of her native Dayton, Ohio for the Dayton Daily News. Her first novel in the Kinship Historical Mystery series garnered awards even before publication: Montgomery County (Ohio) Arts & Cultural District (MCAD) Artist Opportunity Grant (2018); Individual Excellence Award (2016) in Literary Arts from Ohio Arts Council; John E. Nance Writer in Residence at Thurber House (Columbus, Ohio) in 2014.Montgomery applied the Page 69 Test to The Echoes, the fourth novel in the Kinship series, and reported the following:
On page 69, Lily Ross, Sheriff of Bronwyn County in the Appalachian area of Ohio, is at the grand opening on July 4 of an amusement park dedicated to veterans, particularly to her brother Roger, who died in the Great War. The park—which features a shooting range, fishing pond, archery, dance floor, and similar activities—was built by Chalmer, a veteran and owner of the local lumber mill. His cousin Hiram, also a veteran, has helped build the park. In this scene Hiram has just had a strong reaction to the sound of gunfire—triggered by PTSD, though it would not have been called by that name in 1928. Lily is attempting to calm him:Visit Jess Montgomery's website.But Hiram has always, Lily reflects, looked scared, about to jump out of his skin at the least provocation. Lily digs back in her memory. Roger and Hiram had been friends, but then Roger was popular with everyone. Still, Lily finds a few hazy memories of Hiram coming over to their house after school and Mama always setting an extra spot for him. Daddy always offered to take Hiram back to his house after dinner, but Hiram would always walk, his insistence almost panicky. And Lily hadn’t thought much about it then, how hard it must have been for Hiram to come into town for school each day—well, most days, and as he got older, he missed more days than he attended. He’d dropped out after tenth grade.This page captures the driving force of the plot, Lily’s personality, Hiram’s character, and the theme of The Echoes. Plot: much of the plot is driven by contention over the land on which the park is built. Lily’s personality: Lily is a strong woman and a hard-working sheriff. She is not afraid of physical confrontation, but where possible, she prefers de-escalation and discussion to diffuse difficult situations. Hiram’s character: Hiram is a gentle soul wracked by PTSD from his experiences in the Great War, which contributes to his uncertainty about how to navigate the world around him. Theme: secrets from the past, and how much we share or don’t share with our loved ones, and how we can move forward once these secrets are revealed, is the thematic core of The Echoes, and it turns out that there are secrets aplenty in Hiram’s and Lily’s families.
Lily says so softly that her voice is a near whisper, “Too bad we didn’t bring our fishing poles, huh, Hiram?”
He does not look at her.
She puts a hand on his arm, ever so gently, but he still jumps. Then, he does look at her, a bit wild-eyed, but he is finally focused on the moment, on her.
“Hiram, can you tell me what happened? Before you . . .” She pauses, wanting to phrase this accurately, but not accusatorily. “Before you came up onstage?”
“There was gunfire. I thought—I thought—”
“It startled me, too,” Lily says. “Someone should have told the boys down at the shooting range to stop during that time.”
Hiram looks at her at last, his eyes wide. “It was—just from the shooting range?”
“Yes. Part of the park.”
He hangs his head again.
“Hiram,” Lily says. “Please look at me.”
Slowly, he looks up. “It is all right,” she says. “It would be easy to be startled by that sound. To not be sure where it was coming from....”
The Page 69 Test: The Hollows.
The Page 69 Test: The Stills.
--Marshal Zeringue
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