adult novels of psychological suspense, including Panic; Blink, an Edgar Award nominee; and Oblivion, which was chosen as one of the New York Public Library’s Best Books for Teens, recommended by the School Library Journal, endorsed by the American Library Association, and selected by the 2016 Illinois Reading Council as a featured book.
Reeds applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Day I Disappeared, and reported the following:
Page 69 in The Day I Disappeared details Detective Jason Guidry's desperation to solve cold kidnapping cases. He's discussing the cases with Holly, whom he believes to be the kidnapper's first victim. We also learn that while a man was convicted for Holly's kidnapping 20 years ago, new evidence suggests they got the wrong guy.Visit Brandi Reeds's website.
This page is actually a pretty good representation of what readers can expect to read about on a high level in regards to the reason for the story (the possibility of a serial kidnapper); however, it doesn't come close to touching on the personal stories woven throughout the cold cases--Holly's in particular. The page doesn't mention Holly's mother, Cecily, either, whose account of Holly's kidnapping 20 years ago is germane to the conflict at hand. Readers using the Page 69 test might mistake this book for a crime novel, when really it's much more of a domestic tale at the heart of a crime.
While page 69 neglects the characters driving the story, it does touch on the location of the work. The midwestern landscape becomes a character itself, and I hope conveys that the region may consist of small town after small town, but each Main Street is a vein in a larger entity. Small towns, therefore, become vast. The enormity of the world is also a repeating theme in The Day I Disappeared.
--Marshal Zeringue
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