’m going to go try it on the rest of my books.

Visit Brianna Labuskes's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Great Game"

Arvind Ethan David has written seven graphic novels, including most recently his adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business (May 2025) and the Bram Stoker Award–nominated Darkness Visible with Mike Carey. David has also written multiple hit audio originals, including the science fiction anthology series Earworms, The Crimes of Dorian Gray, and the nonfiction audiobook Douglas Adams: The Ends of the Earth.

In theatre, David’s plays include The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, both based on the novels by Douglas Adams, and he received an Olivier nomination for his family musical The Boy With Wings, based on Lenny Henry’s children’s book. He also contributed additional material for David Baddiel and Erran Baron Cohen’s musical The Infidel and was a lead producer of the Grammy and Tony Award–winning Broadway musical Jagged Little Pill.

David has written and produced extensively in television, including Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency for Netflix, Anansi Boys for Amazon, and the Asian Academy Award winner The Garden of Evening Mists for HBO.

He applied the Page 69 Test to The Great Game, his debut prose novel, and reported the following:

On page 69 of The Great Game, we find ourselves in a government office. Specifically, the offices of a Government Minister, the (unnamed) Under Secretary of Colonial Affairs. It’s London, 1905 and the Minister has summoned a small group of men for a meeting and is in mid-flow, describing a series of grotesque murders and his suspicion that these crimes are linked to each other and to an international conspiracy against the British Empire.

Our narrator, Balvinder dev Singh, an Indian war veteran, is somewhat in awe of the august surroundings and personages he finds himself amongst, but then the Minister is suddenly and rudely interrupted by one of the other guests who, opening his eyes from an apparent nap, languidly declaims:

“You are telling us nothing that I do not already know. All the cases you mention have been well documented in the press, and I have taken a note of them. That they are connected is a matter of obvious inference. If you would have me be of use to you, either rapidly get to the heart of the matter, or, if you have nothing new to impart, then pray stop wasting our time and allow me to make my own inquiries.”

The minister splutters in surprise and indignation at the man who dared to interrupt him, at which point it is revealed that the man who made the interruption is none other than an aging Sherlock Holmes…

In this, as in so much else, Marshall McLuhan is bang on the money. Page 69 of The Great Game is the moment the plot thickens and the game can truly be said to be afoot…

In the run-up to it, our heroes, the cat-burgling duo of A. J. Raffles and his sidekick, Balvinder “Bunny” dev Singh, have crossed paths with a mysterious murderer who not only kills but also arranges his victims in macabre tableaus. Until this moment, though, the "why" of it all is mysterious, now the Minister is hinting at a political motivation.

It is also the moment when the novel plays its trump card, introducing Sherlock Holmes into the proceedings. Holmes’s legend has cast its shadow over the previous 68 pages: but this scene is where he is first revealed in the flesh. The Great Game is not exactly a Sherlock Holmes mystery; it is, rather, a resurrection and an interrogation of British Imperial adventure stories, of which the Holmes Canon is a core exhibit. I wanted to tell they type of story I loved as a boy, but I wanted to insert a colonial subject into the heart of my tale to make explicit the subtext of empire that informs all British literature of the period.

Page 69 perfectly illustrates this method. Students of British political history will know that the Under-Secretary for Colonial Affairs in 1905 was in point of fact, the young Winston Churchill. Much of the book’s thematic drama (and comedy) arises from smashing this real-life legend against the fictional legend of Holmes and subjecting both to Balvinder’s inquiring skepticism.

Visit Arvind Ethan David's website.

Q&A with Arvind Ethan David.

Writers Read: Arvind Ethan David.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Killer Art"

Jon St. Denis (pseudonym for J. Sydney Jones) is a former journalist in Europe, filing stories from Austria, Italy, France, Greece, and Ireland. Formerly a college professor in California, St. Denis writes compelling historical mysteries with thriller and international espionage elements.

St. Denis applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Killer Art, with the following results:

Page 69 of Killer Art puts readers directly into the investigation of campus murders. Here, the book’s protagonists, Sam and Vika appear to be at the scene of a crime outdoors where campus cops are attempting to disperse a crowd. The reader does not see a body, but learns that it is the “unfortunate Officer Kipling.”

The reader also learns via Sam and Vika’s conversation, that there is a notebook on the ground with pages apparently torn out. And Vika mentions that Officer Kipling made a habit of taking notes in that very notebook.

In the last line of the page, Sam wonders “if those pages link McGuire’s death with the unfortunate Officer Kipling?” So, there has been an earlier death, as well: someone named McGuire.

So, yes. Marshall McLuhan [ed. note: inspiration for the Page 69 Test blog] once again has it right. From this page, readers are introduced to the main characters of Killer Art, Sam and Vika; know the setting of the book, a college campus. And also know that there have thus far been two deaths: “the unfortunate Officer Kipling” and someone named McGuire. Readers also know that torn pages out of a campus cop’s notebook might be important to the investigation.

Of course, the full book goes off in several other directions, but at least readers know from page 69 that there have been two murders on a college campus and that Sam and Vika seem very interested in them.

And thanks go to my agent, Anne Tibbets, who saved my arse on this. I am currently in Hong Kong for the summer and do not have a copy of Killer Art with me, not even a pdf. Anne to the rescue. She took a photo of page 69 of Killer Art and emailed it to me. Above and beyond—thanks again, Anne.

Visit Jon St. Denis's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Erebus 13"

David Wellington was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Syracuse University and received an MFA in creative writing from Penn State. In 2004 he began serializing his novel Monster Island online. The book rapidly gained a following, and was acquired for print publication by Thunder’s Mouth Press. Since then, Wellington has published more than 20 novels, and has been featured in The New York Times, Boing Boing and the Los Angeles Times.

Wellington applied the Page 69 Test to Erebus 13, the third title in his Red Space trilogy, and shared the following:

Page 69 of Erebus 13 is actually a great sample of what you’ll find in this book—a little character conflict, a little worldbuilding, and a moment of pure tension. Our characters are in danger, having just been shot at by an unseen sniper. Trying to get away from the shooter, they run out into a broad exposed plaza—empty of life, and offering no cover at all. Doctor Zhang just wants to run, to get away, especially when an amplified voice warns them there will be no more warning shots. But then Alexandra Petrova turns and decides she’s done running. She won’t leave, she says, until she gets some answers.

There’s very little context given here. If you haven’t followed the story so far you won’t know what’s at stake or what’s going on. Yet you can feel the danger. The heroes of the Red Space trilogy have been running for a long time, running across a hundred light years of space. Now they’re home, for a given value of home, and it’s time to stop running. It’s time to stand against the darkness that threatens to consume us all.

Writing this trilogy has been a blast. I didn’t come up with the main characters—they were mostly created by editor James Long. I just fleshed them out and gave them life. Yet as I’ve explored their story, Petrova, Zhang and the robot Rapscallion became like real people to me, flawed and desperate, scared and defiant. I’ve thrown them from one peril to the next, tossed them out of so many frying pans right into so many fires. Page 69 of this book might be the defining moment when the story turns, when my characters refuse to accept the dark fate I’ve been pushing them toward. When they start fighting back. It’s about time they got to decide things for themselves, and I can’t wait for readers to find out how they take back their power—and what it’s going to cost them.

Visit David Wellington's website.

The Page 69 Test: Chimera.

The Page 69 Test: The Hydra Protocol.

The Page 69 Test: Positive.

My Book, The Movie: The Cyclops Initiative.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Astronaut.

Q&A with David Wellington.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Fire Must Burn"

Allison Montclair is the author of the Sparks and Bainbridge mysteries, beginning with The Right Sort of Man, the American Library Association Reading List Council's Best Mystery of 2019. Under her real name, she has written more mystery novels and a damn good werewolf book, as well as short stories in many genres in magazines and anthologies. She is also an award-winning librettist and lyricist with several musicals to her credit that have been performed or workshopped across the USA. She currently lives in New York City where she also practiced as a criminal defense attorney.

Montclair applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, Fire Must Burn, and reported the following:

Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau have agreed to help British Intelligence vet Tony Danforth, a member of the Foreign Office suspected of Communist ties, by setting him up with Evelyn Lowle, an operative who will pose as another client seeking a husband. On page 69, Lowle has come to learn more about their interview with him so she can fashion her new persona accordingly:

‘So he took the bait?’ Lowle asked.

‘He signed up for our services,’ said Sparks. ‘We normally send a letter to the gentleman with the lady’s telephone number. Do you want us to use your number at the ministry?’

‘Yes, that would be best,’ she said. ‘I don’t want my new landlady getting nosy about all this. How did Danforth seem to you about the idea?’

‘Interested,’ said Sparks.

‘Ironic,’ added Mrs Bainbridge.

‘What do you mean by that?’ asked Lowle.

‘He is amused by what we do,’ said Mrs Bainbridge. ‘On the one hand, he seems genuinely interested in finding a partner in life. But on the other, he thinks finding one through a professional agency is strange.’

‘Then I shall feel the same about it,’ said Lowle. ‘A mutual disdain for the norms, covering what? Some real loneliness underneath, right?’

‘Thats … that’s actually good,’ said Sparks, impressed in spite of herself.

‘What about the war?’ asked Lowle. ‘Is that something he likes to talk about?’

‘Not so far,’ said Sparks. ‘He didn’t want talk about Spain when he got back from that one, and he was fairly close-mouthed about China when I saw him the other night.’

Page 69 turns out to be an excellent microcosm of the book — at least before everything goes horribly wrong, as one would expect in a murder mystery. We see the plan continuing to develop, how the ladies of the Right Sort contribute their own instincts and insights into assessing Danforth, and how the young operative Lowle is going to put them into action.

Another facet revealed here is the continuing jealousy of Iris for Lowle. Iris had been an Intelligence operative during the war, leaving the section after a falling out with her superiors. While she believes in that choice, she misses those aspects of the job that drew on her intellect and sense of adventure. Now, confronted with what seems to be a younger and perhaps abler version of herself, Iris’s regrets and resentments continue to plague her, brought to the surface every time she encounters Lowle.

Finally, there is the ongoing and uncomfortable sense of betrayal Iris feels for setting up Danforth for this operation. They were, as we’ve learned by this point, close friends at Cambridge in the mid-Thirties.

So, page 69 encompasses most of the important aspects of the plot and relationships in this novel. The machine has been set in motion, the wheels are turning, the inexorable race towards tragedy and revelation is accelerating.

What happens next? Well, page 70, obviously. Enjoy!

Visit Alan Gordon's website.

The Page 69 Test: An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

Q&A with Allison Montclair.

My Book, The Movie: An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Conviction"

Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop was born and raised in New York City. She earned her B.A. from Harvard University and her M.F.A. in fiction from the UC Irvine, where she was the recipient of the Schaeffer Writing Fellowship. She is the author of the novels Fireworks, December, The Why of Things, and The Mercy Seat. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and daughter and is Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing at Endicott College.

Winthrop applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Conviction, and reported the following:

Page 69 of Conviction:

2012, New York City

Maggie and Josh stand at the edge of the South Pool, an acre square in size, resting their hands on names engraved into the bronze parapet that separates them from a wide rim of water, which, though it looks still and placid, is yet cascading over its inner edge and falling into a square basin thirty feet below, where the surface of the pool is dimpled with motion. In the center of this basin is another, smaller square that they cannot see the bottom of, a void into which the water finally disappears.

They stand and watch for some time, the soothing plash of water drowning out the sounds of everything else: taxis, car horns, the din of early construction. It is not yet seven o’clock, and so they are some of the only ones here. Stark morning light cuts diagonally across the far wall of the pool, a bright triangle against the shadows, glinting in the tumbling water. Maggie glances at her father; he is intently watching the water fall—or maybe he isn’t watching, but simply staring into it, lost in thoughts she knows he’d never share. He has never talked about his time volunteering at Ground Zero, and he hasn’t been to New York City since. Maggie was surprised this morning that he wanted to come down here, surprised that he asked her to come along. It was the first thing she had planned to do anyway, because it was here that she fell in love with New York.

If a book browser were to open Conviction to page 69, they would not get a great sense of the book as a whole, but they would be introduced to a setting (the 9/11 Memorial) which is symbolic of the origins of multiple of the novel’s storylines. The events of 9/11 have repercussions that affect nearly all of the characters in the novel, in ways that range from the personal to the global, the immediate to the eventual, the concrete to the abstract. 9/11 sets one character on a dramatic spiritual journey; it sets another on a road to poor health; it casts undue suspicion over an entire community of faith; it leads to a war which paves ground in the middle east for the rise of terror.

Visit Elizabeth H. Winthrop's website.

My Book, The Movie: Conviction.

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--Marshal Zeringue