The Page 69 Test: "A Slay Ride Together With You"

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than forty books:

clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, the Catskill Resort mysteries for Penguin Random House, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane.

Delany is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards. She is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. Delany lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

She applied the Page 69 Test to the newest novel in the Year-Round Christmas mystery series, A Slay Ride Together With You, and reported the following:

Page 69 is an excellent example of the test working! I think it encapsulates the mood of the book and provides a hint at the plot, without giving anything away. It also sets up some possible conflict between the characters.
Mark didn’t laugh or try to reassure us. All he said was, “What sort of something?”

“Knocking at the door at first,” Vicky said. “Twice. Two doors, front and back. We checked, but no one was there. Then we heard a sound like someone was . . . I don’t know. In pain, or terror maybe.”

“Or trying to scare us,” I said. “After the knocking, we searched the house—all of it— thoroughly, but we didn’t find anything that might be making those sounds. Then, moments before you arrived, we heard the . . . I don’t know what to call it. A moan, a cry. This isn’t the first time that’s happened either. Vicky’s been hearing things. Noises in the night.”

Mark turned to Vicky. “You too?”

“You mean you have as well?” she said.

“Yeah.” He rubbed his hands through his short hair. “I didn’t want to worry you, so I didn’t say anything.”

“But you’re always sound asleep when I’ve heard things. I’ve been so jealous of that.”

“I figured you weren’t sleeping well, but you denied it when I asked. I didn’t push it, because I thought maybe you were having second thoughts. About this house. About me. We’re on such different sleep and work schedules, I suppose our disturbance schedule’s been off too.” He spoke to me. “I sometimes don‘t get home until after midnight, particularly if we’ve had a big function like a wedding. Plenty of chefs are wired after a night’s work and need to stay up for a while to wind down, and they hit a bar, have a couple of drinks. Never been that way for me. I drop the moment I get in. Vicky gets up around four to get to the bakery and start the bread, so she’s usually asleep when I get to bed. These sounds you hear—have I been home when it happens?”
Merry Wilkinson’s best friend, Vicky Casey, and her fiancé Mark Grosse have bought a house together and moved in just a few days before the action here. The house is old, rumoured to be haunted, and has been abandoned for years. The only reason the young couple can afford it, it because it came so cheap.

In this section of dialogue on page 69, the mood has been set: Is the house truly haunted? Are the residents in danger?

We get a glimpse into the lives of Vicky and Mark. Both are in the food business, but at opposite ends schedule-wise. Will this create strain in the marriage? The page provides a good insight into their characters: Vicky and Mark don’t want to worry the other. But, we can see that when they are confronted with what appears to be happening, Mark doesn’t attempt to dismiss it.

If the house isn’t haunted, is someone trying to scare them away? If so, for what ends? And what will they do if their initial approach fails?

Page 69 sets up the questions to be faced in the book, both on the personal level and the mystery level, perfectly. As this is a cozy mystery so the is-it-or-isn’t-it haunting won’t be toooo scary, and we can be confident the young couple will work though their differences.