"Under the Cold Bright Lights"

Garry Disher is one of Australia’s best-known novelists. He’s published over 50 books in a range of genres, including crime, children’s books, and Australian history. He lives on the Mornington Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne.

Disher applied the Page 69 Test to his novel Under the Cold Bright Lights and reported the following:

Page 69 of Under the Cold Bright Lights happens to reflect perfectly the book as a whole. On page 69, police searching a house discover vials of a hospital drug known as "sux" (succinylcholine), which can kill in certain circumstances and not leave a trace. This dovetails with the back story, in which the main character, a burnt-out cold case detective named Auhl, suspects a suave doctor had murdered two of his wives and intends to murder the third. And the drug resonates all through the book, most satisfyingly in the final chapter, in which...

Visit Garry Disher's website.

--Marshal Zeringue