"Dreaming of Water"

Born in India and raised in North America, A. J. Banner received degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. Her previous novels of psychological suspense include The Good Neighbor, The Twilight Wife (a USA Today bestseller), After Nightfall, The Poison Garden, and In Another Light. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and rescued cats.

Banner applied the Page 69 Test to Dreaming of Water, her sixth novel, and reported the following:

The first paragraph on page 69:

She held up her arms in the pale light of the bedside lamp and looked at them. They were clean, no scratches, and there were no scratches on her face. She knew what the cop had been looking for—evidence that Nina had been alive when Astrid had waded into the pool and had fought back. Evidence that Astrid had drowned her very own sister.

Astrid swore she would never return to Heron Bay, Washington. Under her watch seventeen years ago, when she was a young teen, her little sister, Nina, accidentally drowned in a shallow reflecting pool. The tragedy tore Astrid’s family apart and left her with deep feelings of guilt and regret.

But now, seventeen years later, she can’t ignore her aunt Maude’s urgent call to come back. Maude claims to have found a letter that will change everything about the past. She wants Astrid, a forensic document examiner, to authenticate the letter.

When Astrid arrives, she finds her aunt unconscious, maybe victim of an attack. While Maude lies in a coma in the hospital, Astrid searches for the letter and gradually comes to believe that its contents hold the key to her little sister’s death all those years ago. Did Nina drown by accident, or was she murdered?

In the scene on page 69, Astrid flashes back to the hours after Nina’s death, during which the sheriff questioned Astrid, and another officer took pictures of Astrid’s arms, a traumatic experience for a young teen who is already in shock. Astrid had just discovered her sister floating in the reflecting pool and had tried to revive her.

Years later, the trauma resurfaces as Astrid revisits the night in question and investigates what really happened. Eventually, she uncovers shocking secrets about the people of the town and her own family. Page 69 gives a good idea of the theme of the whole work, as the scene shows the origin of the trauma that Astrid has carried for years and addresses the basic story question: was Nina’s death accidental, or was it murder? Could Astrid have been responsible for her sister’s death?

Visit A.J. Banner's website.

The Page 69 Test: After Nightfall.

--Marshal Zeringue