"The Secrets of Bones"

Kylie Logan is the national bestselling author of the Jazz Ramsey Mysteries, The League of Literary Ladies Mysteries, the Button Box Mysteries, the Chili Cook-Off Mysteries, and the Ethnic Eats Mysteries.

Logan applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Secrets of Bones, the second Jazz Ramsey Mystery, and reported the following:

From page 69:

“So what...” Juliette was so afraid of the answer, she could barely get out the words of her question. “What are you doing to do?”

“Me?” Jazz left Titus right where he was and picked up the other cat. “I’m going to take this cat back to Juliette’s where he belongs. Then I’m going to come back here to school, and when I get here I better find the three of you talking to Sister Eileen and Ms. Quinn, explaining what you did and why you did it.”

“But--”

Jazz cut off Cammie with a glare. “And you know what else you’re going to do? After the last bell rings today, you three are going to meet me right here. I’ll have Frank get some gloves and some shovels. You three are going to bury Titus.”

Here’s what’s going on…Jazz Ramsey (the heroine) has found out that three of the girls at the school where she works are pulling a prank on a teacher they don’t like. They have done a switcheroo, taking a sick cat the teacher has been tending and replacing it with a look-alike well cat in order to make the teacher (who is very religious) believe her prayers have been answered. When Jazz discovers what’s going on and the sick cat dies, Jazz metes out a unique punishment.

By reading this page would readers get a good idea of what The Secrets of Bones is about? I’m going to have to say, probably not. Because what’s going on is a flashback intended to convey not only the personality of the teacher who’s being pranked, but the way her students treated her. This is a teacher who’s been missing for three years and finding out what she was really like is vital to the story, but again, it’s a flashback, so not actually happening in “real” story time. The page does, though, help the reader to get to know Jazz better. She senses the girls are up to something, follows her instincts, and uncovers the truth. She’s an animal lover and she’s appalled at what the girls did. She’s also sensitive to the fact that what they did is going to hurt Ms. Quinn, the teacher they pranked, and so, it makes her more determined to figure out what happened to Bernadette Quinn and that is the heart of the story.

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--Marshal Zeringue