two decades as a professor, he served on the editorial staffs of several academic publications and he won numerous awards and recognitions for his teaching and his scholarly writing. Johns was born and raised in Louisiana. He and his wife Julie now live in Georgia.Johns applied the Page 69 Test to Dark River Rising, his first novel, and reported the following:
Dark River Rising is a mystery set in present-day Baton Rouge. From page 1, paragraph 1, police detective Wallace Hartman knows she’s dealing with the most startling murder she’ll ever encounter: “Wallace Hartman had never seen a dead man move, but the guy in front of her was definitely dead, and definitely moving. He just wasn’t going anywhere. There was a crudely sutured incision just below his rib cage and his abdomen heaved with a sinuous reptilian rhythm. Wallace’s mind recoiled from what her eyes insisted was true––that a snake was slithering among his innards searching for a way out. The corpse looked like it was belly dancing its way into the hereafter.” Wallace certainly needs to find out who did this, but just as importantly, she needs to know why. By page 69, Wallace and a federal investigator with his own interest in the murder have been introduced and the nature of their relationship has been established. Two pivotal events occur on page 69 itself: Wallace and her federal colleague discover they’ve been seriously deceived by someone who should have been willing to help, and they find an unexpected ally who gives them a glimpse into just what kind of odds they’re going to be up against––a burned house that looks a lot like arson, a missing researcher, and a cover-up by the researcher’s higher-ups.Visit Roger Johns's website.
--Marshal Zeringue