"The Night I Died"

Anne Frasier is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with over a million copies sold. Her award-winning books span the genres of suspense, mystery, thriller, romantic suspense, paranormal, and memoir. The Body Reader received the 2017 Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original from International Thriller Writers. Other honors include a RITA for romantic suspense and a Daphne du Maurier Award for paranormal romance. Her thrillers have hit the USA Today bestseller list and have been featured in Mystery Guild, Literary Guild, and Book of the Month Club. Her memoir The Orchard was an O, The Oprah Magazine Fall Pick; a One Book, One Community read; a B+ review in Entertainment Weekly; and one of the Librarians’ Best Books of 2011.

Frasier applied the Page 69 Test to her new thriller, The Night I Died, and reported the following:

From page 69:

They moved toward the three-story building—a sprawling black silhouette with a giant brick chimney in back, probably connected to a crematorium.

“Keep a low profile,” she whispered.

He hunched a little. “This is like the best first date ever.”

“Are you kidding me? It’s not a date.”

“Wishful thinking.”

“I’m practically old enough to be your mother.”

“I looked you up. I’m six years younger, which means you’d have to have had me when you were six, which would be even creepier than this town.”

His immaturity made him seem younger.

“This isn’t a date, and we aren’t partners.” He’d already proven himself to be untrustworthy. He would manipulate to get the story he wanted. She suspected his flirting was because he hoped she could get him an interview with Bonnie. Without at least one interview and hopefully many more, he didn’t have a strong story. Truman Capote interviewed hundreds of people for In Cold Blood, including both killers. It was what made the book so compelling.

Will pulled a penlight from his pack, and they both crept along the building, remaining under cover of its even darker shadow.

Uncanny! This hits in all the right ways. It tells us that they are investigating something. It immediately reveals their awkward yet playful relationship, along with some character traits. It even lets us know they are in a creepy town, most likely unfamiliar to them. We can even surmise that Will is a reporter and the female is working a case. What I found especially interesting about this test is that the page before and after told the reader very little. So it’s a big yes from me for page 69!

Visit Anne Frasier's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Body Counter.

--Marshal Zeringue