"The Usual Silence"

Jenny Milchman is the Mary Higgins Clark award winning and USA Today bestselling author of five novels. Her work has been praised by the New York Times, New York Journal of Books, San Francisco Journal of Books and more; earned spots on Best Of lists including PureWow, POPSUGAR, the Strand, Suspense, and Big Thrill magazines; and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness. Four of her novels have been Indie Next Picks. Milchman's short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies as well as Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and a recent piece on touring appeared in the Agatha award winning collection Promophobia. Milchman's new series with Thomas & Mercer features psychologist Arles Shepherd, who has the power to save the most troubled and vulnerable children, but must battle demons of her own to do it. Milchman is a member of the Rogue Women Writers and lives in the Hudson Valley with her family.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Usual Silence, and reported the following:

I love this test in part because sixty-nine is one of my lucky numbers, and also because it happens to work uncannily well for my new novel, The Usual Silence, getting one of the most important characters on the page, and putting the deepest theme of the novel on full display.

Let me back up.

The Usual Silence is about Arles Shepherd, a psychologist who treats a ten-year-old Autistic child named Geary who holds the key to her own troubled past. The story is told in three points of view, although before the twist is revealed at the end, it seems as if it might be four.

On page 69 Geary and his mother see a psychotherapist who is about to reject Geary as a patient. He refers Geary to Dr. Shepherd, but he has an ulterior motive for doing so. In order not to reveal his own complicity—and duplicity—in the matter, the psychotherapist tries to overpower Geary’s mom mentally, really gaslight her. But Geary’s mom sniffs him out. She knows something is wrong and takes her son far away before they can be sent.

As a writer, I have my own version of the Page 69 Test, which is to ask as my book goes through revision after revision and iterative drafts whether each element performs double, triple, even quadruple duty. Does each detail further plot, deepen character, add thematically, and contribute something surprising, perhaps a beautiful line of prose?

Once a book hits that benchmark, then every page should be a great exemplar of the story.

Yet somehow page 69 is a particularly good one, spotlighting the poignant, heartbreaking situation that is mental health care today, hinting at a triumphant reversal to come, keeping the reader in suspense—how will Geary find his way to Dr. Shepherd?—while illuminating the novel’s theme of women who take their power back to staggering results.

Learn more about the book and author at Jenny Milchman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Cover of Snow.

The Page 69 Test: Cover of Snow.

The Page 69 Test: Ruin Falls.

My Book, The Movie: Ruin Falls.

My Book, The Movie: The Second Mother.

The Page 69 Test: The Second Mother.

Q&A with Jenny Milchman.

My Book, The Movie: The Usual Silence.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Sound of a Thousand Stars"

Rachel Robbins received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a tenured assistant professor at Malcolm X College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago. A visual artist and two-time Pushcart Prize–nominated writer, her paintings have materialized on public transit, children’s daycare centers, and Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. She lives in Chicago with her husband, children, and Portuguese Water Dog. Her new novel, The Sound of a Thousand Stars, is loosely based on her grandparents, who worked at Los Alamos but never spoke of their time there.

Robbins applied the Page 69 Test to The Sound of a Thousand Stars and reported the following:

From page 69:

Physics was not an appropriate hobby for a wife. If he ever learned what she’d been up to as he was facing rifles, flame- throwers, and grenades in the trenches, he would certainly call the marriage off. Even long after this was over, someday when everything was declassified, he wouldn’t want a woman who could analyze wavelengths or calculate kinetic energy. By contrast, Caleb seemed to be memorizing her every word. He was not planning what he would say next while she spoke; he was truly listening to her. Perhaps he was even afraid to speak.

Pavlov was waiting for them on the porch, contentedly gnawing on a stick that he sandwiched between his paws. They climbed the rickety steps up to her small home, approaching the dim lantern swaying from the overhang. She turned to see Caleb’s face in the light, but he avoided her eyes, investigating her ramshackle windows and lopsided roofing. He knocked on the wooden siding, feigning a knowledge in carpentry. He ran his hand along the hinge of the screen and the jutting windowpane. “These houses look like they were drawn by someone trying to remember their childhood home,” he said. His expression cracked as he studied the humble siding. What childhood home was he trying to remember? “Blueprints made from nostalgia.”

“I’m not married,” she said, unprompted, catching her breath. “Yet.” She watched his features rearrange. Her chest fluttered, beating with hundreds of frantic wings. She tried to hold steady. “My fiancé is somewhere in the northeast of France. 38th Infantry Regiment.”

Caleb still had his hand on the windowpane, and he seemed afraid to move it, to break the spell of whatever was happening between them. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Don’t be. It’s easier for him to have a relationship with a pen and paper than a woman who talks back.”

“I never liked the phrase ‘talking back,’” he said carefully. “Maybe you were just talking forward.”

Alice felt something tighten in her chest at the suggestion that her words might mean something more. “I shouldn’t be so hard on him,” she said in a rehearsed voice. “He’s fighting to save us.” She tried to mean it.

I’ve always been intrigued by Marshall McLuhan and his theories about objects and media—so, it’s fascinating to see books as an extension of that. Yes, the Page 69 Test worked brilliantly with my book. This is a pivotal scene. It unfurls into the past through references to childhood, and simultaneously presupposes a shared future. There’s this sense of the transient nature of the whole town conveyed through the flimsy architecture and the two characters standing there on the deck, neither inside nor outside, waiting for the world to rearrange. They are longing for each other but unable to make contact, frozen outside of time. It’s the first moment of suspended time in the book, which is a major theme derived from my grandmother’s archival letters home during the war.

Los Alamos had many nicknames, but my grandmother referred to it as Shangri-La, an homage to the novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton. It’s a fitting reference since Hilton’s novel portrays a set of plane crash survivors who end up in the mountains of the Himalayas, far away, high up, and outside of time. Since Los Alamos was certainly isolated, first by its geography, and second due to necessary wartime security, I wanted my book to convey a sense of timelessness. This is why some chapters move in reverse while others explore the scientific underpinnings of the strange relationship between space and time, which to this day, we don’t fully understand.

Learn more about The Sound of a Thousand Stars at the publisher's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Hitchcock Hotel"

Stephanie Wrobel is an international and USA Today bestselling author. Her first novel, Darling Rose Gold, was published in March 2020, hitting the Sunday Times, USA Today, and Globe and Mail bestseller lists. The book has sold in twenty-one countries and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and the Macavity Award for Best First Novel. Her second book, This Might Hurt, about a woman trying to rescue her sister from the clutches of a cult that promises fearlessness to its followers, published in 2022.

Wrobel applied the Page 69 Test to her third novel, The Hitchcock Hotel, and reported the following:

Page 69 of The Hitchcock Hotel begins with host Alfred suggesting his old friends and weekend guests resurrect their film club, followed by a group dinner. They all agree, then part ways.

“Does seven o’clock work for everyone? If no one objects to a slightly later dinner, we can eat after the movie. Say around eight thirty?”

“Sure,” Grace says. “I’m going to put in a few hours of work until then.”

“I’m heading out for a run.” TJ pulls his earbuds from his pocket.

“In this weather?” Samira says. “You’ll be soaked.”

“No big deal,” he says. “I’ll dry.”

The three of them say goodbye to us, then make for the lobby.

“Can I talk to you for a minute, Alfred?” Julius asks—it can’t be—nervously? I almost say Me? But he’s already leading me by the elbow across the room, away from Zoe, who stares at her toast as if she’s vacated her body.

I put my hotelier voice back on. “Has everything been to your expectations thus far?”

Julius appears puzzled. “What? Yes. Listen. I’m a big fan of what you’ve set up here.”

Part of me is thrilled, filled with pride. Another part is skeptical. Julius is hardly a movie fan. He took film studies because he heard it was easy, and he joined the film club for fear of missing out. “I’d like to invest,” he adds.

I chuckle politely. Another stupid prank.

He scowls. “I’m serious.”

“As in an angel investment?”

Julius fusses with the silk scarf tied around his neck. “More like a grant.”

“A grant?” I repeat. “You mean a donation?”

“Call it what you want. I’m no savant, but I’ve heard money is key to the success of small businesses.”

My brain struggles to compute this new reality.

I don’t think the Page 69 Test works very well for this book. In The Hitchcock Hotel, page 69 is one of transition, of getting the characters from one scene to the next, which means it fails to give readers the sense of pace and plot zigzags that set the tone for most of the novel.

One thing page 69 does telegraph well is a sense of my ensemble cast. Here’s Alfred, unfailingly polite and trying to convince everyone to watch a Hitchcock film, just like in their college days. Grace is the workaholic hedge fund manager—even on her weekend away, she’s working. TJ, a muscled bodyguard, heads off to exercise. Samira, the group mom, worries over his welfare if he gets caught in the rain. Zoe, who struggles with alcoholism, is hungover. Last but not least, trust fund kid Julius tries to solve a problem (ongoing friction between him and Alfred) by throwing money at it. In just over two hundred and fifty words, we get glimpses into the heart of all six of our potential victims—and the killer.

Visit Stephanie Wrobel's website.

The Page 69 Test: Darling Rose Gold.

My Book, The Movie: Darling Rose Gold.

Q&A with Stephanie Wrobel.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Night Woods"

Paula Munier is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Mercy Carr mysteries. A Borrowing of Bones, the first in the series, was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and named the Dogwise Book of the Year. Blind Search also won a Dogwise Award. The Hiding Place and The Wedding Plot both appeared on several “Best Of” lists. Home at Night, the fifth book in the series, was inspired by her volunteer work as a Natural Resources Steward of New Hampshire. Along with her love of nature, Munier credits the hero dogs of Mission K9 Rescue, her own rescue dogs, and a deep affection for New England as her series’ major influences. A literary agent by day, she’s also written three popular books on writing: Plot Perfect, The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings, and Writing with Quiet Hands, as well as Happier Every Day and the memoir Fixing Freddie: The True Story of a Boy, a Mom, and a Very, Very Bad Beagle.

Munier applied the Page 69 Test to her new Mercy Carr mystery, The Night Woods, and reported the following:

Turn to page 69 of The Night Woods, the sixth entry in my Mercy Carr mystery series, and what you’ll find is our very pregnant heroine Mercy Carr at home at Grackle Tree Farm between the storms plaguing her neck of the Vermont wilderness. She’s being chastised by her mother Grace for running around trying to prove hermit Homer Grant innocent of murder, when she should be planning her baby shower.

“I’ll be careful,” Mercy said. “Promise.”

“If you’re not, you could find yourself delivering that baby alone in the woods with nothing but a dog for a midwife.”

Mercy’s mother worries that Mercy’s game warden husband Troy is not going on paternity leave soon enough, and instructs their young cousin Tandie, whom she’s sent to stay at Grackle Tree Farm for the duration, to keep an eye on Mercy, “you don’t let her out of your sight.” Which more or less sums up the plot of The Night Woods. Tandie follows Grace’s advice, but not in the way she intended. Tandie plays Watson to Mercy’s Sherlock Holmes, and together they must solve the case—as the storms rage and the wild boar rampage and Mercy’s own water breaks—before it’s too late.

Visit Paula Munier's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Paula Munier & Bear.

My Book, The Movie: A Borrowing of Bones.

The Page 69 Test: A Borrowing of Bones.

Writers Read: Paula Munier (October 2019).

My Book, The Movie: Blind Search.

The Page 69 Test: Blind Search.

My Book, The Movie: The Hiding Place.

The Page 69 Test: The Hiding Place.

Q&A with Paula Munier.

My Book, The Movie: The Wedding Plot.

The Page 69 Test: The Wedding Plot.

Writers Read: Paula Munier (July 2022).

Writers Read: Paula Munier (October 2023).

My Book, The Movie: Home at Night.

The Page 69 Test: Home at Night.

My Book, The Movie: The Night Woods.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Two Good Men"

S. E. Redfearn is the award-winning and Amazon #1 bestselling author of seven novels: Two Good Men, Where Butterflies Wander, Moment in Time, Hadley & Grace, In an Instant, No Ordinary Life, and Hush Little Baby. Her books have been translated into twenty-five different languages and have been recognized by Goodreads Choice Awards, Best Book Awards, RT Reviews, Target Recommends, Publisher’s Marketplace, and Kirkus Reviews. In addition to being an author, Redfearn is also an architect. She currently lives in Laguna Beach California, where she and her husband own two restaurants: Lumberyard and Slice Pizza & Beer.

Redfearn applied the Page 69 Test to Two Good Men and reported the following:

I love the Page 69 Test. It’s amazing how that page always ends up being so elucidative of the central theme in almost every novel I write.

Page 69 for Two Good Men starts with:

“Doesn’t matter how much time passes,” she says. “Those we lose linger in our souls.”

What a wonderful start to the test!

Two Good Men is a story of two men on a quest for justice on opposite sides of the law. The scene on page sixty-nine is from FBI agent Steve Patterson’s perspective. Steve is a bereaved father who made it his mission to protect the rights of released felons after his son was killed by a vigilante mother who targeted the wrong person. In this scene, Steve is conducting an interview with the neighbor of a felon whose sudden death is suspicious.

Dee has also experienced deep, irretractable grief, and Steve is deeply affected by the conversation. Dee goes on to explain why she is not sorry her neighbor is gone. The man, Otis Parsons, had vowed vengeance against Dee for the testimony she gave twelve years earlier that put him behind bars, and he had made it clear that he planned to exact that revenge by hurting Dee’s eleven-year-old son.

“And what would you have done if he hadn’t died?” Steve asked.

She shakes her head. “I don’t know. Seriously, I don’t.” He hears the distress in her voice. “I prayed every night for an answer.” She lifts her green eyes to his. “And it seems God was listening.”

Steve doesn’t know about the Almighty taking heed of her plea, but he fully believes someone did.

“So you were relieved when you found out he was dead?” he asks.

Her gaze unflinching, defiantly she says, “More than relieved. Happy. Ecstatic. I celebrated. I grabbed my son, and we danced around the room.”

He nods in understanding, swallows the last of his cookie then asks almost casually, “And did you have anything to do with his death?”

This is a great representation of the novel, of the tug of war between good and evil, right and wrong, and justice and vengeance.

Visit Suzanne Redfearn's website, Facebook and Instagram pages, and Twitter perch.

Coffee with a Canine: Suzanne Redfearn and Cooper.

My Book, The Movie: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: No Ordinary Life.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2016).

My Book, The Movie: No Ordinary Life.

My Book, The Movie: In an Instant.

The Page 69 Test: In an Instant.

Q&A with Suzanne Redfearn.

My Book, The Movie: Hadley and Grace.

The Page 69 Test: Hadley & Grace.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (March 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Moment in Time.

My Book, The Movie: Moment in Time.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2024).

Writers Read: S. E. Redfearn (October 2024).

--Marshal Zeringue

"What You Made Me Do"

Barbara Gayle Austin writes crime fiction. She grew up in Houston, Texas, but has spent most of her adult life in the Netherlands and the UK. She now lives in Amsterdam with her two children and her dog.

What You Made Me Do is Austin’s debut novel, a thriller set in Amsterdam and a Dutch island in the Wadden Sea. The novel was longlisted for the esteemed Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger award (under the title Lowlands). Her short stories have been longlisted in the Margery Allingham short mystery competition and in the Aestas 2022 competition.

Austin applied the Page 69 Test to What You Made Me Do and reported the following:

Page 69 comes at the start of Chapter 13, which makes it shorter than average because of the heading.

From page 69:

Chapter 13

Louisa

Louisa lounged on the bed, with a blanket covering her bare feet, and the hotel phone pressed to her ear. She gazed out the window at yet another bleak day in Den Bosch. A thick fog that shifted like smoke obscured the view, but she could faintly discern a pigeon perched on the gutter across the street. The only month more depressing than November was December, when the hours of daylight shrank even more.

“I miss you too, Hendrik,” Louisa purred into the phone while she fingered the necklace around her neck, a present from her lover—a gold chain with a pendant in the shape of a piano. It was a decent piece of jewelry, but not expensive enough to raise Hendrik’s suspicion should he someday notice it.

“I ate my breakfast on the terrace,” she said. “Can you believe it? Sunshine! I saw a patch of turquoise on the horizon. The nurse said it was the Ionian Sea. Why don’t you come for the weekend? Take a break from dreary old Holland?”

She was counting on him to decline. If he said yes, she would be obliged to change his mind because she wasn’t in Italy. She was nowhere near the Ionian Sea. The hotel where she was hiding was only fifty miles from Amsterdam.

“Sorry, Louisa, but it’s a long drive to stay for a weekend.”

He was afraid of flying. She smiled, her spirits lifting at the game she played with Hendrik.

“In that case, come for a week or two, and bring the boys.” She knew she was pushing her luck, but she couldn’t seem to let well enough alone. Boredom was the worst part of this elaborate charade.

“I can’t take them out of school,” he said. “I have an idea. Send Katja to Amsterdam to look after Willem and Jurriaan. I could come for a long stay.”

Amazingly, the Page 69 Test works well for my novel.

Page 69 doesn’t reveal much about the plot, but it reflects the tone of the novel and raises compelling questions. Why is Louisa lying to her husband, Hendrik? Why is she hiding out in Den Bosch? What is the elaborate charade she refers to?

Though Louisa Veldkamp isn’t the protagonist, she’s an ominous presence throughout the novel and plays a crucial role in the plot. Page 69 is an example of her manipulative character and the cruel games she plays.

What You Made Me Do follows the Veldkamp family and their inner circle. The protagonist is Anneliese Bakker who becomes engaged to Louisa’s oldest son and moves into the family mansion. She believes she’s finally found the place where she belongs. But instead of being welcomed with open arms, she meets with cold hostility. As she digs into the family’s past, she finds herself in mortal danger.

The story shifts between various timelines and is told from multiple perspectives. The reader knows more than any of the characters, which heightens the tension and builds suspense. The novel is part dark psychological thriller, part mystery, and part family drama.

Interweaving plot lines revolve around dark family secrets. Each character is hiding something. In the short-term, secrets may help, but long-term they can be devastating. Especially in this novel!

Visit Barbara Gayle Austin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Gathering Mist"

Margaret Mizushima writes the internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. She serves as past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and was elected Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. She is the recipient of a Colorado Authors League Award, a Benjamin Franklin Book Award, a CIBA CLUE Award, and two Willa Literary Awards by Women Writing the West. Her books have been finalists for a SPUR Award by Western Writers of America, a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award, and the Colorado Book Award. She and her husband recently moved from Colorado, where they raised two daughters and a multitude of animals, to a home in the Pacific Northwest.

Mizushima applied the Page 69 Test to her new book, Gathering Mist, and reported the following:

From page 69:

On Mattie’s way back through the opening, a thorn snagged her rain jacket and then pricked her hand through her gloves as she tried to brush it away. She stopped to search visually in case the same thing had happened to the person who’d dropped the wrapper, causing them to leave behind further evidence. But she couldn’t see anything.

Robo hadn’t budged and was still chewing his toy when she came back out on his side. “Good boy,” she said, reaching for the toy’s rope. “Drop.”

He took one last chomp and then released, his ears pricked and his eyes pinned to the toy while she put it away. He shifted back and forth on his feet, obviously hoping for a game of tug or fetch. “We’ll play with your ball later,” she told him as she reached again for River’s scent article. “We still have work to do.”

She planned to search this area thoroughly for River’s scent before the boots on the ground volunteers came in to search. At least the terrain was more open here, and others should be able to enter by squeezing through the same way she did.

She used her radio to report in to Sheriff Piper about the candy wrapper and how she’d marked the trail by it.

“Any sign of the boy’s scent in the area?” Piper asked.

“Not sure yet. Robo and I need about a half hour to search. Then you can send volunteers in to follow up.”

“Ten four. I’ll send a group in thirty minutes. Will you be there?”

“No. I’ll keep moving uphill if I don’t get a hit from Robo here. The spot is well marked with orange tape. They can’t miss it.”

“All right. Over.”

Mattie put away her radio, chatted Robo up with the scent article, and directed his nose to the ground where he’d found the wrapper. “Search!”

He seemed to know what she was asking as he swept his head side to side, sniffing the grass. He acted interested in the area and started slowly walking uphill toward the center of their grid. By the time he wound through trees and reached more open land, he was alternating nose to the ground with nose to the air. He circled several times, stopping to sniff a grassy patch here and there, but not seeming to pick up a track that he could follow. Mattie sensed his frustration but stayed silent and let him do his work.

Actually, page 69 is a great indicator of what Gathering Mist is about. One week before her wedding, Deputy Mattie Wray and her dog Robo accept a mission to search for a celebrity’s missing son, River Allen, on Washington's rugged Olympic peninsula. They encounter unfamiliar territory, danger lurking in the mist, and deadly secrets. When a search dog is poisoned, Cole Walker joins the team as veterinary support. Soon sinister evidence is discovered, forcing the team into a desperate race to find the child before he disappears forever.

Page 69 shows Mattie and Robo searching for the missing child. They have just found evidence that someone was in the vicinity—an empty candy wrapper. The evidence becomes important later in the book, and this scene shows Mattie edging her way through brambles that block the forest’s interior from the path. Robo has already been rewarded for finding evidence with his toy, which is why he’s chomping on a chew toy tied to a rope.

Other scenes in the book depict Washington’s dense forests filled with towering Douglas fir, pine, and moss-covered deadfall while a continuous rainy drizzle hampers their movement. The setting of this book is in sharp contrast to the drier, colder climate of Colorado where the first eight books in the series are set. If you like the outdoors, dogs, and mysteries, you might enjoy the Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. Gathering Mist is book nine in the series.

Visit Margaret Mizushima's website and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Coffee with a Canine: Margaret Mizushima & Hannah, Bertie, Lily and Tess.

Coffee with a Canine: Margaret Mizushima & Hannah.

My Book, The Movie: Burning Ridge.

The Page 69 Test: Burning Ridge.

The Page 69 Test: Tracking Game.

My Book, The Movie: Hanging Falls.

The Page 69 Test: Hanging Falls.

Q&A with Margaret Mizushima.

The Page 69 Test: Striking Range.

The Page 69 Test: Standing Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Wildes"

In the words of the New York Times, Louis Bayard “reinvigorates historical fiction,” rendering the past “as if he’d witnessed it firsthand.”

His acclaimed novels include The Pale Blue Eye, adapted into the global #1 Netflix release starring Christian Bale, Jackie & Me, ranked by the Washington Post as one of the top novels of 2022, the national bestseller Courting Mr. Lincoln, Roosevelt's Beast, The School of Night, The Black Tower, and Mr. Timothy, as well as the highly praised young-adult novel, Lucky Strikes.

His reviews and articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Salon, and he is a contributing writer to the Washington Post Book World.

A former instructor at George Washington University, he was the chair of the PEN/Faulkner Awards and the author of the popular Downton Abbey recaps for the New York Times. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Bayard applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Wildes, and reported the following:

Well, what do you know? Page 69 turns out to be a pretty seminal moment in The Wildes. (Feeling guilty about that adjective.) Constance Wilde is beginning to sense that something strange is going on between her husband Oscar and their holiday guest, the beautiful and mercurial Lord Alfred Douglas. In something like distress, she says to Oscar: “I only wonder sometimes what would happen if something went wrong—I mean really desperately wrong….I wonder if you’d tell me or just—leave me to piece it all together—without knowing exactly what I’m piecing….”

Oscar reassures her by insisting that they are still a happy couple in a “perfectly dire state of bliss” and that it is all her doing. Because of this holiday, he says, he is now a “gloriously rejuvenated specimen.” More than that, he adds, he is “a new man.”

A new man. That is the double-edged sword of the book’s entire first act. Oscar belatedly recognizing who he is sexually and emotionally – and finding in Lord Alfred the lover he has been seeking all his life without knowing it – while Constance remains on the outside, not yet grasping whom her husband has become.

Learn more about the book and author at Louis Bayard's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Black Tower.

The Page 69 Test: The Pale Blue Eye.

The Page 69 Test: The School of Night.

The Page 69 Test: Roosevelt's Beast.

The Page 69 Test: Jackie & Me.

--Marshal Zeringue

"What We Wish For"

Melody Maysonet is the author of the critically acclaimed novel A Work of Art and has been an English teacher, editor, columnist, and ghostwriter. After growing up in Illinois, she moved to South Florida to see how much greener the grass could be ... and discovered that life is what you make of it, wherever that happens to be.

Maysonet applied the Page 69 Test to What We Wish For, her second novel, and reported the following:

Layla’s mom is in the hospital after overdosing on heroin, and page 69 of my book has Layla’s shitty uncle asking Layla why he should exert any kind of effort to help her get better. Layla is trying to tell him what she thinks he wants to hear—stuff about family and how it’s the right thing to do—but he’s not going for it. So she ends up being totally honest with him, saying how he should help her mom, not because he’s a good guy, but because he’s running for mayor and he won’t want it getting out that he denied help to one of his relatives in need.

And yes, page 69 turned out to be a good litmus test for one of my book’s themes—that is, the theme of being honest and staying true to yourself. At the beginning of the book, Layla is hiding everything about herself because she’s embarrassed to be living in a homeless shelter. She’s embarrassed that her mom is an alcoholic. And she’s terrified that her best friend Morgan will abandon her if she knows all this, just like Layla and Morgan abandoned one of their friends in middle school (who happened to live in a homeless shelter) because they were getting made fun of for being friends with her.

When Layla is truthful with her uncle (basically acknowledging that he’s a dick but it’s in his best interest to help her mom), she gets good results. He likes that she’s not bullshitting him. Unfortunately for Layla, at this point in the book she doesn’t grasp that honesty is probably the best policy, and it takes almost losing her best friend (almost losing everything, in fact) to finally wake her the hell up.

Visit Melody Maysonet's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Blindspot in America"

Elom K. Akoto immigrated to the United States from Togo (West Africa). He earned a bachelor’s degree in Education and a master’s degree in TESOL (Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages). He is the founder of Learn and Care, a nonprofit organization that aims to promote Literacy and Adult Education, not only among immigrants but also among Native Americans who missed the opportunity to earn a high school diploma. The program offers ESL, literacy, GED preparation classes, and more. He self-published two ESL workbooks: Ideal Companion, ESL level 1 and Ideal Companion, ESL level 2. He teaches French in a high school and ESL at a community college in Omaha, Nebraska, where he lives with his family.

Akoto applied the Page 69 Test to his debut novel, Blindspot in America, and reported the following:

Page 69 in Blindspot in America is an essential part of the plot, a turning point in the story. The few dialogue lines on page 69 continue a conversation on the previous page, where Lindsey had just declared her feelings for Kamao after desperately waiting for him to make the first move for quite a long time. In those few dialogue lines on page 69, she is begging Kamao to say something in response to her declaration of love, and the latter is stoic, not knowing how to respond. He wanted to be in a relationship with Lindsey. Still, he also knew what was at stake: he, a Black African immigrant, getting involved with the daughter of a prominent, conservative, and anti-immigrant US senator was not a step to take lightly. The remaining lines of page 69 show the state of mind of a devastated Kamao following Lindsey’s bold move in her feelings for him. On the late-night bus ride back to his apartment after his shift at the gas station, his bus friend, a lady who worked at Burger King, knew something was bothering him but resolved to leave him alone, as he wouldn’t engage with her as he usually did.

Browsers turning to page 69 of Blindspot in America will get a good feel for the story as they will sense the tension between two people who have strong feelings for one another. One person declares her feelings, and the other is hesitant to respond. The bottom of the page hints at why the other party is reluctant, which will likely cause the browser to want to read the entire story. Page 69 is the right page to introduce the browser to the story's heart because the other significant plot development starts from this page. The test is a good browser shortcut.

It is impressive how my novel appears to pass the Page 69 Test. This page reveals a significant plot twist, as the protagonist’s decision to respond to the declaration of love from the girl he has strong feelings for opens a new chapter in his life in America. This decision affects him and his family back home in Africa. He has a pretty good idea about how his potential girlfriend's father would feel about their relationship, which makes him uneasy. The rest of the story will show if he is right or wrong.

Visit Elom Akoto's website.

My Book, The Movie: Blindspot in America.

Q&A with Elom K. Akoto.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Cure for Sorrow"

Jen Wheeler is a former managing editor of Chowhound and lives in Oregon.

She applied the Page 69 Test to A Cure for Sorrow, her second novel, and reported the following:

On page 69, our protagonist, Nora, rides in a spring wagon with her former fiancé’s brother, going to visit their family farm in what she hopes will be an act of closure:

When they turned onto a dirt track that led into the countryside, she glanced back again. Hoosick Falls was already partially obscured by distance and trees. Nora felt a flutter of something like panic, which was absurd, because she had absolutely nothing to be afraid of. She was grateful when Malcolm distracted her. “Let me know if you’d like to stop at any point. I’m sure this isn’t as comfortable as the carriages you’re used to.”

She smiled and shrugged. “It’s all four wheels and a horse or two.”

“Unless it’s a chariot, I suppose,” said Malcolm.

She chuckled, felt that pleasant buoyancy in her chest again.

They rode in easy silence.

The afternoon was cloudy but mild. It was colder in the deeper pockets of forest, where a gentle breeze rustled the abundant leaves, most of which were still green, though they’d begun to change in places—speckles of yellow and rust, a few spots of crimson.

“Does it all look how you pictured it?” Malcolm asked.

“Even lovelier,” Nora said. “It’s so peaceful—and so nice to hear all the songbirds. And it smells so fresh, so green.”

“Well, the cows aren’t far off now…”

But Nora found the sweetish stench of their manure rather pleasant. Not that she would wear it for perfume, but there was something comforting and pure about its grassy nature.

I think the Page 69 Test works this time! This truly is the pivotal moment when Nora leaves civilization behind to venture into the deep, dark woods, where frightening things (and frighteningly attractive things) lie in wait for her.

At this point in the story, she and Malcolm have exchanged letters for about a year, mostly sharing memories of his brother Euan, to whom Nora was engaged before Euan died. They’re a bit self-conscious to finally meet in person, and while you don’t get a sense of the formality of their correspondence here, you do see Mal relaxing for the first time; later, Nora suspects he could be a different person (happier, more at ease) away from the farm, a place that harbors terrible secrets and tragic histories (as she soon discovers)—and she can recall his demeanor on this wagon ride as proof of her hypothesis.

Not yet knowing what’s in store, coming as she does from a very privileged family in Gilded Age Manhattan, she’s still somewhat unnerved by the unfamiliar forest—but also perceives beauty and promise in it (even in the aspects that might seem to be the most obviously unpleasant). Crucially, she sees/senses life—yet the leaves are starting to turn, signaling the chill approach of death and decay; in hindsight, even the spots of crimson are like bloody omens that only look pretty to her now.

Ultimately, Nora wants this trip to be a sort of spiritual cleansing, during which she can shed her grief before returning, unburdened, to her normal life—and while that’s certainly not going to happen, on page 69, it still seems like it could…

Visit Jen Wheeler's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Light on Farallon Island.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Istanbul Crossing"

From a young age, Timothy Jay Smith developed a ceaseless wanderlust that has taken him around the world many times. En route, he’s found the characters that people his work. Polish cops and Greek fishermen, mercenaries and arms dealers, child prostitutes and wannabe terrorists, Indian Chiefs and Indian tailors: he hung with them all in an unparalleled international career that had him smuggle banned plays from behind the Iron Curtain, maneuver through Occupied Territories, and stowaway aboard a ‘devil’s barge’ for a three-day crossing from Cape Verde that landed him in an African jail.

Smith has won top honors for his novels, screenplays and stage plays in numerous prestigious competitions. Fire on the Island won the Gold Medal in the Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for the Novel, and his screenplay adaptation of it was named Best Indie Script by WriteMovies. Another novel, The Fourth Courier, was a finalist for Best Gay Mystery in the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards. Previously, he won the Paris Prize for Fiction (now the de Groot Prize) for his novel, Checkpoint (later published as A Vision of Angels). Kirkus Reviews called Cooper’s Promise “literary dynamite” and selected it as one of the Best Books of 2012.

Smith applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Istanbul Crossing, and reported the following:

From page 69:

In the dead air of the hallway, that morning’s characteristic stratification of odors was permeated by something appetizingly fried, causing Ahdaf ’s empty stomach to growl all the way to the next corner. He bought a simit – a large thin bagel covered with sesame seeds – and ate it on his way to the tram stop.

The stop was mobbed. Like everyone, he used his shoulders to wedge his way closer to the turnstiles, where people backed up because half the time their tickets didn’t work on the first swipe. Passengers pressed against him on all sides. Remembering to be wary of pickpockets, he slapped his hand against his back pocket and felt someone’s hand quickly jerk away. He whipped around. Who’d it been? No one looked guilty. Then he saw the girl leaning against her mother’s knees, maybe five years old and staring at him.

“I’m sorry,” her mother said. “She lost her balance.”

He transferred his wallet to a front pocket and kept his hand on it.

The platform was so crowded that people had to stand in the demarcated danger zone at the edge of it. It made Ahdaf nervous, the possibility that someone might knock him onto the tracks, and he let the crowd push forward around him as a tram approached. When its doors opened, a brief melee ensued as passengers pushed their way off while others pushed their way on. He was the last on before the doors closed, grazing his shoulders.

Getting off at the docks, he headed for the newsstand, assuming Selim would look for him there. The dozen or so newspapers clipped to wires all headlined the bombing of the nightclub in Athens. From what Ahdaf could read above the fold, most described the nightclub as trendy and popular with gays, but the right-wing press applauded the attack on queers and their perverted lifestyle.

“Excuse me,” he heard.

Selim reached around him for the top newspaper in one of the stacks. “My boat leaves in five minutes. Maybe I’ll see you on board.”

It’s amazing how much of my story is inferred, reinforced or foreshadowed on page 69.

Ahdaf’s hungry, and lives in a building where the air is ‘dead’ in the hallway. So he’s poor.

He goes to catch a tram on a platform that’s mobbed, and he’s afraid of being pushed onto the tracks. A child tries to pickpocket him. So there’s a sense of threats coming from anywhere and any kind.

He goes to the ferry docks and heads for the newsstand, where someone named Selim will likely look for him. It’s obviously a planned encounter and where to meet has been left to habit. While waiting for Selim, Ahdaf reads the headlines about a terrorist attack on a gay nightclub in Athens that will ripple through the rest of the story.

Selim arrives and reaches around Ahdaf for a newspaper. Pretending he doesn’t know Ahdaf, he apologizes, explaining he has a ferry to catch. Maybe he’ll see Ahdaf on board?

Immediately, there’s a sense of mystery about the relationship between Ahdaf and Selim which isn’t fully resolved until the novel’s last page.

Istanbul Crossing is a coming-of-age gay literary thriller. After watching his cousin’s execution by ISIS for being homosexual, he flees to Istanbul for safety where he survives by smuggling other refugees to Greece. Eventually he’s approached by both the CIA and ISIS to smuggle high-profile individuals in both directions between Turkey and Greece. In the process of juggling their two operations, he falls in love with, and must decide between, two men who offer very different futures.

Visit Timothy Jay Smith's website.

Writers Read: Timothy Jay Smith.

My Book, The Movie: The Fourth Courier.

The Page 69 Test: The Fourth Courier.

Q&A with Timothy Jay Smith.

The Page 69 Test: Fire on the Island.

--Marshal Zeringue