"The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love"

Sarvenaz Tash was born in Tehran, Iran and grew up on Long Island, NY. She received her BFA in Film and Television from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. This means she got to spend most of college running around and making movies (it was a lot of fun). She has dabbled in all sorts of writing including screenwriting, copywriting, and professional tweeting.

Tash applied the Page 69 Test to her new book, The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love, and reported the following:

From page 69:

Just as I told Felicia earlier, everything here needs wristbands. "Rooms will be cleared out between each panel in the main halls and wristbands will be checked," a sign tells me in the con’s signature Comic Sans font (which, besides actual comic books, is the only place Comic Sans is ever called for). "Absolutely no photography or videography. Anyone caught filming or taking pictures will immediately be escorted out of the room," another sign reads, adding insult to injury.

There are people lined up in front of 1-E already, every one of them adorned with a silver-colored piece of paper around their wrist. I’ve never been so jealous of a piece of sticky paper in my life. And then, worst of all, I catch a glimpse of the Zinc hater in the Papa Smurf hat. Unbelievable. He gets to see Robert Zinc and Roxana and I don’t?

There’s a curly-haired guy in a teal Comic Con staff shirt standing guard in front of the line. I try to exhale my anger out before I approach him.

“Excuse me,” I say, putting on an I-promise-I-am-polite-and-rational smile and asking him something I’m sure he’s heard at least a dozen times today, “but is there any way I can get into this panel?”

“Do you have a wristband?” he asks, not in an unfriendly tone.

“No,” I say. He starts to shake his head, but I continue, “I actually waited in line for it since last night. I was number one hundred and three in line, so I should’ve had one. But then there was a great big bum rush and all these people cut ahead of me.” I realize exactly what I’m doing: the nerd whine. But nothing is beneath me at this point. If he asked me to grovel, or lick the floor, or sing an Ariana Grande ballad in front of the whole con, I would do it. “It’s just ... really unfair.” And my nerdgradation is complete.

In this scene, Graham is desperately trying to see if there is anyway he can get the panel tickets that he missed out on even though he stood in line overnight for them. This panel is extra important to him because it's the centerpiece of his grand plan to tell his best friend that he's in love with her (it involves a very rare appearance from their all-time favorite comic book creator, Robert Zinc). I do think this scene is pretty indicative of Graham's voice and also of how much this weekend means to him. For him, there couldn't possibly be bigger stakes than professing his love to Roxy, and he's hoping that his lifelong study of epic stories (in comic books, movies, books, and TV shows) will provide him with some much-needed guidance.

Visit Sarvenaz Tash's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Murder on the Hour"

Elizabeth J. Duncan is the author of the award-winning and well-established Penny Brannigan mystery series set in North Wales and a brand new series, Shakespeare in the Catskills.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her newest Penny Brannigan mystery, Murder on the Hour, and reported the following:

Page 69 is the best page in the book!

"In there," she gasped. "Oh, my God. Call the police."

Mrs. Lloyd pulled her phone out of her handbag and pressed 999.

"What should I tell them?" she said to the woman. "Has there been an accident?"

"Worse than that," the woman wailed. "There's a dead body in there and I think someone killed her."

She started to shake and sob.

"You've had a terrible shock," Florence said to the distraught woman as Mrs. Lloyd spoke to the police on the telephone.

"I wonder if the police would mind if I took her home and gave her a cup of tea. You could wait here until they arrive," Florence said to Mrs. Lloyd when she had ended the call.

"Me!" Mrs. Lloyd exclaimed. "What if the killer comes back and finds me alone in the street? He might think I witnessed something and kill me to keep me silent. Happens all the time. And anyway, I wasn't able to tell the police which house it is. I said we'd just be here and this lady would show them.

She turned to the woman. "Which house was it? I don't think you said."

The woman look at a piece of paper in her hand. "Number thirty-five. The lady's name is Catrin Bellis. I was just there about renting a room off her. I certainly didn't expect to find a dead body."

"Of course you didn't," said Florence soothingly.

In Murder on the Hour, the seventh in the Penny Brannigan North Wales series, Mrs. Lloyd and her companion, Florence Semble, are on their way home from a local antiques show when they are stopped in the street and become party to the discovery of a dead body. Ah ha, thinks Mrs. Lloyd, this is our chance to give that Penny Brannigan a run for her money. This is our murder to solve, Florence. It doesn't take long for Mrs. Lloyd to discover she's better off leaving that to the expert. Or rather, the amateur sleuth.

Mrs. Lloyd and Florence are useful characters. They can break tension by providing comic relief and Mrs. Lloyd, who was the town's post mistress for years, knows everything about everybody and is helpful in providing background information. Florence serves as the counterfoil to prick her pomposity and keep her grounded.

Writing their scenes is always fun and readers seem to like them. I'm glad I was able to introduce Mrs. Lloyd and Florence to you today in the page 69 test.

Visit Elizabeth J. Duncan's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Elizabeth J. Duncan and Dolly.

Writers Read: Elizabeth J. Duncan.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Trouble with Lexie"

Jessica Anya Blau's books include The Summer of Naked Swim Parties, Drinking Closer to Home, and The Wonder Bread Summer.

Blau applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Trouble with Lexie, and reported the following:

Page 69 is around the time I’ll either plunge ahead or abandon a book. (Yes, I do that. I always fear I’m going to be struck dead by the next speeding car, so I don’t have time to finish books I don’t love). Hopefully, readers will keep reading when they get to page 69 in The Trouble with Lexie.

Here’s the center chunk of the page. Daniel, 52, is the father of one of the kids at the elite New England boarding school where Lexie, 33, is the school counselor. He, like his father and his grandfather, is also an alumnus. Daniel’s great-looking (think of Kyle Chandler in Friday Night Lights), sexy and successful. Lexie’s anxious, a little neurotic, an over-thinker at times and a romantic. She comes from a home (apartment) where she wasn’t parented and was kicked out at 15 in order to make room for her mother’s boyfriend who was moving in. Lexie and Daniel have just had sex for the first time. Lexie, who has only had sex with three other people (and only after they’d done a full STD panel) is stunned by what’s just gone down. She’s also worried she caught a disease.

The she to whom the dialogue refers is Jen Waite, Daniel’s wife. Lexie is the first speaker here:

“You think there is no way on earth she’s had sex with anyone but you in twenty years?”

“Twenty-two years. I’d bet my son’s life on it. And I know absolutely that I haven’t had sex with anyone else in twenty-two years.”

“So why are you so calm?” Was he lying? Lexie felt the shallow water of nausea stir in her stomach. Had she been completely bamboozled?

“Calm?”

“This isn’t freaking you out? I mean for twenty-two years, you’ve been having sex with the same woman, the same naked body, the same vagina, the same breasts, the same mouth, night after night after night. And now you’re here with me. And you’re not totally freaking out?”

“I don’t freak out. I’m not a freak-out guy.”

I’ve always found that sex scenes are a good way to show character. If you take someone’s clothes off and have them touch another body, you can usually see exactly who they are. Lexie here is true to herself—worried about what’s just happened and how it will affect the future. Daniel is still somewhat mysterious to Lexie, and to the reader. His shellacked shell does get cracked away by the end of the book, but at this point the reader, like Lexie, can’t be sure if he should be trusted or not. One interesting thing about page 69 in The Trouble with Lexie is if the reader goes back and rereads it after getting to the end of the book, it will have a whole new level of meaning.

Learn more about the book and author at Jessica Anya Blau's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Coffee with a Canine: Jessica Anya Blau and Pippa.

My Book, The Movie: The Trouble with Lexie.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Fifth Avenue Artists Society"

Joy Callaway’s love of storytelling is a direct result of her parents’ insistence that she read books or write stories instead of watching TV. Her interest in family history was fostered by her relatives’ habit of recounting tales of ancestors’ lives. Callaway is a full-time mom and writer. She formerly served as a marketing director for a wealth management company. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and Public Relations from Marshall University and an M.M.C. in Mass Communication from the University of South Carolina.

Callaway applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Fifth Avenue Artists Society, and reported the following:

Surprisingly enough, Page 69 of The Fifth Avenue Artists Society is quite representative of the rest of the story. My novel is both about family and Gilded Age women striving for artistic recognition at a time when it was unfashionable for women to pursue professional work, particularly in the male-dominated arts. Page 69 sees my main character, Ginny Loftin, at her first Artists Society meeting having a conversation with John Hopper—the wealthy, charming host of the Society. Ginny’s brother, Franklin, has convinced her to come despite self-conscious reservations, and John and Ginny are discussing writing. They’re both authors, though he has already been published, and the reader is able to see her determination to accomplish the same. The reader also gets a bit of a glimpse into some of the norms of the time—John offers Ginny a drink and she’s quite shocked by the suggestion, and also frets about her mother waking and realizing that her children are still out at eleven at night.

Visit Joy Callaway's website.

My Book, the Movie: The Fifth Avenue Artists Society.

--Marshal Zeringue

"As Good As Gone"

Larry Watson grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota, and received his BA and MA from the University of North Dakota and his PhD in creative writing at the University of Utah. He is the author of the novels Let Him Go, Montana 1948, American Boy, In a Dark Time, White Crosses, Laura, Orchard, and Sundown, Yellow Moon; the fiction collection Justice; and the chapbook of poetry Leaving Dakota.

Watson applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, As Good as Gone, and reported the following:

From page 69:

“Lon’s not from the reservation,” Bill said. It was the best argument he could muster.

Lon Black Pipe is, in the phrase that Tom and Don and many of the citizens of Gladstone would use, a bad Indian, which not only means that he’s not meek and deferential but that he’s downright difficult. Lon has served at least two terms in Deer Lodge State Prison, one for assault (he beat up a young cowboy so severely in a bar fight that there was serious doubt whether the cowboy would live), and one for grand theft auto. And those are only the crimes he’s been convicted of; he’s been suspected of committing many others in Gladstone and the surrounding region.

Although Bill knew all along about the connection between Brenda and Lon, he was trying to demonstrate that he did not share the prejudices of his co-workers and many of his fellow citizens. Most Indians are decent, hard-working people who deserve far better than they receive in this part of the world, and Bill long ago resolved to treat them fairly and respectfully, exactly the way he would behave toward white people and just how he would like to be treated.

Among the novel’s themes is how people, especially members of the Sidey family, fit—or don’t—with the larger community and its values. Some of the complications of that fitting in are illustrated in this passage. Bill Sidey is no bigot, yet his defense of Lonnie Black Pipe is pretty tepid. Furthermore, he doesn’t tell his employees that he and Lonnie have a history of friendship going all the way back to childhood. Bill’s relationship with Lonnie Black Pipe also plays a part in the violent confrontation later in the novel between Lon Black Pipe and Calvin Sidey, Bill’s father.

Visit Larry Watson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Tumbling Turner Sisters"

Juliette Fay received a bachelor's degree from Boston College and a master's degree from Harvard University. Her books include Shelter Me, Deep Down True, and The Shortest Way Home.

Fay applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, The Tumbling Turner Sisters, and reported the following:

An African American tap dancer, an immigrant couple whose trained pigeons tap out songs on bells, and a four-girl acrobatic team are all crammed into a tight backstage area, waiting to perform. It’s page 69 of The Tumbling Turner Sisters, and with the ethnic, racial and gender diversity; competition over placement on the bill; and unlikely friendships forming, it’s a snapshot of small time vaudeville.

Unlike the early 20th Century world in which they lived, women, immigrants, and racial minorities experienced a surprising amount of freedom and upward mobility in vaudeville. There was still plenty of discrimination, but there was an overriding factor that put success uniquely within their grasp: talent. If you could bring the crowds, you were treated well and compensated handsomely, no matter who you were.

On page 69, the lineup has just been changed by the theatre manager, an occupation with enormous power over the performers. Talented black tap dancer Tippety Tap Jones is promoted from closer (the last and worst spot on the bill) to the “deuce” or second spot. The job of the closer, or “chaser” as they were often called, was to be bad enough to “chase” the audience out, so the stage hands could ready the theatre for the next performance. Tip’s rise means the pigeons are demoted to closer, and their handlers are furious.

At the same time, Gert Turner, an acrobat and one of the two narrators of the story, is curious about Tip. In 1919, there is no acceptable way for a white woman to befriend a black man, but Gert is headstrong, attractive and used to getting her way. The fact that Tip isn’t thrilled with her attention is a new experience for her.

Tip is no fool—he knows that as innocent as their conversation may be, he’s courting danger simply by talking to Gert. He plays it cool, which only provokes her determination to learn more about him. It’s the beginning of a friendship that grows progressively more complicated over the course of the novel.

Learn more about the book and author at Juliette Fay's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Deep Down True.

The Page 69 Test: The Shortest Way Home.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Devil's Cold Dish"

Eleanor Kuhns is the 2011 winner of the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel competition. She lives in New York, received her master’s in Library Science from Columbia University, and is currently the Assistant Director at the Goshen Public Library in Orange County, New York.

Kuhns applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Devil's Cold Dish, and reported the following:

The Page 69 rule works as beautifully on The Devil's Cold Dish as it did on Death in Salem.

Page 69 is the final page of a chapter and ends with a cliffhanger - a fire.

Rees sniffed. "What's burning?" He realized that he had not been aware of the odor for a little while but had not paid attention. The acrid smell was much stronger in the kitchen, but he saw nothing amiss. The fire had been banked and only a few embers remained. He sniffed again and walked to the door. Although the sky was still streaked with light, the ground beneath lay in shadow. A reddish glow tinted the horizon. Lydia came up behind him.

"I smell smoke too," she said."

"Something's on fire," Rees said, descending the steps.

The stink of burning was much stronger outside and now he could see sparks flying in the air. He turned to tell Lydia to stay inside but found she was right behind him, a lighted lantern in her hand. "It's the bees," she said and lunged past him. Rees did not argue. He followed Lydia over the crest of the hill and down the slope.

This scene is an example of the persecution leveled at Rees and his family and speaks to one of the underlying themes: the harm malice, resentment and jealousy can inflict. After researching Death in Salem, and being immersed in the effects of the witch trials (which, of course, were 100 years too early for Rees), I wanted to write about what might happen if such anger were directed at Rees and his family. The question I kept asking myself was 'How could someone ever forgive such a betrayal?' And how would one feel afterwards?

Learn more about the book and author at Eleanor Kuhns's blog and Facebook page.

Coffee with a Canine: Eleanor Kuhns & Shelby.

My Book, The Movie: Death of a Dyer.

The Page 69 Test: Death of a Dyer.

The Page 69 Test: Death in Salem.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Devils of Cardona"

Matthew Carr is a writer and journalist, living in Derbyshire England. He is the author of five non-fiction books: My Father’s House (1997); The Infernal Machine: a History of Terrorism (2007), also published in the UK as The Infernal Machine: an Alternative History of Terrorism (2011); Blood and Faith: the Purging of Muslim Spain (2009, 2010); Sherman’s Ghosts: Soldiers, Civilians, and the American War of War (2015), and Fortress Europe: Dispatches from a Gated Continent, available in the UK as Fortress Europe: Inside the War Against the Immigration (2015).

Carr applied the Page 69 Test to The Devils of Cardona, his first novel, and reported the following:

Readers who skim Page 69 of The Devils of Cardona will find themselves at the end of Chapter Six, so they only have to read half a page. I hope these few paragraphs will induce them to look further, because they will arrive right in the middle of a very grim and dramatic development. My main character Alcalde (Judge) Mendoza is staying at the viceroy of Aragon's palace in Zaragoza with his team.

He's just about to head up into the Pyrenees to investigate the brutal murder of a priest at the village of Belamar - a village populated mostly by Moriscos (Muslim converts to Catholicism), when he sees the viceroy and Mercader, the Inquisitor of Aragon, in urgent conversation with a man who he hasn't met before.

There are already tensions between the careful, dogged criminal judge Mendoza and the ambitious and fanatical Inquisitor. Mercader hates Moriscos and wants the Inquisition to carry out its own investigation at Belamar. The arrival from the countryside only sharpens the differences between the two men:

"Bad news, Mendoza," the viceroy said. "This is Constable Vargas, the chief constable of Jaca. It seems that three brothers have been found murdered near Belamar. All of them are Old Christians."

"One of them was nailed to a cross!" Mercader exclaimed. "With the heads of his brothers arranged next to him!"

The cautious and thorough Mendoza immediately asks the constable if he's seen these bodies with his own eyes. Mercader doesn't need to see them. The Inquisitor already believes what he hears and is outraged and clearly vindicated by the news, which seems to confirm everything he has told Mendoza about Belamar. The ending of the chapter makes these feeling clear:

Mercader's narrow eyes glittered, and his cadaverous features bore an expression of bitter fury as he turned toward Mendoza. "Now do you understand the kind of people we are dealing with, Alcalde?" he said.

Readers and skimmers will have to follow Mendoza into the Pyrenees in order to find out what kind of people he is dealing with, and some may already be wondering on the basis of Page 69 what kind of person Mercader is. They may also want to know who has killed the three Old Christians, and the chapter ending strongly suggests that there may be more mayhem to come.

To those who like this kind of thing, and even to those who don't, all this ought to be enough to give them a reason to turn the page.

Visit Matthew Carr's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"My Last Continent"

Midge Raymond is the author of the novel My Last Continent and the award-winning short-story collection Forgetting English. Her writing has appeared in TriQuarterly, American Literary Review, Bellevue Literary Review, the Los Angeles Times magazine, Poets & Writers, and many other publications.

Raymond applied the Page 69 Test to My Last Continent and reported the following:

At this point in the novel, the reader will be taking a step back from the current narrative to learn what happens when Deb Gardner first meets Keller Sullivan. They are both working at the U.S. Antarctic base McMurdo Station when they fall for each other. Here’s what happens a few sentences into page 69:

Sex at McMurdo happens in stolen moments; it’s furtive and quiet, thanks to too-close living quarters, roommates, thin walls. I don’t know how many days blur together between that first kiss and the first night we spend in my dorm, but finally, after an aeon of helpless and constantly rising desire, we sneak out of an all-staff party and crowd into the narrow bunk in my room, ravishing each other like sex-starved teenagers, which is also typical of McMurdo residents.

Afterwards, as the bass traveling on the wind from a distant building echoes the thumping of our hearts, in the arid heat of the room, sweat evaporating from our skin, it seems we could be anywhere—but at the same time, I realize this is the only place where our sudden relationship could feel as familiar to me as the icy, moonlike terrain surrounding us outside the room’s tiny windows.

In the weeks that follow, we steal time whenever we can—when my roommate is in the field, when Keller’s is at work; it becomes difficult, at other times, to think of anything else. When we come in from the field, we have to peel off so many layers I think we’ll never find skin, until there it is, burning under our hands, dry and hot, two deserts finding water.

While this page isn’t representative of the book as a whole, it offers a good look at Deb and Keller’s relationship. From when they first meet at McMurdo to when they discover themselves on different ships in the Southern Ocean, unable to find their way back to each other, the themes are similar: They never have nearly enough time together, and Antarctica is an inextricable part of their relationship and who they are. And I hope it makes readers curious about what happens to Deb and Keller by the end of the book.

Learn more about the author and her work at Midge Raymond's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Spells of Blood and Kin"

Claire Humphrey's short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex, Crossed Genres, Fantasy Magazine, and Podcastle. Her short story "Bleaker Collegiate Presents an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot" appeared in the Lambda Award-nominated collection Beyond Binary, and her short story "The Witch Of Tarup" was published in the critically acclaimed anthology Long Hidden.

Humphrey applied the Page 69 Test to Spells of Blood and Kin, her first novel, and reported the following:

From page 69:

“I don’t feel like sitting still,” Nick said, pacing. He felt like running another 10k and then jerking off again, but a walk sounded okay too, if it was followed by about ten drinks. He jittered back and forth by the door until Jonathan had located his wallet and keys.

“Bye, Hannah,” Nick said, waving his fingers.

“Bring him back in one piece,” Hannah said.

She was muttering something to herself as she got up and stuck her head in the refrigerator, but Nick didn’t want to hear it.

Jonathan had to stop and kiss her, though, and then he kissed her again.

“Bye, Hannah.” Nick pulled Jonathan away by his shirt collar.

“Bye,” Jonathan said softly. “Hang out here as long as you want. I won’t be late.”

“Yes, he will,” Nick called, already dragging Jonathan down the hall.

As you can see, Nick is kind of a jealous friend: he wants Jonathan all to himself. Also, Nick maybe has a drinking problem, and if he does, he doesn’t want to be the only one.

This scene is all about Nick. Nick is the kind of guy who likes having scenes be all about him. You might find him funny for a while, but eventually you’d realize he’s kind of a selfish jerk (and “jerk” is probably not the word you’d use, if you were writing on your own blog rather than guest-blogging!) Hopefully, you’d start to wonder whether Nick was always like this, or whether something sinister was acting on him, making him more of a jerk than he was before. You might start thinking about how the flaws in a person’s nature can be magnified by power.

Or, you might just find Nick to be an annoying character, and never make it to page 70.

This wouldn’t entirely surprise me. Nick really is a jerk. You might feel like you have too many jerks in your real life to be interested in a fictional one. But this isn’t Nick’s story, even though he thinks it is. It’s the story of Maksim, the man who wrecked Nick’s life, and it’s the story of Lissa, the young woman who inherited Maksim and his problems when her grandmother died. Nick, as it happens, is just one of Maksim’s problems.

Visit Claire Humphrey's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Steeplejack"

A.J. Hartley is the bestselling author of mystery/thriller, fantasy, historical fiction, and young adult novels.

He was born in northern England, but has lived in many places including Japan, and is currently the Robinson Professor of Shakespeare studies at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, where he specializes in the performance history, theory and criticism of Renaissance English drama, and works as a director and dramaturg.

Hartley applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Steeplejack, and reported the following:

Page 69 finds our hero, Anglet Sutonga, a 17 year old steeplejack—the only young woman to be so in the city of Bar-Selehm—has been abducted and is being interrogated by a suave young man who seems to have considerable wealth and status:

“I . . . I lost my job,” I said, looking down.
“By choice?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that. “Morlak wasn’t happy with my work.” I spoke as carefully as he did.
 The young man nodded. His fingers, which he had steepled together, were long, the nails manicured.

“So unhappy, in fact,” he said, “that he sent people to kill you, yes?”

There was no point denying it. His men—the phrase was odd, considering they all seemed older than he was—had obviously seen as much.

I nodded once.

“That’s a curious development, wouldn’t you say? You must have upset Mr. Morlak a great deal.”

The scene is pivotal in the book because it’s the moment in which Anglet, who is on the run from her former employer, is given a new job and identity, becoming effectively a private detective or spy. It’s a tense scene, because Anglet doesn’t know what’s going on and she is out of her element. Till now she has been, in truth, one of the lowest of the low socially speaking, and she is not comfortable in this mysterious young man’s luxurious home. She would rather be at work, doing what she does better than anyone else: scaling the city’s tallest spires and chimneys with her satchel of tools. She’ll end this encounter with a new sense of purpose and a full purse, but she’ll still be dependent on her wits and her climbing skills if she’s to figure out the strange and deadly events which have begun to overtake the city.

Visit A. J. Hartley's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Die Of Shame"

Mark Billingham has twice won the Theakston's Old Peculier Award for Best Crime Novel and also won the Sherlock Award for the best detective created by a British writer. His books have been translated into twenty-five languages and were made into a hit TV series starring David Morrissey as Tom Thorne.

Billingham applied the Page 69 Test to his new stand-alone novel, Die of Shame, and reported the following:

Simply put, page 69 of Die Of Shame is very untypical of the book as a whole. The novel centres around a group of recovering addicts and their weekly meetings with therapist Tony De Silva and this page happens to be one of four in the book which are transcripts of Tony’s notes, recapping the sessions which we have seen in the preceding chapter. These sections – always one page long – are nevertheless hugely important in that the reader gets to see what Tony really thinks of what his clients have been saying and doing in the sessions. He strongly believes that shame is at the heart of many of his clients’ problems with addiction and in these sections we see how this particular brand of therapy is yielding results. As the story unfolds, the reader begins to realise that Tony has unwittingly lifted the lid on a very disturbing Pandora’s box and that something has been revealed that is shameful enough to cost somebody their life…

Learn more about the book and author at Mark Billingham's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Bones Beneath.

--Marshal Zeringue