she earned a master’s degree from the Sorbonne University in Paris, and discovered her love of writing novels.Currently, she lives and writes outside Portland, Oregon, with her husband, son, and one very demanding feline.
Marr applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Lies We Bury, and reported the following:
True to form, the Page 69 test has done it again. In Lies We Bury, this location opens on main character Marissa Claire Lou analyzing a note that invites her to discover the next dead body--the second one, to her knowledge. The first was found inside a Portland brewery, where a stuffed animal she owned as a child was also inexplicably seen. As the note challenges, “Find the name I most admire and you’ll find the next one first.”Visit Elle Marr's website.
In debating her choices--Just where should she look exactly? Should she turn the note over to the police?--this section also reflects a greater theme throughout the book: motivations are important. It’s not enough to simply know an act was committed; we want to understand why, especially given the most heinous forms of brutality. If Marissa can identify the person the killer admires most, as the note taunts, if she can piece together what drives them to take a life, she might be able to find the killer herself and stop them from leaving items from Marissa’s childhood at each crime scene.
As the rest of the story unfolds and more signs point to Marissa as the murderer, we see just how ambiguous motivations can be.
The Page 69 Test: The Missing Sister.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
