"Precious"

Sandra Novack’s fiction has appeared in The Iowa Review, The Gettysburg Review, Gulf Coast, and Mississippi Review, among other publications. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times, and holds an MFA from Vermont College.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Precious, and reported the following:

"Sometimes in life," Natalia began, "you breathe even when you don't want to. Sometimes in life, you take the bad along with the good and rub them together until something, however small, shines." -- from page 69 of Precious.

I just read over this page again, from the fourth chapter of my debut, Precious, where mom Natalia is about to leave her two girls and husband and run off with another man. Here, Natalia is trying to tell nine-year-old Sissy a story in order to prepare her for being alone. The lines above, from page 69, have much thematic resonance. This page concerns itself with story telling: how we tell stories in order to cope with loss, and in order to remember our collective histories and those people from the past who have vanished. In telling a story, that which is gone is remembered again, and we breathe life back into the past. So the "Page 69 Test" seems to hold for Precious, as being representative of central ideas in the book.

Read an excerpt from Precious, and learn more about the author and her work at Sandra Novack's website.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Blood and Ice"

Robert Masello is an award-winning journalist, a reformed television writer, and a bestselling novelist, whose most recent novels were the supernatural thrillers Vigil and Bestiary.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Blood and Ice, and reported the following:

In respect to page 69, there were pretty much two possibilities -- we would find ourselves either in Victorian England, or the present-day Antarctic. Blood and Ice alternates between the two.

As it turns out, page 69 takes place in the past -- in a posh, London bordello, catering to aristocrats -- one of whom is Lt. Sinclair Copley of the 17th Lancers, the cavalrymen who will later lead the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimea.

For most of the book, Blood and Ice goes back and forth between these two eras, these two worlds, until -- with the discovery of a pair of frozen bodies in an underwater glacier -- the stories finally intermesh at a research station close to the South Pole. It's a hard book to summarize -- the publisher took a big leap of faith, buying it on a few chapters and a very brief proposal -- because the storylines initially seem so strange and separate. But that's what intrigued me. I like trying to make the unlikely, even the impossible, seem possible, or real.

One page is seldom representative of a whole book, but in this scene, Lt. Copley does show his true colors. A wealthy wastrel, given to gambling and drinking and worse, he is so outraged at the despoliation of a young girl in the bordello, at the hands of a man he already detests, that he risks his own life to come to her rescue. (In 1850s England, there were no laws against prostitution, and the age of consent was twelve. Furthermore, a premium was placed on virginal girls, as having sex with them was thought to cure various "amatory infections.") Characters in my books, like Lt. Copley, are rarely all bad or all good, and it's here, on page 69, that we get a sense of the lieutenant's underlying decency. Although the book is generally described as a "supernatural thriller," or something like that (and yes, there is a vampire element to the tale), I think of Blood and Ice as a very unusual love story at heart.

Read an excerpt from Blood and Ice and view the video trailer.

Learn more about the book and author at the publisher's website and Robert Masello's website.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Drop of Red"

Chris Marie Green writes the Vampire Babylon series, including Night Rising, Midnight Reign, and Break of Dawn.

She applied the Page 69 Test to the latest installment in the series, A Drop of Red, and reported the following:

My most recent release, A Drop of Red, Vampire Babylon, Book Four, is a series reboot of sorts. The initial trilogy covered the adventures of Dawn Madison and her vamp hunting team as they vanquished an underground society in Hollywood. Here, the team travels to London, where there are strong signs of another Underground. They’re tracking down clues to locate this community when page 69 appears, showcasing a “breather” in the first big action scene.

Frank, Dawn’s vampire father, is chiding his daughter and her spirit protector, Breisi, for running off alone to chase what they think might be a “bad” vampire. They’ve seen red eyes in the night, and it reminds Dawn of the grotesque Guard vamps who acted as sentries for the Hollywood community. Page 69 also shows the reader a couple of weapons/tools Dawn uses as a hunter: throwing blades and a “locator,” which can be tossed at a target and attached to their clothing in order to track them.

Best yet for the page 69 test, the page ends on a cliffhanger of sorts: “Fear creeping over her skin, Dawn saw the red eyes come to light several yards above [Frank’s] head, from the utter darkness of the inside-out building’s tubes….”

Read an excerpt from A Drop of Red, and learn more about the author and her work at Chris Marie Green's website.

My Book, The Movie: the Vampire Babylon series.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Random Acts of Heroic Love"

Danny Scheinmann is a writer, actor and storyteller. He lives in London.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Random Acts of Heroic Love, and reported the following:

Random Acts of Heroic Love contains two stories which interweave until they unite at the end of the book in a big reveal.

One narrative is set in the First World War on the Eastern Front. Moritz an Austrian soldier is captured by the Russians and taken to a POW camp in Siberia. Obsessed with his childhood sweetheart, he escapes in 1917 and tries to get back to her. He walks six thousand miles across war torn Russia, fleeing the Cossackas and the Bolsheviks. It takes him three years.

Page 69 falls in the other story set in the 1990’s. Leo wakes up in a hospital in South America and discovers his girlfriend is dead. He can’t remember how he got there or how she died. Grief stricken, he has to organise for her corpse to be flown home. As his memory returns he blames himself for the tragedy.

Page 69 is the first page of chapter 6 and as such contains only half a page of text. It represents a hiatus in the intensity of Leo’s grief as he has to come to terms with the practicalities of organising funerals and autopsies. In many ways it is very untypical of the book and of Leo’s story. There is none of the drama of Leo confronting the body of his girlfriend and none of his subsequent attempts to rebuild love from the ashes of his loss.

Had it fallen a little later we might have found ourselves in the midst of one of the bloodiest battles of the first world war where twenty thousand men died in a single day or we might have witnessed Moritz’s capture and escape.

But no, page 69 moves the story on, it is mere exposition, a breathing point, a page which is neither epic or emotional but factual.

The book is loosely based on true events. I was in a bus crash, I lost my girlfriend. I reappraised my life and came to one conclusion; that the only thing that counts is love. Not money, not status, but love. In the end as Tennyson said “Love can vanquish death”. And this book is a celebration of love.

Random Acts has been translated in to 19 languages and was a huge bestseller in the UK but if all they had was page 69 to sell it to them I don’t think anyone would have bought it.

Read an excerpt from Random Acts of Heroic Love, and learn more about the author and his work at Danny Scheinmann's website.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Drink, Play, F@#k"

Andrew Gottlieb is a comedy writer who has written sitcoms (The Single Guy, Watching Ellie, Hope and Faith), feature films (Agent Fabulous), and books (In The Paint, Death to All Sacred Cows, Hechingers Field Guide to Ethnic Stereotypes). Currently he is an Executive Producer of Z Rock airing on the Independent Film Channel.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new book, Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand, and reported the following:

If one were to randomly open my novel, Drink, Play, F@#k to page 69, would he or she read on? An interesting question that could easily be answered without resorting to hypothesis – but that would involve getting out of my chair, and I just ate a huge sandwich. So, allow me to hypothesize: yeah – he or she would probably read on.

I was actually surprised to discover that page 69 contains a pretty accurate summation of one of the book’s major themes (as if a book that has the word “f@#k” in the title could even have any major themes). On page 69 we are introduced to Rick, one of the book’s most important characters, who ends up guiding the protagonist in his search for fun, adventure, and some well-needed emotional and mental stability. Here’s the crux of Rick’s personal philosophy:

He believed that most people just wanted to live a fun life. If they had a chance to do it again, they would prefer to live an interesting life. And if they got a final crack at it, they would choose to live a good life. But Rick was committed to doing all three at once.

Wanting to have fun, hoping to be interesting, and striving to be good feel like very different and conflicting drives. The degree to which we focus on one more than the other two often defines us. But Rick is living proof that you can have your cake, and eat it too, and then go out for ice cream. It’s all a question of attitude, openness, and appreciation.

The rest of the drivel on page 69 is completely superfluous – although there are some laughs there. Also, I’m proud of the fact that the phrases “buck naked,” “steak joint,” and “strip club” can all be found in the second paragraph.

Enjoy!

Learn more about Drink, Play, F@#k at the publisher's website.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Dog On It"

Spencer Quinn lives on Cape Cod with his dog, Audrey.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Dog On It, and reported the following:

Page 69 is not a bad representation of the book. Chet and Bernie are in the middle of interrogating Ruben, a lowlife character who may have information concerning the disappearance of Madison Chambliss, a teenage girl at the center of the mystery. We get a sense of Chet’s narrative style:

“Already told you,” Ruben said. “I drove her.” Or something like that. I didn’t really hear because at that moment my jaws were clamping around Ruben’s leg.

We sense Bernie’s intolerance of anyone disrespecting Chet:

“Call off your damn dog.”

“Language.”

“Oh, God, come on, man.” Ruben wriggled around on the floor.

“Chet?”

I unclamped. It took everything I had.

“Maybe take a minute or two, Chet.”

Bernie was right. I walked around a bit, snapping up the burger in an absentminded way.

But mostly we get to enjoy two professional crime solvers at the top of their game:

“Think,” Bernie said. “We really want to know, Chet and I.”

Ruben glanced at me, fear in his eyes, no doubt about it. I was licking burger juices off my lips. “Nothin’ happened,” he said. “I was feelin’ a little romantic. She wasn’t in the mood.”

“You don’t look like the romantic type.”

Ruben frowned in a thoughtful way, like maybe he was learning something about himself.

Read an excerpt from Dog On It, and learn more about the book at the Simon & Schuster website.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Crime of Fashion"

José Latour is one of the Spanish-speaking world’s top crime-fiction writers and is a former vice-president of the International Association of Crime Writers. In 2002, he left Cuba for Spain, and immigrated to Canada in the fall of 2004.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Crime of Fashion, and reported the following:

In Crime of Fashion’s page 69 there is a brief reflection on the fashion industry by a former model and an even briefer phone call that she makes while on the way to a fashion show. Fashionistas won’t find revelations or new information about that business in that page.

However, crime fiction readers who are not familiar with fashion learn more about the character there, and how her take on the world of fashion has evolved over the years.

I don’t think that a person who limits his reading to page 69 would be interested in reading on. That page provides no indication of the crimes that will be committed, nor the rest of a rather complicated plot in which some are murdered by an unanticipated killer.

Concerning the Page 69 Test blog, I would like to give an opinion, if I may. Trying to guess how well or badly written a book is — or how interesting or boring the story is — just by reading a single page compares to deciding on whether or not to watch a painting or a sculpture by examining one square inch at its center.

Browse inside Crime of Fashion, and learn more about the book and author at José Latour's website.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Hater"

David Moody self-published Hater online in 2006, and without an agent, succeeded in selling film rights to Guillermo del Toro (director, Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan’s Labyrinth and the upcoming Hobbit series) and Mark Johnson (producer, The Chronicles of Narnia).

Moody applied the Page 69 Test to Hater, now available from Thomas Dunne Books, and reported the following:

On page 69 of Hater, my ordinary, brow-beaten, relentlessly hassled ‘hero’, Danny McCoyne, gets a pretty strong indication that the world is beginning to tear itself apart. Unfortunately, he’s too wrapped up in himself and his own problems to realise the implications of events being reported on the TV news from a street corner just a few miles from home. Danny is frustratingly self-obsessed; too busy grumbling about the fact that he’s spending yet another Saturday night / early Sunday morning at home in front of the TV to realise that ‘the Hate’ is spreading and is inching ever closer towards him and his family.

In Hater society crumbles with terrifying speed as a result of an unstoppable and inexplicable epidemic of violent attacks on individuals. There’s no pattern to the violence, no apparent reason and no apparent cause. There are no obvious connections between the attackers and their victims or, indeed, between any of the attackers themselves.

By page 69 of the book, Danny has already witnessed first-hand several bizarre and horrific incidents. At this stage, however, they seem to him to just be coincidental, but this scene is a turning point. As he sits alone and watches the news, he slowly begins to realise that everything he’s seen may be interconnected. Even more terrifying is the realization that this may only be the beginning and that things could easily get much, much worse.

For a while longer, Danny will still be able to bury his head in the sand and pretend nothing’s happening. But there’ll come a point when that’s no longer possible, when he’ll have to face facts and make a stand for his family. He’ll be able to lock the doors and bolt the windows, but will he be shutting the Hate out, or locking it in?

Read an excerpt from Hater, watch the video, and learn more about the author and his work at David Moody's website.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Pleasing the Dead"

Deborah Turrell Atkinson lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is the author of the Storm Kayama novels: Primitive Secrets (2002), The Green Room (2005), and Fire Prayer (2007).

She applied the Page 69 Test to the latest Storm Kayama book, Pleasing the Dead, and reported the following:

“Security. I must see ID.”

Storm had heard stories about missing fingers as a sign of allegiance to the Yakuza. She eyed the guy. No tattoos crawling up his neck, but his collar was buttoned and the shirt had long sleeves. She was leery about handing over her ID.

The day attorney Storm Kayama arrives in Kahului, Maui to help Lara Farrell set up her new dive shop, someone bombs a restaurant. Then things get serious.

When one of Lara’s employees kills himself and one of his young daughters, Storm begins to ask questions, which leads her to discoveries she never wanted to know.

“The men like them very young, you know. They call it selling spring,” Lara’s manager tells Storm. Stella’s gaze flickers to where bone-thin Keiko is restocking file drawers.

Coaxing information from the terrified women, Storm finds that the facts point to the shadowy Yakuza, one of the most efficient organized crime cults in the world. Comfortable in the diverse cultures of the islands, the group’s tentacles ensnare local businesses, real estate, and politics.

It is on page 69 that Storm first realizes the Yakuza is involved in the deaths of island residents. At the bottom of the page, when she races away from the fingerless clerk, she doesn’t see him at the building’s entrance. The last sentence on the page is: “He watched her drive away and chattered into his cell phone.”

Storm finds herself up against a lethal and faceless enemy, in a place where disposing of a victim is as easy as dumping her in shark-infested waters. But who is hunting whom? Storm is caught in a struggle to the death, and begins to realize that surviving doesn’t always mean living. For some, the ghosts of the past may be more painful than the anguish of the present.

Pleasing the Dead juxtaposes real-life problems like the Japanese mob and trafficking in young women against the idyllic panorama of Maui. And all is not what it appears to be in paradise.

Learn more about the author and her work at Deborah Turrell Atkinson's website.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Boca Knights"

Steven M. Forman divides his time between Massachusetts and Boca Raton, Florida.

He applied the Page 69 Test to Boca Knights, his first novel, and reported the following:

Page 69 is not representative of the rest of the book except for the first person narrative and the protagonist’s way of expressing himself. Boca Knights is the story of one man’s intolerance for intolerance and his lifelong battle to defend everyone’s right to live as they choose in peace. Eddie Perlmutter was Boston’s most decorated, fearless policeman from the 1960’s to the end of the millennium when, at sixty years old, he is forced to retire due to a lifetime of violent injuries. A friend gets him a job in the warm weather of Boca Raton, Fl as a golf course ranger. Eddie is wired with the DNA of his relentless grandfather, a Ukrainian orphan who had killed twice by the age of fifteen. Eddie is a stranger in a strange land when he enters the pristine environment of the land of gated communities, golf courses and ustabees. (I ustabee a doctor, I ustabee a lawyer) The story revolves around Eddie’s unshakeable resolve to live and let live even if he has to kill someone in the process. The story is also about how he evolves into the more cerebral Boca Knight and transforms a placid community of ustabees into a wannabee army of Boca Knights. The book could have been entitled United States Knights because being a Boca Knight is a state of mind.

Read an excerpt from Boca Knights, and learn more about the book and author at Steven M. Forman's website and MySpace page.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Little Giant of Aberdeen County"

Tiffany Baker has a graduate degree in creative writing from UC Irvine and a PhD in Victorian literature.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her debut novel, The Little Giant of Aberdeen County, and reported the following:

Page sixty-nine of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County gives you an excellent, little slice of the whole novel. Truly, the main character, has just been orphaned by her father's death, and she is being shipped off to live with the Dyersons, who are "the most genuine of upstaters." In this passage, we learn that the Dyersons have weedlike roots sunk into the history of Aberdeen. Like weeds, they're not the most attractive part of the town, but they aren't going anywhere, either. The mini-story of James Dyerson, a tragic veteran of the Civil War, tells you this.

I had so much fun writing all the down-and-out, hardscrabble Dyerson characters. I like to think of them as Aberdeen's underbelly, the darker foil to the proper history of the Morgan family of doctors. They're related to Tabitha, the witch, and maybe that's why they live such poor, broken lives--a fate Truly is joined to. Even if they do always lose at cards, horses, and everything else, my heart still belongs to them. In the end, I'm always going to pick the underdog.

Read an excerpt from The Little Giant of Aberdeen County.

Learn more about the author and her work at Tiffany Baker's website and blog.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Tinkers"

Paul Harding has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has taught writing at Harvard and the University of Iowa.

He applied the Page 69 Test to Tinkers, his acclaimed debut novel, and reported the following:

Page 69 of Tinkers is about one of the novel's protagonists, Howard Crosby, coming home late to a family dinner after having had an epileptic seizure while out on his rounds as a peddler in the backwoods of northern Maine, in 1926. His wife, Kathleen, is alarmed by and resentful of his illness, and is not equal to the task of handling it. In a sense, she refuses to accept his condition and in this case has made her four children sit in silence in front of their dinners while they all wait for Howard to come home, as if when he does, their lives will simply restart in a more proper place and time, one where they are not made even more hapless and impoverished than they already are by his affliction. The page occurs just before Kathleen makes the decision to have Howard committed to an asylum, so it represents the book on the brink of the axis around which the plot turns.

By the time they had eaten and cleared the table and changed for bed it was quarter after ten. Kathleen never acted as if anything were wrong. She ignored the four- hour gap during which she made her litter sit before their plates and wait for Howard. When he came into the driveway slumped in the cart, Prince Edward pulling slow but certain, and staggered through the door, she took up with the evening again as if it was five in the afternoon, as if she just slid the five o'clock hour to the nine o'clock one, or took the four hours between them and banished them or tyrannized herself and her children into a type of abatement, leaving each of them and herself with a burden of four extra hours which each would have to juggle and mind for the rest of their lives, first as a single, strange, indigestible puzzlement and then later as a prelude to the night nearly a year later when she and the children again sat in front of full plates of cold food waiting for Howard, waiting for the sounds of the cart and the mule and the jangling tack and that time he never came back at all.

Read more about Tinkers at the publisher's website.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue