"That May Not Mean What You Think"

Elizabeth Crane is the author of several collections of short stories, including Turf, When the Messenger is Hot, All this Heavenly Glory, and You Must Be This Happy to Enter, a memoir, This Story Will Change, as well as two novels, We Only Know So Much and The History of Great Things.

Crane applied the Page 69 Test to her latest story collection, That May Not Mean What You Think, and shared the following:

Page 69 of That May Not Mean What You Think comes in on page three of a story called "The Long Trial," but I'm gonna say on a couple of the more important fronts, this page should give you a good sense of whether or not you're interested in reading more. It's very reflective of my prose style, which typically plays with form and style, and you can gather quickly that the content of the story relates to the title, and that it is a trial of someone who has harassed... a lot of women. On this page, the reader is introduced to some of the members of the court and some of the people in attendance, all of the above having had some experience with harassment.

The court interpreter was a trans woman who had stories that would break you. The court interpreter had been harassed every goddamn day since she was in first grade and went to school wearing purple nail polish. Her stories did not get better from there.

The court security guard was a woman who had never been an actress but was alive in the world.

The court zombie was not alive in the world but had once been a living woman who felt bad about her appearance, even though she had never been an actress. An HR guy once told her to undo a couple of buttons on her blouse to make up the difference for what she didn't have up top. You can imagine she didn't feel better about her appearance once she was undead.

I think even these three short paragraphs from page 69 offer some humor, which can definitely be found throughout the book.

Visit Elizabeth Crane's website.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane (April 2008).

The Page 69 Test: We Only Know So Much.

My Book, The Movie: We Only Know So Much.

Coffee with a Canine: Elizabeth Crane & Percy.

Q&A with Elizabeth Crane.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Operation Icebreaker"

Humphrey Hawksley has reported on key trends, events and conflicts from all over the world.

His work as a BBC foreign correspondent has taken him to crises on every continent.

Hawksley applied the Page 69 Test to his new Rake Ozenna thriller, Operation Icebreaker, and reported the following:

From page 69:

Further up the food chain, there would be friction as the American military tried to protect its own against the softer Europeans. By the rule book, NATO banned the use of information from killing or torture, no exceptions. In the field, things were murkier.

Page 69 of Operation Icebreaker is a slice of backstory showing the violent evil of key antagonist, Dave Hanning, and of Rake’s own juggling of moral choices and military rules in order to save lives.

While Rake doesn’t even recognise Hanning in their next encounter, Hanning has allowed his resentment to fester and consume. He never forgives Rake for exposing his methods, and the two meet for a showdown on the frozen wastelands of Arctic Greenland. Page 69 lays down a marker of two men drawing their own red lines of what is right and wrong. One is a villain, the other a hero.

Visit Humphrey Hawksley's website.

The Page 69 Test: The History Book.

My Book, The Movie: Security Breach.

My Book, The Movie: Man on Ice.

Writers Read: Humphrey Hawksley (May 2018).

The Page 69 Test: Man on Ice.

The Page 69 Test: Man on Fire.

My Book, The Movie: Operation Icebreaker.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Looks Perfect"

Jessica Siskin earned her MFA from the New School. She is the founder of Misterkrisp, a popular Instagram-based food art business specializing in custom Rice Krispies Treats and social media content. She is the author of Treat Yourself!, a cookbook featuring her inventive food art. Looks Perfect, her debut novel, is about a buzzy fashion designer whose relationship is crumbling just as her business explodes. Her Substack, Cool Takes, tackles Internet culture, beauty standards, where to get the best snacks, and whatever else feels topical. Siskin lives in New York City.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Looks Perfect with the following results:

Page 69 of Looks Perfect is toward the beginning of my protagonist, Stella Lerner’s description of her romantic history and how she ended up at the crossroads she currently faces amidst tension with her boyfriend, Alex. She talks about how she’d had her whole life planned out with her High School boyfriend when he broke up with her after they went to college, and she learned for the first time that she wasn’t fully in control of her romantic future, that a relationship requires the full cooperation of two different people.

If someone were to open Looks Perfect to page 69, they’d get a very good idea of the book as a whole. While it’s part of a tangent that visits Stella’s past and doesn’t exist in the present where the book’s narrative takes place, it gives a really clear glimpse into how Stella moves through the world, what’s important to her, her vulnerability, and her sense of humor. It contains one of my favorite jokes in the book, when Stella describes her boyfriend breaking up with her and backing out of her room “as if retreating respectfully from the Western Wall in Jerusalem,” a reference to the tradition of not facing one’s back to the holy site while departing, so visitors leave by walking backwards. I think this joke reflects the way Stella uses humor to process tough emotions, not as a way to deflect or distance herself from pain but to actually linger there a bit longer. Page 69 is, in a way, Stella’s “villain origin story” (as the kids say) in that her worldview around romantic relationships was born on this page, and that worldview is guiding the fear she’s feeling as her current relationship is evolving in a way that doesn’t match her vision for the future. Stella is a dreamer and storyteller, which really comes across on page 69 and throughout the book, and in the relationship detailed on this page as well as throughout the book, she finds herself torn between a story she’s curated in her head and the reality in front of her. Reconciling these and learning to detach from her desire to control, and to instead allow things to unfold, is really at the heart of Stella’s story arc.

Visit Jessica Siskin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Istanbul Dreaming"

Denise Derya Brandt worked in international development for more than twenty years and led women’s health projects in Afghanistan, Liberia, and Myanmar before becoming a published author. A Book Incubator graduate, 2024 Women's Fiction Writers Association Rising Star Award finalist, and 2025 Poets & Writers Publicity Incubator Fellow, Brandt has degrees from Arizona State and the London School of Economics. As a Turkish American, she claims she can fool tourists but not taxi drivers! Raised in Arizona, Brandt now lives in northern Kentucky with her husband.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Istanbul Dreaming, her debut novel, and shared the following:

From page 69:

Finally alone, Salih removed his tie and unfastened the top button of his shirt while Ayten stood by the door, still as a statue, her stomach in knots. She shouldn’t feel shy. This was Salih. They’d known each other since childhood.

Salih lifted the tiara and veil off her head. Ayten closed her eyes and pursed her lips ever so slightly, waiting to feel the tickle of his mustache, waiting for him to kiss her. But he didn’t, and when she opened her eyes and met his, he looked wolfish, like he wanted to devour her.

“That was quite a reception, wasn’t it, my wife?” he asked.

Ayten released her breath. “It was, my husband.” How long would that word feel foreign in her mind? “It was swell to see everyone.”

“You seemed to really enjoy yourself.” This change in his tone, was he accusing her of something? “The way you were twirling your hips, was that for me?” Salih squeezed Ayten’s hips and pulled her closer. “Or were you dancing for all those other men? Because everyone was watching you.”

The look in Salih’s eyes and his tight grip frightened her. Could he really be angry with her for dancing? She’d only done what everyone else was doing, what was expected at a wedding reception. And what other men? The guests were mostly family, older relatives, a few children. She couldn’t understand what she’d done wrong. Even her father had been dancing.

Salih interrupted her thoughts as he reached behind her and unzipped her dress, which puddled around her ankles. He remained fully clothed as Ayten stood before him wearing only her brassiere, gold necklace, and petticoat. She instinctively wrapped her arms across her body and averted her eyes.

Salih lowered her hands and pressed his body against her. Then he kissed her lips, hard. Ayten closed her eyes and held her breath. His mustache smelled of cigarettes. She wished he’d shaved it off. As his tongue darted in and out of her mouth, she tried to mimic him, opening her mouth, using…

Page 69 is page two of chapter 13, and it drops the reader directly into the wedding night, the moment everything shifts for the main character, Ayten.

After Ayten’s father forces her into an arranged marriage with Salih (the first inciting incident), she resigns to her fate and hopes for the best. But what Salih does on this night, their wedding night, changes everything for Ayten.

Does page 69 represent the whole story? No, not entirely. We only meet two of the many characters. But it does give the reader insight into these two characters’ personalities and positions. We see Ayten is young, nervous, and compliant. Her stomach is in knots, yet she goes along because it’s what is expected of her. We see Salih is jealous and accusatory, even a bit menacing. The wedding night is the point at which Ayten’s quiet resignation breaks, and everything that follows is the story of what she’s willing to risk to build a different life for herself. But to understand how Ayten gets here and where she ends up, you’ll have to read from beginning to end!

Visit Denise Derya Brandt's website.

Writers Read: Denise Derya Brandt.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Trad Wife"

Sarah Langan, a Columbia MFA graduate and three-time recipient of the Bram Stoker Award, is the author of several novels including A Better World, Good Neighbors, and Trad Wife. She’s got an MS in environmental health science, grew up on Long Island, and she currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughters.

Langan applied the Page 69 Test to Trad Wife and reported the following:

From page 69:

“I’m really not good with them,” Jenny answered.

Either because his mom was about to release him, or because a stranger was about to hold him, Isaac’s sleepy expression went sideways and weepy.

“Come on,” Mia said. “He doesn’t bite. Don’t make me burn a roast.”

Jenny took him. He was more solid than she’d expected. Heavier and warmer.

As Mia pulled out the roast, he started crying.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” she said when she returned. She rearranged Jenny’s hands so that Isaac sat comfortably, his head resting on her shoulder. Jenny felt a familiar and bewildering thrill. She smelled his head, and that smell was spectacular.

“You’ve really never held a baby before?”

“I avoid it.”

She appraised Jenny, amused. “This calls for a reel!”

She pulled out her phone.

“Don’t,” Jenny said. No telling how The Brotherhood would react.

“It’s too adorable to miss!” She started recording. “How does it feel to hold my babushka?” she asked, loud and for an audience.

Jenny was so uncomfortable with the camera that she didn’t answer.

“Come on. My subscribers want to know. I never let anybody in this close. Give them a hint. What’s Isaac like?”

Jenny relented. She remembered holding Melissa, and Luke after that. She’d always meant to tell Melissa that her son was perfect in every way. That she adored him. That she’d protect him forever, even if she’d never babysit. But she hadn’t done that. She hadn’t said anything.

“I love him,” Jenny said.

Page 69 is in keeping with the theme of the book -- motherhood, performance, judgement. A cigar is never just a cigar, and for a woman, a baby is never just a baby. My main character here, Jenny, has been canceled for writing honestly about her abortion and for leaving her mentally ill fiance. Everybody calls her selfish. Then we have trad Wife Mia, who's performing but not actually living her life, and no one actually knows who she is, but they all love her. They're both women in boxes, trying to figure a way to happiness.

Visit Sarah Langan's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Keeper.

My Book, The Movie: The Missing.

The Page 69 Test: Good Neighbors.

My Book, The Movie: Good Neighbors.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Night of Madness"

Ryan Douglass is the author of young adult horror novel The Taking of Jake Livingston, a New York Times bestseller and an ALA Rainbow Book List Pick; The Great Disillusionment of Nick and Jay, a reimagining of The Great Gatsby set in 1920s Harlem; and Night of Madness, a collaboration with the company behind Clown in a Cornfield. His work explores the ways young people fight to survive in hostile worlds. He lives in Atlanta with his dog and spends his free time baking ambitious desserts and scoping out true crime documentaries.

Douglass applied the Page 69 Test to Night of Madness with the following results:

From page 69:

DING! A message alert pulls me out of the script. Something my father seems to have written, which reads oddly similar to the actual movie that was made.

I have a notification from the website—Tanner Hoang has sent me a DM.

Tanner: Yo, was that scene in the woods staged?

I freeze for a second, thumbs hovering over the keyboard. You’d think we talked every day the way he just slid into my DMs, but I don’t know this guy at all. 

I let the message linger and study his profile picture—an undershot, hair tousled, round sunglasses on, palm tree in the background, aloof expression. Himbo with a hot girlfriend. It’s like someone handed him the script for a “jock” role that was never meant for him, but he decided to play it straight rather than subvert it at all. 

And that’s why Tanner’s never been interesting to me, beyond surface level. Pictures of him touch my algorithm along with other boys who post fitness progress in half-lit gyms or ride horses or pose with fish they caught—they orbit the same kind of performance: living life so loudly, they must be seeking validation. The algorithm feeds me his face occasionally like it knows I’m watching in a casual way, even when I’m pretending not to. 

This page does not accurately portray what the book is like, and I don't think a reader would have much idea what they're in for if they opened to this page alone. While it clues the reader into the social media theme running through the book, it's mostly an observation of a character who enters the game alongside Mara. Tanner does eventually become something of a love interest for her, but it is through the brutal conditions of their shared survival that they form that bond.

Mara is mostly not focused on guys throughout the story. She's focused on her own journey and on winning enough money to help her family. This scene paints a picture that feels more contemporary and character-driven than representative of what the book is ultimately about: unsettling horror.

At the same time, I think the page offers a precursor to something we learn about Mara's vulnerability. She likes to believe she doesn't need anyone's help to get through the world, partly because of the pressures she's faced as the eldest daughter. But even here, she admits that while she pretends she's not watching Tanner, part of her is watching.

As the book progresses, we see that vulnerability slowly peel back. So while page 69 isn't a particularly good advertisement for the horror that awaits the reader, it does offer a small piece of foreshadowing for Mara's emotional journey.

Follow Ryan Douglass on Instagram and Threads.

Q&A with Ryan Douglass.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Artful Anna Harris"

Tracy Maton has had a varied career as a copywriter, a marketer, a quality improvement ambassador in the UK’s National Health Service, and a children’s entertainer. When she’s not writing, she can be found swimming in her local lake. Maton was born in Montreal and now lives in Bristol, England, with her husband and three occasionally present children.

She applied the Page 69 Test to The Artful Anna Harris, her debut novel, and shared the following:

Page 69 of The Artful Anna Harris finds Anna lying on her garden bench, musing. She is interrupted by a phone call.

It is Sofia’s landlord. She deals with the condolences in one sentence and we are onto business.

‘I gather from Sofia Carstairs’ father that you are going to clear out the cottage. Might you manage that by Monday?’

The vastness of the monochrome blue sky, devoid of even a wisp of cloud, reminds me of how insignificant we all are: mere pixels.

‘Yes, I suppose so.’

‘Leave the key, please. And many thanks, Anna – I realise this is an unpleasant undertaking.’

I resume my position but can’t recover my contemplative state. My Adidas shorts have ridden up and my thighs are sticking together; I flop over onto my front and bury my face in the cushion. The mini-heatwave came yesterday and is forecast to last until Tuesday. School has gone into overdrive marshalling gazebos and demanding children arrive with hats and sun cream already applied. I can’t get excited about what is an everyday temperature for half the world.

The morgue keeps bodies at the same temperature as supermarket meat. Being asked to identify a chilled, sanitised version of your loved one seems a very unenviable task. After seeing Sofia’s body, Rollo went straight to her cottage and evidently that was his undoing; I got a call from Tamsin saying as much. She said he had taken a few items but, would I mind? Keep, donate, discard, as I like.

Page 69 works quite hard without seeming to. A browsing reader would gather there has been a death of someone called Sofia; her death was in some way premature because her father is still alive and clearly distraught; Sofia is closely connected to Anna; yet Anna readily contrasts her chilled body with supermarket meat. After the death of someone close enough for Anna to be asked by the family to clear her house, the expectation would be grief. However, there is not only a lack of emotion but a sense Sofia's death is insignificant as, ultimately, is everything.

So, in my opinion, this is a robust test. Page 69 provides insights into Anna’s character – her mordant humour, her irreverence, a suggestion she does not have normal relationships – showcases her lively internal commentary and establishes there will be dying.

Unlike many novels labelled as crime or psychological thriller, in The Artful Anna Harris there is no mystery as to who is the architect of all that happens. Although there is plenty of plot, the narrative is character-driven and Anna’s strong voice invites the audience along for the ride that is her life. If that voice doesn’t appeal, the browser should try another page 69.

Follow Tracy Maton on Instagram and Threads.

Q&A with Tracy Maton.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Dangerous Bargain"

Erin Cotter writes young adult fiction. Originally from Buffalo, New York, she currently calls Austin home. When not writing she spends time with her partner and pets, eating tacos, and searching for Golden-cheeked Warblers in the Texas Hill Country.

Cotter applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, A Dangerous Bargain, and reported the following:

Okay, I was skeptical of this test, but the Page 69 Test really works for A Dangerous Bargain! It reveals a typical exchange between the protagonist Virgil and his love interest, Leonardo da Vinci. The boys are rival apprentices in a Renaissance painting studio, and have been at odds with each other for years. Serious, buttoned up Virgil is endlessly annoyed by Leonardo’s cocky charm and lack of respect for the rules. This page is the first scene where the painters have decided to work together on purpose, and I love the banter, the he-said-he-said of it all, and how you get a hint that if they could just communicate and figure out their own problems, they might be able to create something incredible. Their workplace romance was especially fun to write because I love how the workplace creates a bit of forced proximity and begrudging respect between enemies. After all, if your success depends on what someone else is doing, you have to care about them just a little bit! (And spoiler alert, Virgil cares about Leonardo a whole lot, even if he doesn’t realize it fully on page 69.)

Visit Erin Cotter's website.

Writers Read: Erin Cotter.

--Marshal Zeringue

"One Split Second"

Robert Dugoni is a critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author, reaching over 9 million readers worldwide. He is best known for his Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle. He is also the author of the Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels including The 7th Canon, Damage Control, The World Played Chess, and Her Deadly Game. His novel The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell received Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, and Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award. The Washington Post named his nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary a Best Book of the Year.

Dugoni applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, One Split Second, with the following results:

Page 69 of One Split Second is, ironically, the first page of chapter 7. Detective Tracy Crosswhite and her husband, attorney Dan O’Leary, have returned to their home in Redmond after traveling to Stoneridge, Washington where Tracy’s academy classmate, Jenny Almond, sheriff of Klickitat County has been accused of murder. Tracy suspects the murder is a coverup to a much bigger crime – the abduction of babysitter, Jaquelyn Parker, 45 years ago. Tracy and Dan arrive home to find Therese, their live-in nanny has started dinner, and locked out their two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Rex and Sherlock, for being rambunctious. Meanwhile, Lydia, a young woman they are mentoring is in the living room entertaining their young daughter, Daniella.

Unfortunately, while this page educates the reader that Tracy is more than a homicide detective - a spouse, a mother, and a friend, and has to deal with all the things that go along with those responsibilities while trying to do a difficult job, it doesn’t speak to the underlying crime, or to the conspiracy that Tracy suspects is hiding secrets. The page is important to establish Tracy’s world, and it expresses that we are all more than just a job title, doing our best to fulfill the many roles and responsibilities we have.

One thing I’ve learned from the 12 Tracy Crosswhite novels is my readers want to know more about her world, the many hats Tracy wears. They also want more of her original world on the Violent Crimes A-Team with partners Del Castigliano, Vic Fazzio and her former partner, Kinsington Rowe. I’ve heard you. Get ready for Graves Tell Lies. Tracy 13. A return to the A-team.

Visit Robert Dugoni's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Wrongful Death.

The Page 69 Test: Bodily Harm.

My Book, The Movie: Bodily Harm.

The Page 69 Test: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: The Eighth Sister.

The Page 69 Test: The Eighth Sister.

My Book, The Movie: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Agent.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Agent.

Q&A with Robert Dugoni.

The Page 69 Test: In Her Tracks.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: A Killing on the Hill.

My Book, The Movie: A Killing on the Hill.

The Page 69 Test: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

My Book, The Movie: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (October 2024).

My Book, The Movie: Her Cold Justice.

The Page 69 Test: Her Cold Justice.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (February 2026).

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni.

--Marshal Zeringue

"#AuthorLife"

Joe Zagets is the pseudonym of bestselling author Zoje Stage. Zagets fell in love with the power of storytelling over teen summers spent at the American Ibsen Theater. He went on to write plays, poetry, and essays―while working an eclectic series of jobs at a video store, shoe store, a regional television station, and a public library. When not writing he can be found contemplating how we got here.

Zagets applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, #AuthorLife, and shared the following:

From page 69:

Every omission and perceived slight reminded him that he hadn’t reached a level where he was viewed as Someone Important—a real talent who had valuable stories to contribute. He wasn’t sure why he was being overlooked, especially given the advantage he held, in this regard, as a white man. By his observation, men still earned more praise and more respect, as a patriarchal society was committed to believing that men were innately more creative and started from a place of greater intellectual ability. And it was often true that books by men were considered of greater mass interest. (There was no such thing as Men’s Fiction, after all.)

Mack recognized, sheepishly yet jealously, that the geniuses of the world were men—the iconoclasts, the standard bearers. Men’s accomplishments were passed down through history, and that all might be unfair, but in theory shouldn’t it work to his advantage?

I think this is a fascinating excerpt to see if/how page 69 represents #AuthorLife. In certain ways, this text is the heart of the matter with its expression of misogyny, ego, and entitlement—as well as the main character's authorly frustrations. But in other ways, such as tone, it isn't quite a fully accurate representation of the book.

Mack is prone to having truly cringeworthy thoughts, and while this excerpt is cringe in certain ways, it's also a fairly well argued observation about society. In that sense, it's a little more philosophical or intellectual than much of what usually pops into his head. These isolated paragraphs might give the impression of Mack being a deep thinker, but more often his thoughts are overtly pathetic or ridiculous.

Given the satirical nature of the book, there are elements of truth behind much of the exposition. But, also due to the satirical nature, it's typically presented in a more over-the-top, groanworthy sort of way. Yet, this excerpt could serve as an explanation for why I chose to make the main character a white man—precisely because he has expectations of success that are based on real world biases. Any other demographic wouldn't have felt so entitled to accomplishments that include such precarious odds; with any other demographic, I think it would have been harder to believe that a character would make such drastic decisions in the face of something as unlikely as becoming "Someone Important."

Visit Joe Zaget's Instagram page and Zoje Stage's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Dead Girls"

Beck Kubrick is an award-winning writer and cartoonist living in Manchester, UK. They like stories about terrible girls and thinking about the apocalypse. They have worked with Cartoon Network, Mad Cave Studios, Oni Press, and more.

Kubrick applied the Page 69 Test to Dead Girls, their debut graphic novel as author-illustrator, and reported the following:

It’s not an absurdly out of character page, or a purely logistical, plot dense, I’m sacrificing-this- page-to-deseminate-key-information-the-reader-needs but it’s also not a perfect microcosm of the story. It’s a comedy-horror about girls fighting killers in weird, furry masks and that is captured here. The characterisation is solid; Ash is stoic, Jamie is dry and sarcastic and Cassie is a little oblivious and likes cute things and there’s some banter. However, the page focuses on Jamie’s injury and Cassie/ Jamie’s friendship/ relationship, which aren’t huge focuses throughout the narrative. Ash, our protagonist who is typically our POV character, is less of a focus, too.

The dirty-but-cutesy, character-shaped backpack itself is aesthetically very representative of the story and is literally on the (US) cover. The reader obviously doesn’t have the context for who Heather is with this page alone, but hopefully can infer enough context.

I don’t think it’s a perfect test for my book, maybe five out of ten? Maybe it’s like dog years and the conversion rate of page 69 in prose novels is different for graphic novels/ comics. A picture paints a thousand words etc. so it should be a different page number.

I suppose the test is that people who read page 69 first and like it, tend to enjoy the book rather than ‘is page 69 the perfect summation and encapsulation of the essence of the book’ and perhaps that venn diagram is in fact a circle. I don’t think it’s a great shortcut for my book but I’m open to being proven wrong! If any readers read the book based on the page, let me know!

Follow Beck Kubrick on Instagram.

My Book, The Movie: Dead Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Hidden Currents"

Claire Booth spent more than a decade as a daily newspaper reporter, much of it covering crimes so convoluted and strange they seemed more like fiction than reality. Eventually, she had enough of the real world and decided to write novels instead. Her Sheriff Hank Worth mystery series takes place in Branson, Missouri, where small-town Ozark politics and big-city country music tourism clash in, yes, strange and convoluted ways. Her latest is the critically acclaimed Hidden Currents.

Booth applied the Page 69 Test to Hidden Currents with the following results:

From page 69:

The last sentence was half defiant, half uncertain. She stood there bristling in the dark, a mama porcupine because she didn’t have the resources to be a bear. Her thin pajama pants fluttered in the cold breeze as she crossed her arms protectively over her chest and told him wearily that he’d pronounced her name wrong. “It’s pronounced like ‘machine’ with an ‘R’. Everybody always gets it wrong.” She curled inward even more and tried to stifle a sniffle. “If I’d known she was going to take off, I wouldn’t have even gone to work.”

By now Hank had backed clear off the porch. Hovering wouldn’t help calm her down. Letting her tell her story might. “Who took off?”

“Marie. Useless shitbag. Six hours. That’s all I needed.” Usually her mother watched the kids, but she had an appointment in Springfield. So Cousin Marie stepped in. And then stepped out.

“How’d you find out?” Hank said. “Who called you?” In his experience, useless shitbags didn’t tend to be that considerate.

“Kayden did.” At Hank’s blank look, she pointed behind her. “My son.”

She’d taught her four-year-old how to use the recall button on an old flip phone for just this reason. Undependable relatives and a non-custodial father with a habit of coming around anyway. This was the first time he’d ever had to use it. Then he sat with his two-year-old sister until Rachine got home, wild-eyed and panicked. She didn’t admit to that last part, but Hank figured it was a safe assumption.

“And were they both OK?” he asked softly.

She nodded, tearing up at the memory. She pointed at Hank with a trembling finger. “So Cole can take me back to court again, but this one thing don’t mean I’m unfit. You tell him I’ll fight him just like I did last time.”

No wonder she was so scared. He felt terrible. He would’ve explained right away if he’d known.

He held up a hand, palm out. “Rachine, I’m not here for that. At all. I’m here about you and Gene. Not you and your kids. I need to know about your work.”

If a reader opens to this page 69, they won’t find out much about the plot, but they’ll get a very good take on my main character, Hank Worth. He’s the sheriff of Branson County, Missouri, and this page shows him at his best. He’s kind and patient and very good at thinking through how he deals with people. This young woman works for a man who’s just been found murdered. He needs information, but she’s so panicked that he knows he won’t get anywhere until he calms her down.

Rachine, the young, single mom, has an ex-boyfriend who hated her boss, the man Hank found dead earlier in the day. Gene Willard was new to town. He bought a local business, moved right in like a bulldozer, and made a lot of enemies. So Hank has his work cut out for him as he investigates Willard’s murder. Some people, like Rachine, will try to help. Many more, including the victim’s own family, will do the opposite. They block the investigation any way they can—refusing to talk, destroying evidence, fleeing the scene. It takes all of Hank’s patience, and a good measure of stubbornness, to figure out who among Willard’s enemies is the killer.

Visit Claire Booth's website.

My Book, The Movie: Another Man's Ground.

The Page 69 Test: Another Man's Ground.

My Book, The Movie: A Deadly Turn.

The Page 69 Test: A Deadly Turn. 

Writers Read: Claire Booth (March 2019).

My Book, The Movie: Fatal Divisions.

The Page 69 Test: Fatal Divisions.

Q&A with Claire Booth.

--Marshal Zeringue