crime fiction blog The Rap Sheet, she is best known for her strong female protagonists in the thriller genre. Richards is from Vancouver, Canada and currently makes her home in Phoenix, Arizona.
She applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, Dead West, and reported the following:
Page 69 of Dead West finds us in transition. There has been some action, but right now there is a pause to catch our breath. Having done the Page 69 Test for other books in the past, I am beginning to understand that this is one of the things that occurs in my writing, though it appears I do it instinctively. About this far in, the reader deserves a break from relentless action. A chance to breathe. And we see that here.Visit Linda L. Richards's website.
One of the early readers of Dead West called the book a love letter to Arizona. While I think that might be putting too fine a point on it, I get what she meant. In Dead West, setting becomes almost a character. Maybe you see this on Page 69 as much as anywhere.
We’ve only been in the saddle for a few minutes when it becomes apparent—truly—that we are in the desert. With the ranch buildings behind us, we are faced with a definite but beautiful beige. It is the season of dryness and at first everything looks the same. Closer study shows some differences, but you don’t see them at first glance. It occurs to me you have to earn the right to see beauty in the desert. If you are dismissive, it’s possible to miss it altogether, this secret desert. It is possible you might look and see only brown. But there is more here, too.
Page 69 is also where we get a really up-close-and-personal look at horses, which are so important to this book. In this scene, our protagonist is going riding, something we gather she has not often done before.
Horses feature prominently in Dead West. This happened because I was working on a non-fiction book about wild horses and, while I was doing research for that book, I was also working on the next book in the Endings series. Some of the horrifying climate that is wild horses in America today leaked into the fiction. What started as a subplot in Exit Strategy (2022) got pulled out of that book and became the main plot of Dead West. Luckily, this happened over a long enough period that I was able to have sufficient distance from the source material that the things that are compelling about Dead West are thrilling and not at all academic. Well, okay: that is my hope. You’ll tell me if it was successful!
The Page 69 Test: Endings.
Q&A with Linda L. Richards.
The Page 69 Test: Exit Strategy.
--Marshal Zeringue
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