"That Others May Live"

Sara Driscoll is the pen name of Jen J. Danna, author of the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries, FBI K-9s series, the NYPD Negotiators, and the upcoming standalone thriller, Echoes of Memory.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her latest FBI K-9s novel, That Others May Live, and reported the following:

From page 69:

Meg could have wept when she came around the corner to find an open parking space directly in front of her house, allowing her to park nearby instead of having to trudge a full block or more home, as happened some nights. The frequent lack of parking was the only negative of their house, which she otherwise loved. But tonight, after a day where she mostly felt luck wasn’t on their side, this small sign of some for herself eased a little of her misery.

As opposed to those who lived at Talbot Terraces, if they’d survived at all, she had a place to come home to. Todd wouldn’t be home until the next morning, so she’d be alone tonight, but at least she’d be in her own bed. Hawk was almost never allowed up on the bed, but tonight she might make an exception. She hadn’t seen Todd all day, as she’d been on the pile and he’d been inside the structure. She was sorry she’d miss him tomorrow morning, as she needed to start at 8:00 AM on the pile, just as his shift ended at Firehouse 2.

The story of That Others May Live centers around the partial collapse of a condominium building in downtown Washington DC, and the effects it has not only on those families involved, but, crucially, on the first responders working the scene. Page 69 of the book highlights this last aspect.

As Chapter 6 opens on page 69, Meg is just returning home after her first shift at Talbot Terraces, the condominium that has partially collapsed. It’s been a day of few rescues, and the overwhelming effort has been to find those who perished in the disaster. It’s a perilous job—in a location where one wrong step could trigger a further collapse while the remains of the structure still tower unstably overhead—but one the city’s first responders are more than capable of handling. Meg Jennings, part of the FBI’s Human Scent Evidence Team, and her K-9 partner, Hawk, were among the first teams on the pile searching for survivors. But, for Meg, an additional stress comes in the knowledge that her fiancé, DC Fire and Emergency Services firefighter-paramedic Lieutenant Todd Webb, is inside the standing structure rescuing trapped residents, and could lose his life at any second if the remaining section collapses. It’s exhausting, terrifying, and discouraging work for everyone involved.

To return to the quiet of home, even knowing her fiancé is still on site and she will be unlikely to see him before she has to return to the collapse the next morning, is the balm Meg needs after a miserable day of death and tragedy. Even the small bit of luck of a convenient parking spot gives her a much-needed boost when hiking a block after parking her SUV simply feels like too much effort to manage.

That Others May Live is a thriller based on the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, but, at its heart, it’s a love letter to the dedication and courage of the first responders who responded that day and in the following days, as well to all first responders for what they do for us, day in and day out, often at their own peril.

Learn more about the FBI K-9 Novels.

The Page 69 Test: Lone Wolf.

The Page 69 Test: Storm Rising.

The Page 69 Test: No Man's Land.

The Page 69 Test: Leave No Trace.

--Marshal Zeringue