Her books have been translated into six languages, one reached the New York Times bestsellers list and one has been optioned for film and a possible TV series.Black applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Perish, and reported the following:
Chapter Eight opens on page 69. On this page, my main characters, forensic scientist Maggie Gardiner and homicide detective Jack Renner, along with Jack’s partner Riley, are in the sunny conference room of a small but very profitable mortgage origination firm. As a single page it’s not going to tell you a great deal about them, as most of the words deal with a possible suspect, Pierce Bowman. He is a typical Wall Street type in every way: white, male, older and supercilious. He also cannot tell them much about the woman found brutally murdered on page 1, Joanna Moorehouse, since he is only visiting from New York City to conduct some due diligence before his large firm buys the smaller one. Jack is, as usual, silently observing the proceedings and isn’t even mentioned on this page. Of Maggie we learn only that she is surprised that the snobby Bowman gives up his fingerprints and a DNA swab without complaint. We also get an idea of her keen perception, because she figures out that he only did so because he wants to put the other bigwigs present on the defensive.Learn more about the book and author at Lisa Black's website.
Riley doesn’t comment on Bowman but is looking out the window at a group of people on the sidewalk below. They are picketing the firm over its predatory lending practices, a possible reason for the owner’s murder.
My hopes would be, if you read only this page, that you might be curious about how a business firm came to produce a bloody murder so perplexing that these three smart people are at a loss to explain it. Much more investigation is required….
My Book, The Movie: Perish.
Writers Read: Lisa Black.
--Marshal Zeringue
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