"Pro Bono"

Thomas Perry is the bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Murder Book, the critically acclaimed Jane Whitefield series, The Old Man, and The Butcher’s Boy, which won the Edgar Award. He lives in Southern California.

Perry applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Pro Bono, and reported the following:

I think that the Page 69 Test works pretty well for Pro Bono, It gives the reader a sense of the mystery over what has happened to lawyer Charlie Warren's client Vesper Ellis, and what he is willing to do about it.

At the top of the page, Warren has asked the police to come to the house of his client to do a welfare check, and he is watching the officer drive away after knocking on the doors, examining the house and grounds, and interviewing neighbors. Nothing has been found, nothing has been learned, and there are no grounds for the police to do anything else. Warren proceeds to find a way into her house and take a closer look. Vesper had brought him financial records that she believed proved someone has been stealing money from her accounts. He has done a preliminary assessment and agrees. She hasn't returned his many phone calls or those from her friends. Has she been murdered? Kidnapped?

He knows that what he's doing is illegal, and could easily cause him to be disbarred, but he'll take the chance. On the rest of page 69, we learn that he has noticed that there are screened windows on the second floor of the big house, and knows that many people sometimes open those windows for ventilation before the weather gets too hot. He climbs onto the roof to see if he can find one that hasn't been properly latched shut, so he can force it open and search for signs of what has happened to her. We also learn that one of the reasons he showed up and accompanied the police officer on her welfare check was so that the neighbors would assume he is a police officer too, and not what he is--a lawyer ignoring the law. This page, along with others, lets the reader know that there's something that needs to be investigated, and that Charlie is not a person who will give up when someone is in danger.

Visit Thomas Perry's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Silence.

The Page 99 Test: Nightlife.

The Page 69/99 Test: Fidelity.

The Page 69/99 Test: Runner.

The Page 69 Test: Strip.

The Page 69 Test: The Informant.

The Page 69 Test: The Boyfriend.

The Page 69 Test: A String of Beads.

The Page 69 Test: Forty Thieves.

The Page 69 Test: The Old Man.

The Page 69 Test: The Bomb Maker.

The Page 69 Test: The Burglar.

The Page 69 Test: A Small Town.

Writers Read: Thomas Perry (December 2019).

Q&A with Thomas Perry.

The Page 69 Test: Eddie's Boy.

The Page 69 Test: The Left-Handed Twin.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Book.

The Page 69 Test: Hero.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Darkmotherland"

Samrat Upadhyay was born and raised in Nepal. He is author of the novels The City Son, The Guru of Love (a New York Times Notable Book), and Buddha’s Orphans, as well as the story collections Mad Country, The Royal Ghosts, and Arresting God in Kathmandu. His work has received the Whiting Award and the Asian American Literary Award and been shortlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. He has written for The New York Times and has appeared on BBC Radio and National Public Radio. Upadhyay is the Martha C. Kraft Professor of Humanities at Indiana University.

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

Page 69 of Darkmotherland contains only a few lines (it’s the end of a chapter), but if you turn the page to page 70, it has one of the most pivotal scenes in the book. Two of the central characters in the novel, PM Papa and Rozy, are engaged in a sexual act.

It’s the reader’s first intimate look at PM Papa, a dictator who’s been talked about only indirectly until now as a formidable and unapproachable figure. This scene is an explosive moment, as it reveals him in a secret, private space, engaged in a “forbidden” act of sex that’s described bluntly—warts and all—with a subtext that characterizes him as brutish and greedy and needy. In contrast, Rozy appears vulnerable yet exercising a strange kind of power over this dictator, something that escalates as the plot progresses, resulting in a radical transformation that’s at the heart of the novel.

So, yes, the Page 69 Test works wonderfully in Darkmotherland. Reading that page, the reader gets a good grasp of the power play at work that’s going to reverberate throughout. PM Papa’s inner life, in contrast to his larger-than-life persona in Darkmotherland, is also captured on that page; so is a hint of potential subversion by Rozy.

Darkmotherland took me ten years to write. It has a multitude of characters, and PM Papa and Rozy are two characters that I had the most difficulty writing. Yet they are also characters, perhaps because of their complexities, I found myself most attached to, ones I felt I needed to get right as I was writing them. They come from the opposite ends of the moral universe of Darkmotherland: one an autocrat with an appetite for violence, and the other whose quest for power has its roots in a painful past. In my writerly mind, however, they deserved equally attentive, perhaps even compassionate, treatment.

Visit Samrat Upadhyay's website.

Writers Read: Samrat Upadhyay (August 2010).

The Page 69 Test: Buddha’s Orphans.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Cross My Heart"

Megan Collins is the author of Cross My Heart, Thicker Than Water, The Family Plot, Behind the Red Door, and The Winter Sister. She received her B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, and she holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Boston University. She teaches creative writing and is Managing Editor of 3Elements Review. A Pushcart Prize and two-time Best of the Net nominee, her poetry and short fiction have appeared in many print and online journals. She lives in Connecticut.

Collins applied the Page 69 Test to Cross My Heart and reported the following:

This is page 69 of Cross My Heart, which includes a text exchange between two characters:

I’m expecting an immediate, emphatic answer: Omg that’s insane, my co-worker LOVES him. Instead, Edith responds with three surprised-face emojis before typing again.

Wowwwww I have not seen that. I think
my co-worker said she doesn’t like him
though.

Wait, really? Why not?

I’m not sure. Something about bad
vibes? It was a while ago.

Well, that’s not much of a reason. But this vague answer presents a good opportunity.

Do you think you could connect
me with her? So I could ask her
myself?

Why, are you like…
investigating him? lol

I hesitate only a second before crafting a lie with just enough truth.

A friend of mine has actually
started talking to him after
meeting him online. They’ve only
seen each other once so far, so
it’s definitely early, but if he’s got
bad vibes…I don’t know. Makes
me want to find out more haha

I watch as Edith’s ellipsis appears. Oh, she says after a while, an answer so curt that I worry my request seems crazy. It’s not that I even care about Morgan’s supposedly “bad vibes.”

I’m actually a little astounded at how well this page gives a snapshot of the entire book. One of the most obvious elements of the story that it shows is the structure. Cross My Heart contains a lot of text messages, emails between characters, web messages, DMs, even a few voicemail transcripts, so this page introduces that format nicely. It also shows a couple crucial things about the protagonist, Rosie: (1) she’s not against bending the truth just a little bit to get what she wants (she’s a romantic and an idealist, and she thinks sometimes you just need to give fate a little push, even if others might side-eye you for it); (2) at the same time, she’s sensitive to people thinking she’s crazy, a trigger she developed after the ex who dumped her in her wedding dress called her that very word. This page also shows that she’s trying to get information on a man named Morgan, which is something Rosie spends the first half of the novel doing, if only to prove that the man she’s falling for does not have a sinister past.

I honestly can’t think of a better page to give the reader a taste of this book! But in case they want a little more: it’s a thriller that my editor has been pitching as You’ve Got Mail by way of Gillian Flynn, and I like to say it’s about a woman who fervently believes she’s living a romcom—only to discover it’s actually a thriller. It’s my wildest and twistiest book yet, and I’m so excited for readers to meet Rosie!

Visit Megan Collins's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Family Plot.

The Page 69 Test: Thicker Than Water.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime"

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than forty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, the Catskill Resort mysteries for Penguin Random House, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane.

Delany is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards. She is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. Delany lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Delany applied the Page 69 Test to her tenth Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery, The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime, and reported the following:

From page 69:

“Oh, yes. Once we were inside, he exclaimed over absolutely everything.” She chuckled. “I was at the exit, checking up on the news on my phone, while he was still reading every word on every plaque and marker.”

A woman inadvertently shoved the wheel of a baby buggy against my shin. “Sorry,” she mumbled. The toddler holding on to the handles of the buggy began to cry. “Sorry,” the mother said again. She gave me a tired grimace, and I smiled in reply.

We got off at Embankment station and walked the short distance to the bookshop. The area wasn’t quite as busy as it can get in the summer, but it was still packed with tourists taking selfies, browsing the shops, wandering the narrow streets heading for Trafalgar Square and the galleries. “I’d like to have lunch at St. Martin-in-the-Fields again one day,” Jayne said. “The crypt is so cool.”

“Let’s keep that in mind,” I said. “If time permits.”

“We’ll have to go while Andy’s away. He’ll want to read every word on every gravestone, and we’ll never get out of there.”

Foot traffic was moving at its normal pace outside Trafalgar Fine Books. Police tape was stretched across the door, but that section of Villers Street was no longer blocked off. A single uniformed cop stood outside the shop, guarding the entrance, looking almost as bored as I would have if I’d gone on the men’s fishing expedition. Jayne and I stood on the other side of the street, watching. A few people glanced at the tape and the officer and tried to peer in the windows, but most paid no attention. Londoners can be a single-minded lot.

I could see some movement inside but not well enough to make out who it was or what they were doing.

“In for a penny,” I said to Jayne, “in for a pound. Let’s see what we can see.” We crossed the street.

“Good afternoon,” I said to the constable at the front door. “Is DI Patel around?”

He eyed me warily. “Who wants to know?”

“My name is Gemma Doyle, and this is my friend and colleague Jayne Wilson.”

The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime passes the Page 69 Test with flying colours.

The book takes place in England, rather than the usual setting for this series of Cape Cod, and that is clear in this section, beginning with mention of Embankment Station, Trafalgar Square, St. Martin-in-the-Fields. If that’s not enough of a clue, Londoners are named.

They may be in London, but it is clear that this is a contemporary-set novel, as the one of the characters refers to checking the news on her phone.

Obviously a crime of some sort has happened – police tape around the entrance, an officer guarding the door. Equally obviously, our main characters, Gemma and Jayne, are not police officers, as the reader can tell from their movements that they have no authority here.

The mood of a cozy mystery is set: the two women are obviously friends as they chat in a lighthearted way about a mutual friend. In addition, they are interested in whatever has happened in the bookstore, although the reader doesn’t know, from reading this page alone, what that might have been. Serious enough, at any rate, that part of the street was blocked off earlier and they are inquiring if the Detective Inspector in charge of the case is sill there.

I cheated ever so slightly here, by including the first line of page 70. This is a Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery, and the character of Gemma Doyle, the protagonist, is intended to be my interpretation of Sherlock Holmes as a modern young woman. Her introduction of Jayne to the uniformed police officer, as ”my friend and colleague,” is a clear reference to the Sherlock Holmes Canon, as Holmes often called Dr. Watson, his ‘friend and colleague.”

If you sneak in the first line of page 70, The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime, passes the Page 69 Test easily.

Visit Vicki Delany's website, and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

The Page 69 Test: Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen.

The Page 69 Test: A Scandal in Scarlet.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in a Teacup.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (September 2021).

The Page 69 Test: Deadly Summer Nights.

The Page 69 Test: The Game is a Footnote.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (January 2023).

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (January 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Sign of Four Spirits.

The Page 69 Test: A Slay Ride Together With You.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Note"

Alafair Burke is the Edgar-nominated, New York Times best-selling author of over one dozen novels of suspense, including The Ex, The Wife, The Better Sister, and Find Me, and coauthor of the best-selling Under Suspicion series. A former prosecutor, she is now a professor of criminal law. She recently served as president of the Mystery Writers of America and was the first woman of color to be elected to that position.

Burke applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Note, and reported the following:

The Page 69 Test does not work very well for The Note. But check out page 99:

It had been two days since May had been back in the city, and with each passing hour seemed possible she would never have to think about David Smith or the whole parking space incident ever again.

But when Joe, the swing-shift doorman, called up to say that two police officers were in the lobby for her, that cocktail napkin left on a windshield was the first thing she thought of.

“Did they say what it’s about?”

“Nah, I don’t ask questions, you know?” Joe said. “Especially when it comes to the NYPD. Figured they’re working on one of your cases. Want me to ask?”

Joe obviously assumed she was still at the District Attorney’s Office. It’s not as if she sent out a memo to the entire building about the change in her résumé.

“No, it’s all good, Joe. Send them up.”

She had already pulled her Smashing Pumpkins T-shirt over her head and was slipping on a bra when Josh followed her into the bedroom, trailed by Gomez. “Are we having people over? I didn’t see anything on the calendar.”

“Nothing scheduled.” They had begun sharing their calendars with each other after the official engagement. She was still getting used to the idea that he was aware of how she spent each minute of her time, even when they were apart. “I guess the police are here to see me about something.”

She headed for the roller bag, open on the upholstered bench at the foot of the bed, still unpacked. Pre-2020 May would have had the empty suitcase tucked neatly away within fifteen minutes of coming home. She pulled out her black shirt-dress while she untied the drawstring of her running shorts with her free hand.

“What about?” Josh asked.

“No clue,” she said, fumbling with the buttons of the dress. She paused in front of the full-length mirror next to the closet door and smoothed her hair into place. But I do have a clue, she thought. I have a terrible feeling that I know exactly what this is about.

I love this excerpt from page 99 of The Note. It gives the reader a good look at the anxiety hanging over May Hanover’s head after she and her friends Kelsey and Lauren had a practical joke go terribly wrong during a girls’ weekend in East Hampton. These few short paragraphs say so much:

- Two days after returning to the city, May is eager to leave the weekend’s trouble in the past, but it has clearly followed her home. The former prosecutor now has cops asking questions at her own door.
- May likes her privacy. No need to correct Joe the doorman about her change in employment, and she doesn’t like the idea of a second set of of eyes on her calendar—even if the eyes belong to her fiancé, Josh.
- May is no longer as tidy as she appeared to be a few years ago, both literally and figuratively.
- And most importantly, May is keeping secrets. If she’s hiding the truth from Josh, what other lies is she telling?
- Bonus points for the cameo from May’s adorable pug, Gomez. If he were a real dog, I would totally adopt him.

This short excerpt sets the stage for some big twists and turns still coming for May, Kelsey, and Lauren.

Visit Alafair Burke's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dead Connection.

The Page 69 Test: Angel’s Tip.

The Page 69 Test: 212.

The Page 69 Test: All Day and a Night.

The Page 69 Test: The Ex.

The Page 69 Test: The Wife.

The Page 69 Test: The Better Sister.

Q&A with Alafair Burke.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf"

Isa Arsén is a certified bleeding heart based in South Texas, where she lives with her spouse and a comically small dog.

Her work has been featured in Stone of Madness Press, The McNeese Review, and several independent anthologies and audiovisual projects. Her novels include Shoot the Moon (2023), and the new midcentury drama, The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf.

Arsén applied the Page 69 Test to The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf and reported the following:

On page 69, Margaret is mid-argument with her director Ezra -- he has decided to cut her from his theater company in the wake of a messy public meltdown she experienced backstage, and she is attempting to plead her case to stay on:

"Probation," Ezra said, easy as anything, removing his pince-nez to fiddle them idly between his fingers. "Protracted."

"Replaced," I repeated, tasting the depths of its cruelty for the first time.

Ezra held in a sigh and canted his eyes up at me in exasperation. "You aren't in any fit state to perform, Margot. You have to see that."

My stitches had been removed the week prior. I applied a vitamin salve twice a day to the skinny red lines; the nurses told me it would work wonders -- See here, one said as she lifted the edge of her blouse, I had my appendix out and now you can barely tell. I was back to routine with Wesley, lunch at our favorite cafe three times a week and going with him to parties again with my new rotation of evening gloves.

I was alright. I was alive. I could forget this ever happened and move on.

But none of that mattered if I couldn't work.

I think this is a surprisingly good litmus of the book's main conflicts all bundled together. The reader is able to pick up on the relationship between Margaret and Ezra, understand that this comes after the breakdown hinted at on the jacket copy, and get a taste of how Margaret moves through the world: eager to move past (or straight-up ignore) her weaknesses, and determined to obey the pull of her ambition come hell or high water despite her own imbalances.

Visit Isa Arsén's website.

Q&A with Isa Arsén.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ocean Drive"

Sam Wiebe is an award-winning and best-selling author of Pacific Northwest crime fiction.

His Wakeland series includes Invisible Dead, Cut You Down, Hell and Gone, Sunset and Jericho, and the upcoming Wrath of Exiles. The series has been praised for its authenticity and social realism. He’s also the author of Ocean Drive, Last of the Independents, Never Going Back, and A Lonesome Place for Dying under the pen name Nolan Chase.

Wiebe applied the Page 69 Test to Ocean Drive and reported the following:

From page 69:

“Ivan’ll be by your place in twenty minutes. You got a bat?”

“Like for softball?”

More laughing, “For softball, yeah. That’s good. Our team plays a lot of night games.”

Cam was out of bed and dressed, guzzled an energy drink, dumped the ID out of his wallet. He waited ten minutes, thinking where he could get a baseball bat at two in the morning.

Page 69 of Ocean Drive captures the lurking violence and uncertainty of the novel, but not it’s scope. Cameron Shaw, one of the two main characters, is being drawn into a world of gang violence and criminal conspiracies. A test is coming up, and all he knows is that it will involve someone getting hurt.

Cam’s story intertwines with the other main character, Meghan Quick, the small town cop who’s unravelling this conspiracy. Meghan doesn’t factor on this page, but as Cam gets deeper into this world, she becomes his adversary—and possibly the only one who can save him.

Visit Sam Wiebe's website.

My Book, The Movie: Invisible Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Invisible Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Cut You Down.

Q&A with Sam Wiebe.

The Page 69 Test: Hell and Gone.

Writers Read: Sam Wiebe (March 2022).

My Book, The Movie: Hell and Gone.

My Book, The Movie: Sunset and Jericho.

Writers Read: Sam Wiebe (April 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Sunset and Jericho.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Bitter Passage"

Colin Mills graduated from the University of Queensland in 1987 with a BA in arts, majoring in Japanese language and literature. He spent most of the next eighteen years in Japan, where, after a brief career as a wire service reporter, he spent ten years in investment banking in Tokyo and a further decade in the portfolio management industry. He left the financial services industry in 2008 and is currently pursuing a PhD in creative writing at the Queensland University of Technology.

Mills applied the Page 69 Test to his debut novel, Bitter Passage, a work of historical fiction, and reported the following:

The Page 69 Test works for only the first half the page. As luck would have it, page 69 of Bitter Passage is bisected by a scene break. The second half of the page—after the scene break—lacks sufficient detail to inform the reader about the plot or characters, so it fails the test. The first half of the page, however, is more helpful as it hints at the friction that is starting to build between the two main characters, Lieutenant Robinson and Assistant Surgeon Adams. It is this friction, driven by the two characters’ contrasting objectives in searching for the lost explorer, Sir John Franklin, that underpins the story.

On page 69, we find the following exchange between the two main characters, Robinson and Adams, and the seaman Billings (the POV is Robinson’s):

Perhaps Sir John could batter his way through the ice with the sheer force of his character. “I’m hungry,” Billings said again. He wheedled like an exhausted child. “Mister Adams, I’m hungry.”

Robinson glared at Adams. “For God’s sake, give him something to do. Make him be quiet.”

“Jimmy,” said Adams, “go and keep watch for bears, will you? Shout if you see one. I will give you some biscuit soon.”

Without a word, Billings stood and lumbered away.

Robinson watched him leave, his jaw clenched. I am marooned in the wilderness with a romantic and a fool, he thought.

“I see nothing odd in holding a man like Franklin in high esteem,” said Adams. “Sir John’s accomplishments are admirable. A man would do well to emulate them.”

Robinson did not attempt to conceal his disdain. “Which of his feats are so admirable? Losing half his men on the way back from Point Turnagain? Eating his boots to stay alive? Getting lost in the ice?” He lifted his knapsack onto his shoulder. “Let us hope you do not emulate him on this mission.”

This exchange reflects the characters’ personalities and motivations, and foreshadows some of the conflict to come. Robinson is a glass half-empty kind of guy; cynical and concerned mostly with what success or failure will mean for him. Adams is more the glass half-full type; optimistic and selfless, as we see in his gentle treatment of the seaman, Billings. The exchange on page 69 foreshadows a clash of morality and ambition.

One reason for writing the novel was to explore the emotional state of the men who searched for Franklin and his men, something that isn’t explicit in the historical record of events. The senior commanders, James Clark Ross and Edward Bird, seemed driven largely by friendship and duty—they’d known Franklin for years and Francis Crozier, Frankin’s second-in-command, was Ross’ best friend. As a junior officer, Lieutenant Robinson must achieve a notable feat if he is to achieve promotion at a time when distinguishing himself in battle is impossible. The zealous Adams, meanwhile, thinks finding Franklin will appease the Almighty. On the bottom rung, the ordinary seamen were there for the money (discovery service paid double the usual wage).

Visit Colin Mills's website.

My Book, The Movie: Bitter Passage.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Knife Skills For Beginners"

Orlando Murrin is the debut author of Knife Skills For Beginners, a murder mystery set in a posh London cookery school. Having started out as a magazine sub-editor, he won through to the semi-final of the BBC Masterchef programme and found himself hurled into the world of food writing. He was editor of the UK’s bestselling food magazine, BBC Good Food, for six years before taking off to rural France to create a gastronomic guesthouse. He has written six cookbooks, including A Table in the Tarn (Stewart, Tabori and Chang), which describes his French adventure, and Two’s Company (Ryland Peters & Small), devoted to the art of cooking for couples, friends and room-mates.

Murrin applied the Page 69 Test to Knife Skills For Beginners and reported the following:

Knife Skills For Beginners is set in a posh London cookery school, where chef Paul Delamare has been persuaded to teach a course at short notice. He is a charming but sad character, coming to terms with the recent death of his partner. It is on page 69 that Paul takes the reader into his confidence, describing his fall from grace ten years earlier, and subsequent meeting with Marcus.

It is the only moment in the book when Paul looks back, and a reader stumbling across it would assume the book is decidedly dark – which it isn’t. During the flashback, we learn of his downward spiral into drugs and depression after his mother’s suicide, and his rescue by best friend Julie (who breaks in through a window). It makes me tingle even now to imagine the pair weeping in each others’ arms, but it’s not characteristic of the book, which is essentially a social comedy.

This scene does however mark a dramatic change in Paul’s fortunes, because lower down the page he takes Julie’s advice to start with something ‘doable’ and goes for a haircut.

‘As fate would have it, sitting at the next chair was a businessman. He was deep in conversation with his stylist, not about hair length or conditioning products, but about frying pans.’ Paul leans back and angles his head to get a better look: ‘after all, that’s what mirrors in hairdressing salons are for.’ The debonair businessman is destined to be the love of his life.

The book has been described by readers as both funny and scary: humour is Paul’s defence mechanism, and if you ask me, murder really is terrifying. The review I most treasure, however, describes it as ‘unexpectedly moving’. Page 69 certainly moves me, so I'm glad the test landed there, even if it doesn't sum up the book as a whole.

Visit Orlando Murrin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Floreana"

Midge Raymond is the author of the novels Floreana and My Last Continent, the short-story collection Forgetting English, and, with coauthor John Yunker, the mystery novel Devils Island. Her writing has appeared in TriQuarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, the Los Angeles Times magazine, Chicago Tribune, Poets & Writers, and many other publications. Raymond has taught at Boston University, Boston’s Grub Street Writers, Seattle’s Hugo House, and San Diego Writers, Ink. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she is co-founder of the boutique publisher Ashland Creek Press.

Raymond applied the Page 69 Test to Floreana and reported the following:

On page 69, Mallory, a scientist who has just returned to fieldwork after a decade away, is getting ready for an evening with unexpected visitors to Floreana Island after she has spent a long day in the equatorial heat building penguin nests. Here are the first two paragraphs on the page:

I take a cool shower and put on a loose white blouse and a long cotton skirt that will give my arms and legs a reprieve from the bug spray, though I still have to spray the backs of my hands, my wrists, my feet and ankles. I soak my palm and pat the repellent onto my cheeks, forehead, and neck.

I tie my wet hair back and, in the tiny bathroom mirror, take in my florid face, drooping eyes. I’ve avoided mirrors for months, though I have to admit that donning a skirt has as much to do with being seen next to Callie as avoiding bug spray. It feels indulgent to care what I look like—almost like a betrayal, if I let myself think of Scott and Emily—but I’m relieved to see the mirror’s reflection is not quite as bad as I thought. In the equatorial light, flecks of gold emerge from the brown of my eyes, and, thanks to the sun, my normally brown hair is sprayed with highlights.

This page doesn’t capture the novel as a whole because Floreana has two narratives—the re-imagined story of Dore Strauch, inspired by a real woman who settled on the island in the 1930s and got caught up in the mysterious disappearance of other settlers, and the contemporary story of Mallory, a penguin researcher who has returned to the field after leaving science behind to start a family.

This scene does capture a few key aspects of Mallory’s story: the complicated feelings about her husband, daughter, and what she left behind as well as what she risks by returning to the island; and her awareness of her age and the time that has slipped away since she last worked in penguin conservation. But Floreana isn’t complete without the narrative of Dore Strauch, a character inspired by a real woman who lived on Floreana and was part of a scandal in the 1930s. Only by reading both narratives can readers see how the two women struggle, despite being a century apart, with their identities and with love and family and what it means to them—and especially how they each dreamed of escape on Floreana, only to find the island was, in fact, the very place that forced them to confront their deepest, darkest desires and fears.

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

The Page 69 Test: My Last Continent.

Writers Read: Midge Raymond (June 2016).

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Champagne Letters"

Kate MacIntosh is always in search of the perfect bottle of wine, a great book, and a swoon worthy period costume drama. You’ll find her in Vancouver making friends with every dog she meets, teaching writing, and listening to true crime podcasts while lounging on the sofa in sweats and spouting random historical facts she finds interesting.

MacIntosh applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Champagne Letters, and reported the following:

How was I to compete with the sugary fiction the wench was dishing out?

My first reaction to the Page 69 Test was that the scene would give a reader a sense of character and tone to the book. While the character has had a minor setback, you can sense that she isn’t going to simply roll over and accept it.

The scene on page 69 takes place in the early 1800s with Barbe-Nicole Clicquot talking with her young daughter Clementine. Clementine is falling under the spell of a housemaid that Barbe-Nicole knows is up to no good. The Widow realizes that stories from others, especially those spun to be alluring, can be a trap. Then I realized the line above touches on a major theme in the book and as a result the scene passes the test more than I initially thought.

I’m fascinated by the power of narrative. It’s often not what happens to us, but the meaning we put on those events. We need to recognize the stories we tell ourselves and the power of those tales to shape our lives. The protagonist in the present-day story line, Natalie, is reeling from her divorce. Her husband of twenty-five years has left her for another (younger) woman and left her feeling abandoned and without direction. Her whole life she put him first and now she doesn’t even know what she wants. Reading the letters of the Widow Clicquot, she learns to tell herself a different story. That perhaps the story is that her husband leaving is a reflection on him, not her. And she can create an even better life for herself, even if she doesn’t fully know what she wants that to look like. Natalie’s discovering that she doesn’t need to believe other people’s stories, or wait to be rescued, and she’s in control of her own destiny.

Visit Kate MacIntosh's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Buried Road"

Katie Tallo has been an award-winning screenwriter and director for more than three decades. After winning an international contest for unpublished fiction, she began writing novels, including Dark August and Poison Lilies. She has a daughter and lives with her husband in Ottawa, Ontario.

Tallo applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Buried Road, and reported the following:

On page 69 of Buried Road, Gus and her young daughter run from a lighthouse where they had taken refuge for the night. Smoke billows everywhere but they soon see that it’s not the lighthouse that’s on fire. It’s their car, and along with it, the clues they’ve uncovered so far are burning. Gus is devastated and blames herself while her daughter, Bly, tries to comfort her. Gus says “Bad sticks to me.” The moment drops us right into the precariousness of the situation the two find themselves in as they search for a missing loved one. Clearly, someone wants them to stop looking. Gus’s past is also never far from her mind. “I was there when my mother was murdered,” she says at the bottom of page 69, as if to say she is the common factor in all bad things that happen. As her daughter tries to reassure her, their complicated, mother-daughter, dynamic is evident.

Yes, The Page 69 Test would give reader’s a very good glimpse at both the relationships in the novel and the dangers yet to come for the two protagonists as they travel along a Buried Road.

Visit Katie Tallo's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dark August.

Q&A with Katie Tallo.

Writers Read: Katie Tallo (June 2022).

--Marshal Zeringue