"The Most Dangerous Thing"

Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working fulltime and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. Her work has been awarded the Edgar ®, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Most Dangerous Thing, and reported the following:

Page 69 in this book is not exactly representative of the book, but it's key, a scene that will become pivotal in hindsight. And it's one of the chapters written in the plural first-person, a risk that may or may be rewarded, depending on the reader. I believed it was key to the novel and I stand by it, but it's hard to talk about without being a bit of a spoiler. Besides, I'd prefer for readers to decide on their own the "why" behind the decision. At any rate, it centers on the first encounter between five children and a man who lives in a shack in the woods.

He had grown tired of the conversation, or tired of us. He bent down and pulled the guitar out from under the bed. We were kids then, all adults were old to us, but Chicken George, as would come to call him, was especially confounding. You could have told us he was fifty, not that much older than Tim is now, or you could have told us ninety, and we wouldn't have argued. He was old, someone who had seen a lot and knew a lot.

Learn more about the book and author at Laura Lippman's website and blog.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Twelfth Enchantment"

David Liss is the author of The Whiskey Rebels, The Ethical Assassin, A Spectacle of Corruption, The Coffee Trader, and A Conspiracy of Paper. He is also winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Twelfth Enchantment, and reported the following:

Page 69 is the 7th best page in the first third of The Twelfth Enchantment. I am almost sure of it.

Beyond any other sort of ranking I might apply, I do think that page 69 provides a decent snapshot of the interests of the novel as well as the character of the its protagonist, Lucy Derrick. The book is set in England in 1812, and as we open, the 20-year-old orphaned Lucy is on the cusp of accepting a marriage proposal from a man she does not especially like, so desperate is she to escape her uncle’s tyrannical house. The offer of marriage comes from Walter Olson, owner of a local mill – the vernacular for a factory – that produces cheap stockings on machines manned by unskilled laborers. These mills have been springing up all over the country, and putting artisans out of work, and these stocking-weavers have begun to strike back in what has become known as the Luddite uprising. In the novel’s opening scene, Lucy and her uncle meet with Mr. Olson in order to make wedding plans when suddenly there is a knock at the door. A disheveled (but super hot) stranger demands Lucy not marry Mr. Olson and that she “gather the leaves.” It turns out the stranger, a local Baron called Lord Byron, has been afflicted by a curse.

Lucy helps liberate Lord Byron from his curse with the aid of a local gentlewoman who is something of an expert on magic – and the magic of this novel is the actual magic that historical people practiced and believed worked. In this novel it actually does work, but I stick to the facts. There are no fireballs shooting out of wands. For most of recorded history, ordinary people believed they could use some things in the natural world to affect other things in the natural world, and Lucy discovers she is very good at doing so. She also discovers that there are some very powerful people who seem to take an interest in her life, and who will do almost anything to make certain she marries Mr. Olson.

On page 69, Lucy has been made to visit Mr. Olson at his mill, and while she’s there, the workers all cease their labors and repeat what Byron has already said: “Gather the leaves.” Lucy doesn’t know what this means, but she does the sensible things and gets the hell out of there.

Lucy began to walk from the mill. She was afraid, but also curious, and so she swallowed her fear and circled around to the still-open front door. As she grew closer, once more she could hear the mumbled chanting, the rustling non-sound of the creatures’ frenzied circling.

Frightened, but too curious to turn away, Lucy approached the front of the mill. The dirt and dead leaves and twigs crunched under her feet. She heard the distant hooting of an owl. The overlapping voices repeated their refrain until she was no more than twenty feet from the open door, and then, all at once, the chant stopped. For a moment there was only silence, and then came the clacking of a single loom, joined by another and then a loud cough, and the busy thrum of a fully functioning mill. Lucy had the strange idea that if she were to step only a little closer the work would cease once more, the chanting would resume…..

A hundred feet up the path, with the declining sun now in her eyes, Lucy saw a figure – still and straight and tall with wide shoulders…. She could see almost nothing of him, and put a hand to her forehead in an effort to shield her eyes from the sun’s glare, but it did little good.

“Good afternoon,” she said cautiously....

As happens many times in the early part of this book, Lucy encounters something extraordinary where she expects only the ordinary. In this case, a mill full of laborers who chant a secret message Lucy knows is meant for her, but which she does not understand. And then there’s this mysterious stranger in the road. Who is he? What does he have to do with anything? Lucy doesn’t know, but she knows she has a choice to move forward into the unknown or retreat to what she loathes, and so she does what she regards as the most sensible thing in the world. She says hello to the stranger, and soon her whole life will change dramatically.

Learn more about the book and author at David Liss's website and blog.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

"Bloodlands"

Christine Cody is the author of the new postapocalyptic supernatural Western Bloodlands series. The first book, Bloodlands,  launched July 26 and will be followed by Blood Rules (August 30) and In Blood We Trust (September 27).

She applied the Page 69 Test to Bloodlands and reported the following:

I would call Bloodlands a paranormal Shane meets Mad Max. At first, we meet Gabriel, a drifter who is looking for his lover—a woman who mysteriously deserted him and fled to the New Badlands, which is a desolate place where people have gone to hide from the terrible events of this new world. He finds trouble there, along with a group of survivalist types who take him in when he’s injured. He’s like a Western movie gunslinger in that he has lost his soul—but this is literal for Gabriel because he’s a vampire. Eventually, a monster hunter appears in the New Badlands, and Gabriel and his protectors need to decide whether it’s worth “outing” him to save the settlers’ lives; Gabriel even wonders if giving himself up is his path to regaining what he remembers of his humanity.

Page 69 is a pretty good place to test out this story, because we meet some members of the survivalist community and get to the bottom of why they won’t face up to a major problem that’s been dogging them—the harassment they’re undergoing from the employees of their new neighbor out in the New Badlands. The page also gives a sense that the protagonist, Gabriel, is hiding his vampirism and has left the urban hubs for more than just a visit to “the nowheres.” It also shows a little that he’s not entirely confident in his vampire skills yet….

Zel’s tone hardened. “Stamp’s presence really brings a crowd together.”

The oldster stepped away from the rooted wall, and from his loose walk, Gabriel could fully see now that he was nothing more than scrawny elbows and knees contained in denim.

“Good neighbors don’t force introductions,” he said. “Stamp’s boys don’t seem to understand that. They’re tone-deaf as to what was happening in the hubs, with the bad-guy raids and the attacks coming from every which way.”

Zel took up where he left off. “Too true—Stamp’s gotta get a grasp on his men. Those fools seem to have no restraint, and it’s going to amount to a terrible something.”

Gabriel could read it in them--these were people who’d retreated more than any of the sanctuary-bound ones in the hubs. A lot of good citizens had done the same. It was much easier to keep to yourself than to put yourself out there.

He knew that more than anyone.

The old guy came to stand a few unsteady feet away from the table, and Gabriel wondered if there was some turtlegrape alcohol in that canteen. He couldn’t smell it on him though.

“We could take Stamp on,” the oldster said. “Him and his guys.”

“Smart,” Zel said, engaging the old man, who seemed to have been waiting for just such an interaction. “While we’re at it, let’s just kill him. Let’s ignore that he might even have connections in the world and his death could spark off a thousand shit scenarios that’d bury us under more than dirt.”

“Aw, we’ve suffered worse before with terrorists and the like. Zel—you could bust them up all by yourself. You and Mariah, with all those weapons her dad collected before he--”

The oldster stopped when he saw Sammy glaring at him. Even Chaplin kept quiet.

This would be a good time to look into someone’s eyes and scan his or her thoughts, if Gabriel had more confidence in doing it.

Learn more about the book and author at the Bloodlands wesbite and on Twitter.

My Book, The Movie: Bloodlands.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

"Thirteen Million Dollar Pop"

David Levien, author of Where the Dead Lay and City of the Sun, has been nominated for the Edgar, Hammett, and Shamus awards, and is also a screenwriter and director (including co-director of Solitary Man (2009) starring Michael Douglas). He lives in Connecticut.

He applied the Page 69 Test to 13 Million Dollar Pop, his third Frank Behr novel, and reported the following:

Page 69 in my book is all about the villain, professional killer and dirty-work contractor from Wales, Waddy Dwyer. As he sits surveillance on his target’s house, assessing how best to kill him, he briefly muses over past actions. It gives a glimpse into his former life in the military and then British intelligence service. In the present day scene, he shows some skill and competence along with a general level of malevolence. Not the character’s introduction, but a good snapshot into the opponent Frank Behr is dealing with in this book.

Learn more about the book and author at David Levien's website.

Writers Read: David Levien.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

"Madame Bovary's Daughter"

Linda Urbach is a published author and screenwriter. Her third novel, Madame Bovary’s Daughter, addresses the question: Whatever happened to the only daughter of the scandalous Madame Bovary, literature’s greatest adulteress and worst mother?

Urbach applied the Page 69 Test to Madame Bovary's Daughter and reported the following:

Just to set the scene, Jean-François Millet, the famous painter has been using our heroine Berthe Bovary as a model. He then decides to paint her grandmother and her grandmother’s best friend. Both women assume they will be painted in their best finery. Little do they know that Millet specialized in “the common folk” and that they are to be the subjects of his famous painting entitled “Washerwomen”.

“I cannot speak for Madame Leaumont, but I’m sure she will consent. And I myself would be honored.” Berthe fumed. She had never seen her grandmother so excited. “What should we wear?” she asked, smoothing stray hairs back into her tight bun.

“Just wear your plainest, most comfortable clothes,” he answered. “You will speak to Madame Leaumont for me?” He picked up his painting materials.

“Of course.”

“Shall we say the day after tomorrow?” He tipped the brim of his straw hat.

“As you wish, Monsieur,” she said making a small curtsy. Berthe had to turn away. She found it painful to witness her grandmother’s newly discovered coquettish ways.

Two days later her grandmother and Madame Leaumont stood in the farmyard awaiting the arrival of Monsieur Millet. They were dressed in their very finest clothing.

Madame Leaumont wore a blue satin dress with a very tight bodice and sleeves and a matching bonnet trimmed in black velvet with a jaunty black plume affixed to the side.

Berthe’s Grandmother was wearing what looked to be a crimson ball gown. It had a huge hoop skirt that was decorated with jet beads and scallops of black lace. The bodice was so tight she seemed to have difficulty taking a deep breath. Instead of a hat she wore a feather headdress with a curled upsweep. She donned black lace gloves and kept her skirts slightly lifted to avoid the manure and soiled hay that covered the ground.

“Berthe, fetch a broom and clean this up,” she said, indicating the area where she stood. She opened her mouth to say something but thought better of it. What was she going to say? This was her grandmother’s house, her grandmother’s world for that matter. And now this vain silly woman had stolen her granddaughter’s only pleasure.

“Isn’t this exciting?” enthused Madame Leaumont. “We’re going to be in a famous painting.”

Learn more about the book and author at Linda Urbach's website and blog.

Writers Read: Linda Urbach.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Nightmare Thief"

Meg Gardiner was born in Oklahoma and raised in Santa Barbara, California. She graduated from Stanford University and Stanford law school. She practiced law in Los Angeles and taught writing at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Gardiner now lives with her family near London.

China Lake, one of her Evan Delaney novels, won the 2009 Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Paperback Original.

The Dirty Secrets Club, featuring Jo Beckett, won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Procedural Novel of 2008.

Gardiner applied the Page 69 Test to The Nightmare Thief, her ninth novel, and reported the following:

In The Nightmare Thief, an “urban reality game” goes wrong and traps a group of college students in the Sierra Nevada wilderness, fighting for survival along with series heroine Jo Beckett. The novel’s a thriller: it features action, life-and-death danger, and relentless killers hunting down injured innocents.

And that’s what you’ll find on Page 69.

Autumn Reiniger’s twenty-first birthday “mock crime spree” is supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime. It’s a high priced version of cops and robbers, played with fast cars and fake guns on the streets of San Francisco. Edge Adventures alerts the SFPD ahead of time, so the cops can ignore the game—and any 911 calls.

And that’s exactly what some very bad people are waiting for. A criminal gang hijacks the game and grabs Autumn and her friends. They want $20 million from her wealthy father. And they’ve timed it so that the police will never suspect that the kidnapping is for real.

But their plan goes awry in a remote part of the Sierras. And when they cross paths with forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett and her boyfriend, combat medic Gabe Quintana, the game turns deadly.

Page 69 depicts the moment when the birthday dream weekend becomes a nightmare. At gunpoint the kidnappers force Jo, Gabe, and Autumn’s group into a Hummer and take off at high speed.

Von held the gun steady. “Everybody lock your hands behind your head.”

They cinched their fingers behind them. The narrow road rose up the mountainside. Friedrich accelerated. The Hummer had power, but in the altitude the engine labored. The trees whipped past. Von wiped his hand under his nose.

He gestured to Jo and Gabe. “Pockets. Empty ’em.”

They threw their phones across the limo. Von scooped them up.

He nodded at Gabe. “Back pocket too, hombre.”

Reluctantly Gabe took out his folded buck knife and slid it across the carpet to him.

“Nobody move. Not a muscle.” Von climbed over the bench seat into the driver’s compartment.

Peyton’s sobs subsided to whimpers. Autumn was shaking. “Grier.” She turned to Dustin, buried her face against his shoulder, and cried. He whispered in her ear, “Quiet.”

In the driver’s compartment, Friedrich shot Von a crazed look. “What do we do?”

“We keep driving. We get there, and then we deal with it.”

“You know that Dane’s gonna flip,” Friedrich said.

“Shut up.”

“And Sabine’s gonna have your balls for breakfast.”

Jo’s stomach was cramping. Von, Friedrich, Dane, Sabine. They were being kidnapped by the damned Trapp Family Singers.

Danger, action, a hint that under pressure Jo’s calm and possesses gallows humor—Page 69 presents a clear snapshot of what the book’s about. I certainly hope it would entice people to read on. Because a minute later a fight erupts. The Hummer wrecks. Jo, Gabe, and the kids end up trapped at the bottom of a gorge. Nobody knows where they are. They have no way to call for help. Some of the kids are badly injured. And killers are closing in on them.

And then… you have to turn the page.

Learn more about the author and her work at Meg Gardiner's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Dirty Secrets Club.

The Page 69 Test: The Memory Collector.

My Book, The Movie: Meg Gardiner's Evan Delaney series.

Writers Read: Meg Gardiner.

The Page 69 Test: The Liar's Lullaby.

My Book, The Movie: Meg Gardiner's Jo Beckett series.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

"In Malice, Quite Close"

Brandi Lynn Ryder lives in the heart of Napa Valley.

She applied the Page 69 Test to In Malice, Quite Close, her first novel, and reported the following:

Pg. 69:

“Come in.” Crisp and clean, the words. Very like Tristan.

Luke went in.

“Ah. Luke. Comment vas-tu?” There was a little more silver in Tristan’s blond hair, or maybe it was only that the tan he’d brought back from Paris accentuated it. His pale blue eyes were paler. He looked well. Luke stepped into the vast, opulent room and shut the door behind him. The builder, prompted presumably by the reclusive Bryan Prescott, had made the doors and walls heavy enough to keep out invading armies. A small comfort when the enemy was in the same room.

Tristan smiled warmly. “I hear I am to congratulate you, mon fils. You must show me these paintings of yours. Then we will go into town and celebrate.”

Luke stared. He wasn’t sure what he had expected, but it wasn’t a celebratory dinner.

Tristan went on, “You’ve chosen an eccentric place to paint, n’est- ce pas? In the cellar?”

Luke braced himself by studying his father-in-law’s dress socks in detail. Paisley print, monochromatic gray. He cleared his throat. “Why don’t you tell me, Tristan?”

Tristan simply gazed at Luke in his aristocratic, unruffled way, but the eyes behind the wire rims receded. “Excuse me?”

“The room in the wine cellar. It’s your art studio, not mine.”

Tristan’s voice remained cool. “Well, I suppose the room is technically mine, mon fils, but you’ve never concerned yourself before with such things.” Funny, the way he said it, it didn’t even seem an insult. “You might have taken any number of rooms for a studio, Luke. We would have respected your privacy. I am a firm believer in privacy.”

The evasion was so perfectly executed that Luke was taken aback. Tristan must have rehearsed it on the plane. “Nicola found me in there. Otherwise I’d never— ” He floundered. “She just assumed I’d done them and was set on telling Gisèle.” An expression crossed Tristan’s face that Luke couldn’t decipher. Shrewd. Something more. “Ella believes it, too. And it’s better for everyone if she doesn’t find out that your concern isn’t exactly fatherly— ”

*Reprinted by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from In Malice, Quite Close by Brandi Lynn Ryder. Copyright © 2011 by Brandi Lynn Ryder

I love the premise of this experiment – it echoes the philosophical notion that to truly understand anything, is to understand everything… This page is representative of the whole in certain thematic respects—identity, obsession, truth and illusion— though it contains only one of the four points of view in the novel.

The thread running through In Malice, Quite Close is the confession of French ex-pat Tristan Mourault: his seduction and subsequent abduction of 15-year-old Karen Miller (whom he christens “Gisèle”) from San Francisco in 1979, and their odyssey over fifteen years. The relationship is not what one might expect and surrounding (and embellishing) Tristan’s journal entries are three different perspectives of his present-day world. Gisèle, whom he has passed off as his daughter, is now thirty years old. She still lives with him but has married Luke Farrell, a weak man clinging to the façade of a happy family, the leisure of wealth and a deep-rooted need to belong. Accompanying his narrative is that of Gisèle’s daughter, Nicola, whom Luke doubts is his own, as well as Karen/Gisele’s sister, Amanda, who never accepted that her beloved sister died fifteen years before.

When a collection of nude paintings of Gisèle surfaces, it incites Amanda to search for the woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to her sister, and Tristan’s carefully cultivated world begins to collapse.

This scene takes place shortly after the discovery of the paintings. Luke, an aspiring but unoriginal artist, has claimed the unsigned nudes as his own— yet suspects the true artist is his “father-in-law,” Tristan and the paintings therefore evidence of incest or, at least, incestuous desire. Here he confronts Tristan, yet like many of Luke’s endeavors the effort is ineffectual. They fence with words and evasions on the frail landscape of their illusions. Clearly, this is a world in which nothing is as it seems…

Learn more about the book and author at Brandi Lynn Ryder's website.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Good Thief's Guide to Venice"

Chris Ewan’s debut novel, The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam, won the Long Barn Books First Novel Competition and was shortlisted for the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award.

It was followed by The Good Thief's Guide to Paris (book 2 in the Charlie Howard series) and The Good Thief's Guide to Vegas (book 3).

Ewan applied the Page 69 Test to the latest novel in the series, The Good Thief's Guide to Venice, and reported the following:

Wouldn’t you know it, Page 69 falls at a crucial juncture for my lead character, Charlie Howard, globetrotting mystery author and professional thief-for-hire. In just a short half-page, he makes a fateful decision and agrees to do the bidding of a glamorous female cat burglar named Graziella. Mind you, Charlie doesn’t have a lot of choice. Graziella is blackmailing him – she’s stolen his most prized possession (a signed first edition of The Maltese Falcon) and she’s refusing to return it unless Charlie breaks into a Venetian palazzo on her behalf. Page 69 comes shortly after Graziella has lured Charlie to a lonely moonlit balcony, and explained her dastardly plan. Her scheme is so exhaustive she even hands him a sheaf of papers.

The sheets had been torn from a spiral-bound pad and they were covered in detailed notes and haphazard sketches. The package would take some studying, but at first glance, it looked like a comprehensive breakdown of everything I was likely to come up against.

Stuffing the pages back inside the envelope, I bent down for the briefcase, then stood in my winter coat, the case in one hand and the envelope in the other, looking, I imagine, a lot like a businessman about to set out for a day at the office. ‘Be sure and look after my book,’ I told her, turning to open the doors to the empty apartment.

‘Then do not look inside the case.’

‘Wouldn’t dream of it,’ I called over my shoulder.

But not for the first time that night, I turned out to be wrong.

What page 69 doesn’t give you, is a sense of the attraction and conflict at the heart of the twisted relationship Charlie and Graziella have found themselves engaged in. Yes, Graziella is blackmailing Charlie, and sure, she’s stolen from him, but the truth is he doesn’t altogether mind. Graziella intrigues him. She excites him. And since he’s been spending most of his time in Venice trying to ignore the itch in his felonious fingers, so as to concentrate on writing his latest book, he’s not exactly upset to have a reason to step out on the prowl yet again.

I like the last line of the extract, though. It gives some sense of the trouble that’s shortly to come Charlie’s way. Because, naturally, Graziella’s request is not as simple as it might first appear. And it goes without saying that telling a born thief not to look inside a locked case is only going to result in one (very explosive) outcome…

Learn more about Chris Ewan and his work at his website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Good Thief's Guide to Paris.

Writers Read: Chris Ewan.

The Page 69 Test: The Good Thief's Guide to Vegas.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

"Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot"

Jodi Compton is the author of the acclaimed novels Hailey’s War, The 37th Hour, and Sympathy Between Humans.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot, and reported the following:

Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot is an identity-theft novel with a hard gangland edge, meaning it’s not about Internet-based identity theft, but the kind done with stolen ID cards and other documents, which are then sold on the black market. This is how Hailey Cain, my protagonist, is framed. On my website, you can read an excerpt that sets up the situation -- Hailey’s just found out someone committed two murders while using her identity. (To read this scene, just follow the link on the site’s home page).

On Page 69, we join Hailey and her ally, the mobster’s daughter Tess D’Agostino, at Tess’s home in Los Angeles. Hailey’s taken refuge there to figure out how it could be that her name and picture are all over the news as a murderer of two people -- one an off-duty cop -- in San Francisco, a city Hailey left at New Year’s and hasn’t returned to since. Essentially, this is where the plot gets rolling after an introductory segment called “A Day in the Life,” which is a “typical” day for the aimless, lawless Hailey Cain, who’s been working as a second-in-command to Serena “Warchild” Delgadillo, a rising Latina gangster Hailey knows from their youth in rural Southern California.

Tess and Hailey are just starting to unravel the theft of Hailey’s name and identity. The news from up north is all about the two shocking murders; so far, there’s been no mention of a financial crime. Tess, a businesswoman, raises that possibility:

“Well, this woman’s motives, when they come out, will be financial,” Tess said. It wasn’t a question.... “Within a day or two, the papers will be reporting irregularities in (the victim’s) accounts, check forgeries or large-amount withdrawals.”

“That’d be my guess.”

“Hmmm. ... The question is, why you? How did she choose you to impersonate?”

The why comes out of the plot of Hailey’s War, the preceding book, and Hailey begins to suspect as much not long after her conversation with Tess. From there, a hunt begins that concludes at high speeds on the highways of L.A. County, with Hailey literally chasing down the woman who stole the one thing Hailey still values: her good name.

Learn more about the book and author at Jodi Compton's website.

Writers Read: Jodi Compton.

The Page 69 Test: Hailey's War.

My Book, The Movie: Hailey's War.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

"Death and the Maiden"

A graduate of Yale, Gerald Elias has been a Boston Symphony violinist, Associate Concertmaster of the Utah Symphony since 1988, Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Utah, first violinist of the Abramyan String Quartet, and Music Director of the Vivaldi Candlelight concert series.

His novels include Devil's Trill, Danse Macabre, and the newly released Death and the Maiden.

Elias applied the Page 69 Test to Death and the Maiden and reported the following:

Where the hell is Kortovsky? Is he dead or alive? In hiding or just being his usual arrogant, manipulative self? Those are some of the maddening, exasperating, frustrating questions that hound Daniel Jacobus and his cohorts throughout Death and the Maiden. With an unlikely alliance between our hero, the blind, cantankerous, over-the-hill violin teacher, Daniel Jacobus, and the flamboyant police chief of Lima, Peru—Espartaco Asuncion Ochoa Romero, aka Oro—the manhunt for Aaron Kortovsky, narcissistic first violinist of the world-renowned but dysfunctional New Magini String Quartet, leads them to the back stage of Carnegie Hall and a back alley of Lima.

Page 69 of Death and the Maiden touches upon these central themes and characters. Jacobus, an ardent admirer of Beethoven and the idealism of his music, takes exception to Oro’s preference for Mozart. Oro, who Jacobus considers a mere dilettante, says, “For me, the heroism of Beethoven’s music tells us what humanity should be, which no doubt is wonderful but un poco utopian for me. That is why I prefer Mozart, because he tells us the way humanity really is.” As their investigation continues, and body parts begin to show up in violin cases with disconcerting frequency, we see a side of humanity that Mozart could only have dreamed about in his worst nightmares.

Learn more about the book and author at Gerald Elias's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Devil's Trill.

The Page 69 Test: Danse Macabre.

My Book, The Movie: Devil's Trill and Danse Macabre.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

"Hideout"

Kathleen George, author of police thrillers, was an Edgar finalist for best novel for The Odds. A trade edition of The Odds was released last month.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Hideout, the sequel to The Odds, and reported the following:

From page 69:

“Let’s start with the window sill in the bathroom. See how it goes.” She came down the stairs a bit more. She was dressed up, possibly going somewhere and didn’t want him to know. She was saying, “Last night, I put everything in the hallway outside the bathroom, so I’d be ready for today.” She ushered him up the steps ahead of her.

He saw things on a tray: paint, the brushes, a scraper, some sandpaper, a scrub brush. She said, “If there’s paint that’s chipping but won’t come off, you use this. Then you sand it all down smooth. Then use the brush to get all the dust off.”

“Where do I dump it?”

“Waste basket. Call me when you’ve finished this one. We’ll see where to go from there.”

He watched her go downstairs. The tools were lined up and they looked simple enough. He had to try. Soon he heard a radio playing. The idea that the accident might still be on the news sent a shiver though him. Gray truck, gray truck, he told himself. He heard pots and pans clattering. Ten dollars an hour. He could drag it out. Enough for food if nothing else. It would take a couple of days of work, more, to fix the truck.

He concentrated on the job at hand. He spent twenty minutes working on the bathroom sill. When it looked smooth, he decided to start on places on the outside part of the windowsill that were down to raw splintered wood. The woman hadn’t asked for it, but it would buy him time. Once he got started, he began to notice places on the upper window frame that needed work. Weather, years of weather. When people lived in rural places, they left their windows open.

A sugary smell made its way up the steps from the kitchen, making his stomach gnaw itself.

Some minutes later, she came up the steps to check on him. “Still on the same sill?”

What does my page 69 of Hideout show me--or any skimmer/browser leafing through the book? It shows me Jack Rutter and Addie Ward on the same page—uncomfortable both. She’s trying to show him work that needs to be done at her summerhouse. He’s looking at possible weapons and remembering what his brother wants him to do--hit the old lady, incapacitate her, steal something of value.

Only forty-eight hours ago, Jack was checking out this area up at Sugar Lake, two hours from Pittsburgh. He got the idea from their friend Chester about finding a place to squat for a while and Chester said country homes were good for that. Jack knew of a place all right. His mother had rented the Jensen summer house when he and his brother Ryan were little boys. It was the only vacation of their lives and it went sour when they got kicked out for trashing the place. While Chester and Ryan were in Pittsburgh terrorizing old ladies for money, Jack drove up to look at the Jensen place, but he didn’t break in. He planned to take the idea back to Ryan who was always urging him to do something to support them. A place to stay was something. After all, they had no money and they lived in their truck. Still, he wanted to take back more. So, that same day Jack drove down the road to explore another place, but that one turned out to be occupied. Addie Ward, an eighty-two year old woman, was in Sugar Lake early for the season. She answered her door and he had to pass himself off as a worker looking for odd jobs. He got back to Pittsburgh with a little money. His brother Ryan snatched the money and it went immediately for drugs.

Then a little over twenty-four hours ago before the scene that happens on p. 69, Jack Rutter and his brother Ryan were driving wild and crazy in the middle of the night on Pittsburgh’s Northside streets. Jack was woozy with alcohol, Ryan high on crack and behind the wheel. Jack felt the danger but he couldn’t stop Ryan who purposely drove at, hit, and killed a young mother walking to her job at the hospital. Jack took over at the wheel and got them out of town and to the Jensen place. They found beds there. A little booze. Hardly any food. And still they had no money. For one thing they had to get the truck fixed. A crackly radio told them the young woman was dead and the police were searching.

So on p. 69 Jack has once again entered the remote vacation home owned by octogenarian Addie Ward.

This time, when Jack enters, half announcing himself, also scoping the place out, Addie Ward is descending the steps from the second floor. She’s hard of hearing--he knows that from their first meeting. He finds himself studying her. He is aware that she’s a natural beauty and she doesn’t dress like most old ladies. She wears a gauzy skirt and a colored top and earrings, as if she’s going out.

He could easily overpower her.

She smiles and greets him. She thinks about what work she can give him. Will she offer him food again?

What I’ve tried to do in Hideout, is to tell a tale of old against young, steady against dangerous, innocent against guilty. I like the remote setting—Sugar Lake, pre-season, two hours from Pittsburgh. I had to plump up Sugar Lake to bigger than it actually is, but I was able to use the surrounding towns, like Cochranton. My cast of detectives have to track clues in the ‘burgh before they know enough to travel to Sugar Lake and Cochranton and eventually Meadville.

I remember being enchanted by Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton—it featured an old woman and a young man. I remember, too, being terrified by Edna O’Brien’s House of Splendid Isolation which uses the same conflict configuration. I wanted to write my own story of an old woman and a young man. Hate, love, suspicion, violence, the whole ball of wax.

Learn more about the book and author at Kathleen George's website.

The Page 99 Test: The Odds.

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

--Marshal Zeringue

"Stealing Mona Lisa"

Carson Morton was born in London, England and moved with his family to the United States when he was eleven. He worked as a professional musician for many years, making an album for United Artists Records with his group Razmataz, and playing with the likes of John Sebastian, Billy Preston, and many others. He is a screenwriter and published playwright, and has worked in television as a consultant and composer.

He applied the Page 69 Test to Stealing Mona Lisa, his first novel, and reported the following:

What an interesting idea. On page 69 of Stealing Mona Lisa, the mysterious Marquis de Valfierno, the mastermind behind the theft of the world’s most famous painting, remembers back to how he met Émile, his young protégé. Émile will soon play a vital part in the scheme to steal the painting and sell six copies to six unsuspecting American Robber Barons. But Valfierno first encountered Émile when he was a small boy, a street urchin, in a small alleyway in Paris. Valfierno has been set upon by street thugs, so called Apaches, intent on beating him to death:

As Valfierno lay on the rough cobblestones trying to protect himself from the flying boots and clubs, he had all but given up any hope of survival when the punishment suddenly stopped. He heard the Apaches murmuring to each other and risked opening his eyes. Their attention was riveted on the slight figure of a young boy standing on the other side of Valfierno’s prostrate figure.

“And what do you think you’re doing?” the leader demanded, appraising the boy. “Allé, gamin! Off with you before you get a boot up your ass!”

But the boy didn’t move. He just stood there observing the scene with an expression of almost innocent curiosity. One of the young Apaches stepped over Valfierno and raised his club as if to hit the boy. The boy flinched instinctively but held his ground.

The Apache with the club turned to the leader and shrugged.

“Go on,” said the leader. “Clobber the little bastard if he won’t move.”

The Apache turned back to the boy, brandishing his club once again. The boy just looked at him.

“Ah, to hell with it,” the Apache said lowering his weapon and returning to the group. “There’s no fun in this. It’s too easy. You clobber him if you want to.”

“Merde,” the leader said, “we’ve done enough for one night anyway. We’ve given this Dandy a lesson he’ll not soon forget.” The others agreed and, with a few parting kicks for good measure, the Apaches melted away into the shadows.

Valfierno looked up at the boy through swollen eyelids. “What’s your name?” he asked.

The boy hesitated for a moment before he replied.

“Émile.”

“Well, thank you, Émile. I was beginning to get the distinct impression that they didn’t like me. Are you hungry, Émile?”

It was weeks later, after the boy had been cleaned up and moved into the attic bedroom of the house Valfierno rented on rue de Edouard VII that Valfierno casually asked him why he hadn’t run away that night.

Émile gave Valfierno a puzzled look. Hadn’t it been obvious?

“You were lying in my spot.”

A writer must be careful when it comes to “flashbacks” (a Hollywood wit once dismissed them as “a thing of the past”) but I thought it was a dramatic enough scene to deepen the back-story of the relationship between teacher and student. Plus, the motivation behind the assault and the circumstances that led to Émile becoming a street urchin in the first place dovetails nicely into the plot later on…

Learn more about the book and author at Carson Morton's website.

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

--Marshal Zeringue