The Page 69 Test: "Girl Forgotten"

Sunday, April 9, 2023

"Girl Forgotten"

April Henry is the New York Times bestselling author of many acclaimed mysteries for adults and fourteen novels for teens, including Two Truths and a Lie; Girl, Stolen;

and The Girl I Used to Be, which was nominated for an Edgar Award and won the Anthony Award for Best YA Mystery. She lives in Oregon.

Henry applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Girl Forgotten, and reported the following:

Wow, page 69 is the most perfect page to stand in for the whole of Girl Forgotten. Seriously.
Transcript of Episode 1 of Who Killed Layla Trello: The Crime [Chapter 15]

Air date: September 13

Hello armchair detectives! Welcome to the first episode of Who Killed Layla Trello. I’m your podcast host, Piper Gray. Almost two decades ago, seventeen-year-old Layla Trello disappeared from a Halloween party here in Firview, Oregon. Nearly two weeks later her body was found in the forest a few miles away. She had been shot to death. And no one has ever been arrested for her murder.

So who killed Layla Trello? Was it a scorned boyfriend? A random stranger? An out-of-season hunter? Or could her murder be tied to something bigger? Listen in as I try to figure out what happened. I’m doing research, asking questions, and trying to track down those who might know the answers.
When new-in-town Piper Gray is walking through the shady cemetery on a hot day, notices Layla’s grave, and googles her. A fan of true-crime podcasts, Piper decides to start her own podcast after she learns her new school requires her to do a senior passion project.

(As an aside, Piper was named after a teen reader who loves my books. But now whenever I say “Piper’s podcast” out loud it feels like I’m starting that tongue twist about Peter Piper and his pickled peppers.)

For this book, I interviewed podcasters and learned how to podcast. I even created my own logo for the imaginary podcast.