"The Days Between"

Robin Morris has had a lifelong obsession with books and cats. She works in finance and is a certified book editor, a literary agent assistant, and an author of fiction and nonfiction.

Morris applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Days Between, and reported the following:

Page 69 consists of a conversation between Emmy (17) and Max (19) on the first occasion that they spend time together. My book fails the Page 69 Test! It will give the reader a good idea of one of the storylines, the budding romance between Max and Emmy, but covers none of the overall storyline, the secrets between Max's parents and the lives those secrets will unravel.

Visit Robin Morris's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Rolling Toward Clear Skies"

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of more than forty published and forthcoming books.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, Rolling Toward Clear Skies, and reported the following:

Page 69 text:

“I hope this is okay,” Maggie said, feeling unsure for the first time.

“You hope what is okay?”

“Having them in the RV. It’s a bit less… conventional than a hospital room.”

“Under normal circumstances,” the social worker said, “sure. It would be odd. But after a hurricane like that one, nothing is normal. The hospital has no beds, and minors are unattended in those huge makeshift shelters. Normally I wouldn’t take a day off work and drive two children to Mobile. I’d just call the grandparents and ask them to come claim the girls. But they don’t drive anymore, and somebody has to get the girls somewhere. We’re all doing the best we can, right?”

“That’s a good way to look at it.”

“Have you told them they get to take their dog?”

“I haven’t seen them since then, no. If those are the first words out of your mouth I’m sure they’ll be your biggest fans.”

She opened the door to the RV. The girls were sitting at the table, their heads close. Talking about something, from the look of it. The blinked at the new visitor, but it was hard for Maggie to match an emotion with their faces. They looked calm, almost accepting. But Maggie could feel their resistance and fear.

The puppy crawled around in a circle under the table, pressing his face into a corner. Maggie thought if he could will himself right through the side of the RV, he would.

“Hi girls,” the social worker said. “I’m Evie Moskowitz from Child and Family Services.”

The girls only sat in a slightly stunned silence.

“I have some good news,” Evie continued. “Your grandparents are going to let you bring your dog.”

“Oh that’s great!” Rose said.

Since Rose hadn’t spoken to Maggie until they’d known each other for a day or more, Maggie knew it meant a lot. Either they were coming up through the worst, most paralyzing phase of their trauma, or the dog just meant that much. More likely a combination of the two factors.

“Oh my, he’s so thin,” Evie said.

I have mixed feelings about how this page 69 holds up. As is often the case, it catches the characters in a fairly ordinary moment. There’s a lot of drama leading up to this page, and following this page, but I’m not sure how much of it the reader gathers just from this text.

It’s all a bit more loaded when you know that the dog isn’t even theirs. He was also orphaned in the hurricane, and they’re trying to fool social services and the grandparents into letting the girls bring him. It’s more loaded still if you know that they’ll bounce away from the grandparents’ house before our protagonists can even drive home. But it’s the Page 69 Test, so you don’t know that. I do hope it creates a few mysteries, though—a few holes in what you know that might make you want to read on and learn more. I know curiosity is a big factor for me as far as determining whether I put a book down or keep going.

I’d say page 69 in this case is a bit less that moderately successful at representing the novel as a whole.

Visit Catherine Ryan Hyde's website.

Q&A with Catherine Ryan Hyde.

The Page 69 Test: Brave Girl, Quiet Girl.

The Page 69 Test: My Name is Anton.

The Page 69 Test: Seven Perfect Things.

The Page 69 Test: Boy Underground.

The Page 69 Test: Dreaming of Flight.

The Page 69 Test: So Long, Chester Wheeler.

The Page 69 Test: A Different Kind of Gone.

The Page 69 Test: Life, Loss, and Puffins.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Burn this Night"

Alex Kenna is a prosecutor, writer, and amateur painter. Before law school, Kenna studied painting and art history at Penn. She also worked as a freelance art critic and culture writer. Originally from Washington DC, Kenna lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and giant schnauzer, Zelda. When she’s not writing Kenna can be found nerding out in art museums, exploring flea markets, and playing string instruments badly. Her debut novel, What Meets the Eye, was nominated for a Shamus Award for best first PI novel.

Kenna applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Burn this Night, and reported the following:

From page 69:

Twenty months ago—Abby

The first time I read the play Gruesome Playground Injuries, it made me cry. It told the story of Doug and Kayleen, two platonically in love friends, from childhood through their late thirties. I jumped at the chance to play Kayleen, whose shitty parents set her on a lifelong path of self-destruction. Meanwhile, Doug, her reckless, daredevil friend adores her from a distance, periodically maiming himself in a series of increasingly stupid and preventable accidents.

The story moves around in time, tracing their lives through different injuries – both mental and physical. In one scene they’re eight, chatting in the school nurse’s office, him with a head scrape, and her with a tummy ache. Flash forward ten years, and Doug’s just been beat up for defending Kayleen’s honor. Meanwhile, she’s curled up in bed, in deep denial about a non- consensual sexual encounter.

What moved me about the story was how much it made me think of my relationship with Jacob—minus the romantic connection. Doug and Kayleen talk to each other like kids, never losing the immature kid speech they had when they met. I loved how that immaturity was paired with this intense adult bond they shared. Even though they’re both too broken to help each other. It made me think of my brother—how I act like a teen around him. How I feel in my gut that something is really wrong and he’s starting to spiral in a way that I’m powerless to stop.

While I was intrigued by the Page 69 Test, the challenge isn’t a perfect fit for a book written from multiple perspectives and across different timelines. My novel, Burn this Night, explores an arson murder and a cold case killing that both occurred in a small mountain town. Most of the book is told from the perspective of a private detective investigating the crimes. But page 69 starts a flashback chapter told from the perspective of Abby Coburn, a woman who died in the fire.

Abby is an intense, reflective person with a passion for art and family. This snippet is a window into her character. Abby is a struggling actress who gives up her original career to study social work. She makes this seismic life change after her brother, Jacob, becomes addicted to methamphetamine and starts to lose his mind. Here, Abby has just finished performing in Gruesome Playground Injuries, a fascinating play by Rajiv Joseph. The play follows two platonic friends over time, who love each other, but who are too immature and psychologically damaged to fully connect. On page 69, Abby reflects on how much the play echoes her love for her brother and her inability to reach him or slow his downward spiral.

Visit Alex Kenna's website.

Q&A with Alex Kenna.

My Book, The Movie: What Meets the Eye.

Writers Read: Alex Kenna.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Dangerous Play"

Elise Hart Kipness is a television sports reporter turned crime fiction writer. Like her main character, Kipness chased marquee athletes through the tunnels of Madison Square Garden and stood before glaring lights reporting to national audiences for Fox Sports Network.

Now as an author, Kipness fused her passion for true crime and sports with the Kate Green series. Her debut novel, Lights Out, is an Amazon bestseller and a Men’s Journal top 10 book of 2023.

Kipness applied the Page 69 Test to Dangerous Play, the second novel in the series, and reported the following:

I absolutely love to take the Page 69 Test. So, I was excited to see where it took me with Dangerous Play. For readers, this page is more a dip of the toe view of the book than a true example of the driving plot.

At the top of the page, the reader finds my main character, Kate Green, doubling down on her decision to investigate the murder of her former teammate from her days playing on the youth national soccer team. The roommate, Alexa Kane, was found dead at the Olympics the day before. Alexa’s someone Kate hadn’t seen in decades but shared secrets with that will now bubble up. But that's for another page!

Except for that initial reference, most of the text is about Kate’s family relationships, which are also complicated and part of the secondary plots in the book. Kate reaches out to her biological father, the NYPD detective heading up the taskforce on the murder. She’s balancing working with him, trusting him and investigating whether he’s been honest with her about the past. 

On page 69, the reader will also get a glimpse into Kate’s home. While she lives in the affluent suburb of Greenwich, Connecticut, Kate and her teenage twins reside in a small, historic modest house near town, which highlights the fact that Kate is an outsider in this uber wealthy enclave. 

The reader will also join Kate and her kids for breakfast. But these pancakes come with stilted conversation—as Kate detects her daughter, Nikki, is upset about something she’s not ready to share.

So while the reader won’t get a full picture of the murder and investigation that drives Dangerous Play, page 69 does give a nice slice of life view of Kate, her world and her demons.

Visit Elise Hart Kipness's website.

The Page 69 Test: Lights Out.

Q&A with Elise Hart Kipness.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Coldest Case"

Tessa Wegert is the author of the popular Shana Merchant mysteries, which include Death in the Family, The Dead Season, Dead Wind, The Kind to Kill, Devils at the Door, and The Coldest Case, along with the upcoming North Country thriller series. Her books have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Shelf Awareness and have been featured on PBS and NPR Radio. A former journalist and copywriter, Wegert grew up in Quebec and now lives with her husband and children in Connecticut, where she co-founded Sisters in Crime CT and serves on the board of International Thriller Writers (ITW).

Wegert applied the Page 69 Test to The Coldest Case and reported the following:

From page 69:

The place felt dystopian, ice-encrusted land and water stretching for miles in all directions and just a handful of humans living off frozen chops and gutted fish. Overwintering had an air of survivalist living. Personally, I favored a neighborhood to the idea of a remote home that was cut off from critical services like snow removal and first aid. Running Pine in winter was seclusion to the extreme. Beyond the Wall, just like Tim had said, and something about it was making him edgy.

“Could be the isolation,” I offered.

“Could be the people,” said Tim.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a passage that provides a better sense of The Coldest Case. In the novel, eight people are overwintering on a remote island that sits on the border between New York State and Ontario, Canada. Two of those people are young Instagram influencers who’ve created an account documenting their year of living on Running Pine…and they’re in way over their heads. By the time we reach page 69, one of the influencers has gone missing, and BCI Senior Investigator Shana Merchant is discussing the case with her colleague Tim Wellington. It’s no secret that the influencers weren’t welcomed to the island with open arms, and now that one is unaccounted for, Shana and Tim have to ask: Was it Cary’s own inexperience with wilderness living that led to his disappearance, or could one of the long-time local residents be to blame?

Visit Tessa Wegert's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Dead Season.

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Season.

Q&A with Tessa Wegert.

The Page 69 Test: Dead Wind.

Writers Read: Tessa Wegert (April 2022).

Writers Read: Tessa Wegert (December 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Devils at the Door.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Shadow Fox"

Carlie Sorosiak is the author of the acclaimed novels Always, Clementine; I, Cosmo; and Leonard (My Life as a Cat), as well as the picture books Everywhere with You, illustrated by Devon Holzwarth, and Books Aren’t for Eating, illustrated by Manu Montoya.

Sorosiak applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Shadow Fox, and reported the following:

On page 69, a character named Stew explains how the Night Islanders—the villains in the book—mine the earth for magic. The process is eerie, sinister, and terrible for the environment. Shadow, the main character (a fox), is shocked.

In some ways, the Page 69 Test works for my book; depicted here is the central conflict in the narrative. Later on, Shadow must use her magic to help defeat the greedy Night Islanders, and page 69 shows what she’s up against!

However, the sample doesn’t do a great job of capturing the fox voice, which is so key to the story, as Shadow narrates the book. Here, it’s mostly dialogue from a secondary character. And it’s also quite dark! The book is largely fun and lighthearted, even if the message is serious. That’s a balance that I try to strike in all of my books, and it’s not always easy. If the reader stumbled first on page 69, I’m afraid they’d be missing all the silliness. Later on in the book, there’s flying fish! Flying teaspoons! Woodsy, forest magic. And lots and lots of foxy antics.

Visit Carlie Sorosiak's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Carlie Sorosiak & Dany.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Tribute of Fire"

Sariah Wilson is the USA Today bestselling author of The Chemistry of Love, The Paid Bridesmaid, The Seat Filler, Roommaid, Just a Boyfriend, the Royals of Monterra series, and the #Lovestruck novels. She happens to be madly, passionately in love with her soul mate and is a fervent believer in happily ever afters—which is why she writes romance. She currently lives with her family and various pets in Utah, and harbors a lifelong devotion to ice cream.

Wilson applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, A Tribute of Fire, and reported the following:

When I saw the Page 69 Test challenge I thought, “That’s not going to work.” But it did. On page 69, the history of the tribute selection is given by a historian. Two maidens will be chosen to race through a labyrinth-walled city while being hunted because of a grievous sin committed by a member of their nation in the past. The historian says, “We sacrifice to the goddess two of our treasured, precious daughters so that we may keep the rest. We know that those who are called upon to serve have the strength to endure the ordeal.”

My female main character, Lia, has bribed her way into being chosen. She intends to search for a specific relic that will save her cursed nation and the only way to get into the temple, which she can only enter by winning the race (something no maiden has done in a thousand years). She’s not happy about having to do it. Her thoughts following that statement— “This was another aspect that had always bothered me. This belief that women were special enough to be pleasing to the goddess, but that we were ultimately easy to discard and unimportant. Strong enough to be slaughtered by not important enough to fight for. And so it had fallen to me to step forward. I would fight. I would change the curse and the fate of every woman destined to follow by myself.”

The quotes above are absolutely the theme of this book. It shows Lia’s determination, her drive, her willingness to do whatever needs to be done to save her people, while emphasizing that she understands the hypocrisy and is angered by it. That these women are sacrificed every year while being told how amazing and special they are for doing so, but that because they are women, they were not important enough to go to war for. This tribute race was a real-world, historical event and while doing research about it, this was something one of the professors pointed out—that women were the sacrifices and honored for it but no one tried to stop it for their sake and this ritual lasted a thousand years. I do think page 69 is very representative of the book as a whole.

Visit Sariah Wilson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Pony Confidential"

Christina Lynch is at the beck and call of two dogs, three horses, and a hilarious pony who carts her up and down mountains while demanding (and receiving) many carrots. Besides Pony Confidential, her new novel, she is also the author of two historical novels set in Italy and the coauthor of two comic thrillers set in Prague and Vienna. She teaches at College of the Sequoias and lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

Lynch applied the Page 69 Test to Pony Confidential and reported the following:

Pony Confidential is told in two alternating points of view: a very grumpy old pony bent on revenge against the little girl who sold him twenty-five years earlier, and Penny, that now grown-up girl. On page 69, we’re in the point of view of Penny. She is incarcerated in Sticks River, a prison in upstate New York not far from Ithaca, where she and the pony last saw each other so long ago. Penny is in a dark place, awaiting trial for a murder she didn’t commit, and on this page she’s recalling how her happy childhood ended abruptly. She’s losing hope of a quick resolution to her legal problems and noticing that she and the other prisoners are treated like livestock—she thinks of horses, in particular—manhandled and subjected to violence, living only for their next meal. She’s afraid to act like a pony and rebel against the system.

I think Pony Confidential passes the Page 69 Test—that page does uncannily get to the heart of what the book is about. That said, it’s one of the more intense and unfunny pages in a very funny novel, so it’s also not representative of the book’s overall tone. But the themes—how trauma permeates our lives, how badly we sometimes treat incarcerated people, how badly we sometimes treat animals, how our justice system does not match our ideals, is all there on that single page. That cluster of pages is in fact the central turning point of the novel for both characters!

The Penny murder story was a later addition to the novel, and I quickly realized I didn’t know exactly what actually happens when you’re accused of murder. My privilege in being so isolated from that part of American life did not go unnoticed, especially because my own grandfather was tried—and found guilty—of murder in 1911 and sent to the notorious Sing Sing. I also live in an area of California that's home to many prisons, so there was a lot of the personal in what I say on the page: “the wheels of justice don’t seem to turn as smoothly as she was led to believe in sixth-grade civics.”

Visit Christina Lynch's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Italian Party.

The Page 69 Test: The Italian Party.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (April 2018).

My Book, The Movie: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (June 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Libby Lost and Found"

Stephanie Booth has an M.A. in English from the University of New Mexico and an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Her work has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Real Simple, O, Marie Claire, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. Booth has been a contributing editor at Teen People and an advice columnist for Teen, and she has helped with casting for MTV’s award-winning documentary series, True Life.

Booth applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Libby Lost and Found, and reported the following:

From page 69:

Once she's able to detach herself from the cold fat neck of the toilet, Libby hurls Dr. Whatsit's pills into the trash. But the insomnia and nausea don't immediately disappear. And the following night, when she finds herself tossing and turning in bed so vehemently that Rolf actually growls at her to stop, Libby gives up. Wrapping herself in one of Vernice's blankets, she goes into her office and sits at her desk.

On her computer, the Falling Children website, with its state-of-the-art animation, lights up like a carnival. There is a lush, interactive rendering of Pompou's four-story Toy Emporium, with its funny thatched roof and arched windows that serve as its eyes. Children around the world click in and out of the cozy rooms that evoke Santa's workshop if the Mad Hatter had been in charge. Visitors can design a stuffed animal that best houses their soul, help Benjamin make a pan of magical fudge (hoozleberry or buttered licorice?), learn to curse in Teddy Bear, or take a quiz that declares which Falling Child they're most like.

Libby has taken this quiz four times, three times intentionally lying, and each time she has been dubbed a Huperzine.

I'd never heard of the Page 69 Test before, but will now be curiously flipping open to the 69th page of every book I pick up at the bookstore. The 69th page of Libby Lost and Found gives a pretty good glimpse into what this book is about: Libby is obviously struggling with an illness that doesn't have a straightforward cure. There's also a magical element to her life: the Falling Children books that she writes under a pseudonym, and which have captured not only her imagination, but that of readers around the world.

But what feels most important to me about this page is the sentence about Libby taking a quiz (four times) and lying to try to get a better result. If I were picking up this book for the first time, I think that's what would move me closer to the cash register. Not just because it raises questions about Libby (What result is she hoping to get?) but because I cherish the use of humor in dire situations. It's like switching on a tiny flashlight in an underground tunnel. I hope that potential readers will feel the same way and want to follow that little light a bit further.

Visit Stephanie Booth's website.

Q&A with Stephanie Booth.

My Book, The Movie: Libby Lost and Found.

--Marshal Zeringue

"This Motherless Land"

Born in Bristol and raised in Lagos, Nikki May is Anglo-Nigerian. Her critically acclaimed debut novel Wahala won the Comedy Women In Print New Voice Prize, was longlisted for the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award and the Diverse Books Award, and is being turned into a major BBC TV drama series. May lives in Dorset with her husband, two standard Schnauzers and way too many books. She should be working on her next book but is probably reading.

May applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, This Motherless Land, and reported the following:

From page 69:

‘Come to the pool,’ he said. ‘It’s way too nice to be stuck indoors. What do you say, Kate?’

She liked the way he said Kate. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad name. It was better than Katherine, at any rate. Funke made sense in Lagos but maybe it didn’t work here? Maybe Grandpa was right. Maybe becoming Kate was the way to fit in.

I confess I was slightly nervous about this. What if my page 69 was rubbish? What if I’d filled that page with adverbs and filler words? I opened my book apprehensively. But whoop! I love page 69. It takes readers directly to the heart of my book: belonging, twisting yourself out of shape to fit in, to be accepted.

When Funke’s mother dies in a tragic accident, she’s forced to leave Lagos, move to England, and live with her maternal family in Somerset. It’s not the most welcoming of places – she finds the estate dilapidated, the weather gray, the food tasteless. And worse, her mother’s family are cold and distant. Faced with condescension and neglect, she strives to fit in, determined to be one of them. But that, according to her new family, means changing her name. Because Funke just won’t do – this is England, we have proper names here.

On page 69, Funke reluctantly decides that becoming Kate is the way to fit in. But, unfortunately, it’s not enough. Nothing ever would be.

I think the Page 69 Test is genius and from now on, I’ll make sure all my page 69’s are good pages. I can’t vouch for all the other pages though!

Visit Nikki May's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Nikki May & Fela and Lola.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An Age of Winters"

Gemma Liviero is the author of the historical novels Broken Angels and Pastel Orphans, which was a finalist in the 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. In addition to novel writing, her professional career includes copywriting, corporate writing, writing feature articles and editorials, and editing. She holds an advanced diploma of arts (writing) and has continued her studies in arts and other humanities. Liviero lives with her family in Queensland, Australia.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, An Age of Winters, and reported the following:

From page 69:

distracted by the arrival of the executioner carrying a torch. Master bent his head to speak to the accused with what I assumed were words of absolution. Though Kleist had been imprisoned before Zacharias’s arrival, it was clear now that the decisions about the execution were connected to the latecomer. He would be remembered as the one who changed the execution from hanging to fire.

Not since our first discussion had he returned to the kitchen to sit and speak with me, but sometimes when I passed the doorway to the sitting room, he would call me in with queries that seemed harmless enough. Where first I’d been reluctant, stories ran off my tongue, told in part out of fear but more to impress him. I had told him about the drunk men down by the river, and the fight between two wives over a piece of gristly meat at the market, the pulling and twisting of hair. I had commented on those people who gossiped about anyone who kept to themselves, and those who were unruly. Standing in the crowd, I wondered then about the motive behind the questioning and watched him view Kleist with detachment. Zacharias stood still, not a tremor about him. He appeared not to notice the cold, unlike many who blew on their woollen-less fingers.

There was some difficulty lighting the fire. The crowd moved forward, thirsty for death, before they were ushered back by guards. Kleist was aware now of impending death, his expression all at once changing as he looked fearfully at the doings of the man who held the torch. He clenched his jaw and eyed the crowd. He hated everyone. Next, he turned to Zacharias Engel. It seemed he hated him the most.

The fire took to wood as thunder rumbled once again and ice crystals peppered the condemned man’s head. There were murmurs, not joyous this time. The fire whooshed upward, caught his rags for clothes that fused with his skin, then spread like crawling ants towards his head. Kleist screamed words as he burned, but I could make no sense of them. Smoke from burnt flesh spread above the crowd and dusted us with ash.

I squeezed and released the folds of my skirt several times to stop my tremors.

I was curious enough about the Page 69 Test to give it a go. It did not work for all my books, however, for this one it does set the dark tone that underlies much of the novel. An Age of Winters explores a brutal period in history that was driven by fear of diabolism and resulted in many executions. Perhaps page 69 will also help readers determine whether they might enjoy such a story and the themes written.

Katarin, a maidservant and one of two narrators, details the fate of a nobleman. This scene reveals a change in executions from hanging to burning, in order to destroy a ‘witch’. As well, this event is expected to ward off further heinous crimes and cure the village of famine and disease. The villagers, who up till then had speculated about strange climatic events and the accused’s crimes of murder, now dread that ‘witchcraft’ is in their midst and that authorities will stop at nothing to be rid of it. This execution makes it known that anyone from any background is a potential suspect, and from this point the villagers callously guard their own survival.

It is a significant moment for Katarin also as she recognises that she may have been an unwitting accomplice to the enigmatic Reverend Engel, and that his presence is more than just investigative or soul-saving. With both infatuation and fear, she yearns to know more.

Visit Gemma Liviero's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Very Bad Thing"

J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels and the Emmy Award–winning cohost of the literary TV show A Word on Words. She also writes urban fantasy under the pen name Joss Walker.

With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim and prestigious awards. Her titles have been optioned for television and published in twenty-eight countries.

Ellison applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, A Very Bad Thing, and reported the following:

From page 69:

They leave Riley alone in a bland room with a table bolted to the wall and four metal chairs that have seen better days. She is still cuffed; the officer who escorted her has her buckled into a chain that’s attached to the front of the table, as if she’s a dangerous criminal. There are no windows, which is a shame, because she enjoyed the brief views of the mountains on the walk from the car to the station. Last night on the way to the theater, the sun fell pink behind the snow-capped peaks, and she thought Denver was lovely, someplace she’d like to visit again, under better circumstances. Now, she wants to leave this place and never return. The initial meeting she had with Columbia seems years away right now; the excitement of this gig has turned to horror. She should have said no. She shouldn’t have gotten so greedy. Look where it got her.

The door finally opens, and a wiry bald man enters the room. He’s carrying a file folder, a cup of coffee, and a sweating Diet Coke, the latter of which he sets in front of Riley. He glances at the file.

“Riley Carrington?” As if she could be anyone else.

“That’s me.”

“I’m Detective Sutcliffe.”

I love applying the Page 69 Test to my novels, especially when page 69 is something integral to the story; this one is. It’s the beginning of a chapter. My main character, the world-renowned novelist Columbia Jones, has just been found dead the last night of her book tour in a Denver hotel, and the lone reporter in the entourage, the woman who’s been hired to write a long-form article on Columbia, and maybe even ghost write her memoir, has been arrested for the crime. Her name is Riley Carrington, and she has more ties to Columbia than she knows. But at the moment, she is terrified, having been arrested, hauled to the station, and handcuffed to the table for questioning. She knows she’s innocent, as does the reader. But innocence isn’t always important to the police trying to solve a crime.

Visit J.T. Ellison's website and follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

The Page 69 Test: Edge of Black.

The Page 69 Test: When Shadows Fall.

My Book, The Movie: When Shadows Fall.

My Book, The Movie: What Lies Behind.

The Page 69 Test: What Lies Behind.

The Page 69 Test: No One Knows.

My Book, The Movie: No One Knows.

The Page 69 Test: Lie to Me.

My Book, The Movie: Good Girls Lie.

The Page 69 Test: Good Girls Lie.

Writers Read: J. T. Ellison (January 2020).

Q&A with J.T. Ellison.

--Marshal Zeringue

"What Goes Around"

Michael Wendroff is an author and marketing consultant, and has an MBA from NYU. His background is running marketing and advertising for Fortune 500 companies, and he now runs a global consulting practice (one of his clients is a $4 billion firm headquartered in India). He has homes in New York City and Sarasota.

Michael Wendroff applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, What Goes Around, and reported the following:

Page 69 of What Goes Around is dialogue between two women, a cop and a detective, discussing over tacos and red wine the protagonist's relationship with another detective she's just been paired up with. The protagonist, Jill, had had a stormy relationship with her new partner, Jack, when they were together at the police academy. "I couldn't stand the sight of him," Jill said. Jack is in the mold of Jack Reacher, while Jill has a very different style. In the last sentence of the page, she remembers her father, who had been a patrolman that died in the line of duty.

I feel this is partly representative of the book.

It does represent the character development, which I believe is key in a thriller--your readers must get to know and empathize with the characters, otherwise the thrilling parts will be much less thrilling.

It is also representative of the book given the last line about Jill's father who had died. Part of that is because his death was a key motivating factor her entire life, but part of that is also because of what he represents in terms of the major twist ending. Spoiler alert-I can't spoil it and tell you why!

Page 69 is also interesting in that it references the two protagonists, Jack and Jill (yes, Jack and Jill!) and it leaves the reader wondering what will happen with that relationship. Will they continue to be enemies? Will they evolve into an excellent working relationship? Will the relationship become even something more? Read What Goes Around to find out!

By the way, the inspiration for this book was what my mother said to me the moment I was born. I was put on her chest, she looked deeply into my eyes, and said, "Oh! So nice to see you, again."

Visit Michael Wendroff's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Pike Island"

Tony Wirt was born in Lake Mills, IA, and got his first taste of publication in first grade, when his essay on Airplane II: The Sequel appeared in the Lake Mills Elementary School’s Creative Courier.

He's a graduate of the University of Iowa and spent nine years doing media relations in the Hawkeye Athletic Department. He's also been a sportswriter, movie ticket taker and Dairy Queen ice cream slinger who can still do the little curly thing on top of a soft serve cone.

He currently lives in Rochester, MN, with his wife and two daughters.

Wirt applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Pike Island, and reported the following:

Page 69 of Pike Island takes us out to the island for the first time. After a few days of hearing rumors and half-forgotten stories, they convince Jake to head out to the island and find the abandoned house. The guys have been poking around the past few chapters, and by this spot they’re starting to see enough to know something isn’t right out there. The jokes start drying up as their surroundings get creepier. Then, on page 69, they find evidence that they aren’t the only visitors out there.

The Page 69 Test could not have worked out better had I picked the page myself. Starting there is kind of like hopping on a roller coaster at the top of the first hill. From that page on, the guys know they’re in for something more than just a normal weekend at the lake. The bad decisions start piling up, and it becomes obvious that is a weekend none of them will ever be able to shake.

I feel like a lot of the crumbs scattered around the first few chapters really start paying off in the scene that kicks off with page 69. Hopefully it’s been a good build up in the pages leading to it, because that’s the spot where it really kicks off.

Visit Tony Wirt's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Who Loves You Best"

Marilyn Simon Rothstein is the author of four novels: Who Loves You Best, Crazy To Leave You, Husbands And Other Sharp Objects, and Lift And Separate. She grew up in New York City, earned a degree in journalism from NYU, began her writing career at Seventeen magazine, married a man she met in an elevator and owned an award-winning advertising agency for more than twenty-five years.

Rothstein applied the Page 69 Test to Who Loves You Best and reported the following:

I'm happy to report that page 69 of my new novel, Who Loves You Best, passes the rigorous Page 69 Test, providing an accurate idea of the whole work. Here’s why: On page 69 the reader finds a scene between the protagonist, Jodi Wexler, a Florida podiatrist who is visiting family in the Berkshires, and Macallan, her eight-year-old granddaughter—named after the Scotch her parents were drinking the evening she was conceived. The first point on page 69 is that Jodi is a totally different kind of grandmother than she was a mother. As a mother she wanted to be in charge. As a nana, she wants to be popular. Also, in speaking to Macallan, Jodi learns a lot about her daughter, Lisa, she does not know. This is important, because everything changes when Lisa returns from a trip to Boston and lets Jodi in on her long-held secret.

Visit Marilyn Simon Rothstein's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Lines"

Sung J. Woo's short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, PEN/Guernica, and Vox. He has written five novels, Lines (2024), Deep Roots (2023), Skin Deep (2020), Love Love (2015), and Everything Asian (2009), which won the 2010 Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Literature Award. In 2022, his Modern Love essay from The New York Times was adapted by Amazon Studios for episodic television. A graduate of Cornell University with an MFA from New York University, he lives in Washington, New Jersey.

Woo applied the Page 69 Test to Lines and reported the following:

From page 69:

TOGETHER

Citi DoubleCash Mastercard: Pay Minimum Balance

ABBY RESTS HER brush on her palette. Baby Cecilia, one hand covered in soap bubbles and the other clutching a yellow rubber ducky, is done. At last. No more baby.

Except now she’s got a real one brewing in her own belly, an idea which is equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. She’s going to be a mother.

It’s half past noon, but no knock on her door from Ted. She quietly, stealthily walks up to her own door — which makes no sense, so she stomps her feet for the last three steps. Which makes her feel even stupider. She swings it open and sees and hears nothing but the deserted hallway.

She walks over to the bathroom, though she doesn’t have to go. But she can wash the paint off her hands with her squeeze bottle of turpentine, streaks and crusts of deep brown and mango down the drain, the last colors she’d worked with on the canvas. As the paint temporarily coats the sides of the sink, Abby feels a sadness. She might have resented painting Cecilia for the last month or so, but now that she’s finished, the work is no longer hers, and there’s an emptiness in that. Of course she’ll be paid for handing it over, two thousand dollars and 100% hers because no gallery was involved with this commission,

Page 69 of my fifth novel, Lines, is the beginning of a “together” chapter of the book, and it is perhaps the most crucial part – where Abby comes to grips with her pregnancy. The previous chapter ends with her revealing her baby news to her soon-to-be husband, Ted, while in this chapter, she has yet to tell Ted, who is not her future husband but an officemate – and is sort of in love with him. In these “together” chapters, Abby is married to Joshua, whom she detests.

I know this may sound confusing, but it’s actually straightforward once the story gets going. In the “apart” chapters, Abby and Josh, painter and writer, are just beginning to know each other, while in the “together” chapters, they are married and struggling mightily on many fronts (career, relationship, monetary). (Irony alert: when Abby and Josh are physically apart, they are spiritually together; when Abby and Joshua are physically together, they can’t stand each other!) The book spans nine months – yes, the time it takes for a baby to be born – and the two “lines” dovetail from one chapter to the next until the very end.

Abby’s baby figures hugely in this book. The child is a blessing and a curse, a source of wonder and a source of consternation for both Abby and Joshua. This is the fourth Page 69 Test I’ve run, and I remain astonished at its prescience.

Visit Sung J. Woo's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Sung J. Woo & Koda.

The Page 69 Test: Everything Asian.

My Book, The Movie: Skin Deep.

Q&A with Sung J. Woo.

The Page 69 Test: Skin Deep.

My Book, The Movie: Deep Roots.

The Page 69 Test: Deep Roots.

Writers Read: Sung J. Woo (September 2023).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Beyond Reasonable Doubt"

Robert Dugoni is a critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author, reaching over 9 million readers worldwide. He is best known for his Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle. He is also the author of the Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels including The 7th Canon, Damage Control, The World Played Chess, and Her Deadly Game. His novel The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell received Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, and Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award. The Washington Post named his nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary a Best Book of the Year.

Dugoni applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, and reported the following:

If readers opened my book to page 69, they would get a great idea of the whole book. They would learn that Keera Duggan is a young attorney and the defendant she is asked to defend is Jenna Bernstein, accused of killing her CFO of an up and coming medical company. They would learn that Keera doesn’t trust Jenna because they grew up together and Keera believes Jenna is a sociopath at worst, a pathological liar at best. So as Jenna is giving Keera her alibi for the time of the murder, Keera is understandably skeptical.

Visit Robert Dugoni's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Wrongful Death.

The Page 69 Test: Bodily Harm.

My Book, The Movie: Bodily Harm.

The Page 69 Test: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: The Eighth Sister.

The Page 69 Test: The Eighth Sister.

My Book, The Movie: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Agent.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Agent.

Q&A with Robert Dugoni.

The Page 69 Test: In Her Tracks.

The Page 69 Test: A Killing on the Hill.

My Book, The Movie: A Killing on the Hill.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Hill of Secrets"

Galina Vromen began writing fiction after more than twenty years as an international journalist in Israel, England, the Netherlands, France, and Mexico. After a career with Reuters News Agency, she moved to the nonprofit sector as a director at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.

Vromen launched and directed two reading readiness programs in Israel, one in Hebrew (Sifriyat Pijama) and one in Arabic (Maktabat al-Fanoos). During her tenure, the two programs gifted twenty million books to young children and their families and were named US Library of Congress honorees for best practices in promoting literacy.

Vromen’s stories have been performed on NPR’s Selected Shorts program and appeared in magazines such as American Way, the Adirondack Review, Tikkun, and Reform Judaism. She has an MA in literature from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and a BA in media and anthropology from Hampshire College in Massachusetts.

Vromen and her husband divide their time between Israel and Massachusetts.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Hill of Secrets, and reported the following:

The Page 69 Test works only partially for my book. On page 69, the main character, Christine, meets a native American potter, Maria Martinez. So, the page does mark the beginning of Christine's change of heart about being dragged to live at a desolate army base in Los Alamos, New Mexico, because her husband has been assigned to work on a secret project there during WW2. But her relationship with Martinez is only a small part of the transition she undergoes in the course of the book.

Page 69 does introduce the reader to Maria Martinez, a real figure whose signature black pottery, which I describe extensively, is widely acclaimed to this day. Martinez did have contact with the residents of Los Alamos and much of her backstory in the book is historically based.

Visit Galina Vromen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Usual Silence"

Jenny Milchman is the Mary Higgins Clark award winning and USA Today bestselling author of five novels. Her work has been praised by the New York Times, New York Journal of Books, San Francisco Journal of Books and more; earned spots on Best Of lists including PureWow, POPSUGAR, the Strand, Suspense, and Big Thrill magazines; and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness. Four of her novels have been Indie Next Picks. Milchman's short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies as well as Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and a recent piece on touring appeared in the Agatha award winning collection Promophobia. Milchman's new series with Thomas & Mercer features psychologist Arles Shepherd, who has the power to save the most troubled and vulnerable children, but must battle demons of her own to do it. Milchman is a member of the Rogue Women Writers and lives in the Hudson Valley with her family.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Usual Silence, and reported the following:

I love this test in part because sixty-nine is one of my lucky numbers, and also because it happens to work uncannily well for my new novel, The Usual Silence, getting one of the most important characters on the page, and putting the deepest theme of the novel on full display.

Let me back up.

The Usual Silence is about Arles Shepherd, a psychologist who treats a ten-year-old Autistic child named Geary who holds the key to her own troubled past. The story is told in three points of view, although before the twist is revealed at the end, it seems as if it might be four.

On page 69 Geary and his mother see a psychotherapist who is about to reject Geary as a patient. He refers Geary to Dr. Shepherd, but he has an ulterior motive for doing so. In order not to reveal his own complicity—and duplicity—in the matter, the psychotherapist tries to overpower Geary’s mom mentally, really gaslight her. But Geary’s mom sniffs him out. She knows something is wrong and takes her son far away before they can be sent.

As a writer, I have my own version of the Page 69 Test, which is to ask as my book goes through revision after revision and iterative drafts whether each element performs double, triple, even quadruple duty. Does each detail further plot, deepen character, add thematically, and contribute something surprising, perhaps a beautiful line of prose?

Once a book hits that benchmark, then every page should be a great exemplar of the story.

Yet somehow page 69 is a particularly good one, spotlighting the poignant, heartbreaking situation that is mental health care today, hinting at a triumphant reversal to come, keeping the reader in suspense—how will Geary find his way to Dr. Shepherd?—while illuminating the novel’s theme of women who take their power back to staggering results.

Learn more about the book and author at Jenny Milchman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Cover of Snow.

The Page 69 Test: Cover of Snow.

The Page 69 Test: Ruin Falls.

My Book, The Movie: Ruin Falls.

My Book, The Movie: The Second Mother.

The Page 69 Test: The Second Mother.

Q&A with Jenny Milchman.

My Book, The Movie: The Usual Silence.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Sound of a Thousand Stars"

Rachel Robbins received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is a tenured assistant professor at Malcolm X College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago. A visual artist and two-time Pushcart Prize–nominated writer, her paintings have materialized on public transit, children’s daycare centers, and Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. She lives in Chicago with her husband, children, and Portuguese Water Dog. Her new novel, The Sound of a Thousand Stars, is loosely based on her grandparents, who worked at Los Alamos but never spoke of their time there.

Robbins applied the Page 69 Test to The Sound of a Thousand Stars and reported the following:

From page 69:

Physics was not an appropriate hobby for a wife. If he ever learned what she’d been up to as he was facing rifles, flame- throwers, and grenades in the trenches, he would certainly call the marriage off. Even long after this was over, someday when everything was declassified, he wouldn’t want a woman who could analyze wavelengths or calculate kinetic energy. By contrast, Caleb seemed to be memorizing her every word. He was not planning what he would say next while she spoke; he was truly listening to her. Perhaps he was even afraid to speak.

Pavlov was waiting for them on the porch, contentedly gnawing on a stick that he sandwiched between his paws. They climbed the rickety steps up to her small home, approaching the dim lantern swaying from the overhang. She turned to see Caleb’s face in the light, but he avoided her eyes, investigating her ramshackle windows and lopsided roofing. He knocked on the wooden siding, feigning a knowledge in carpentry. He ran his hand along the hinge of the screen and the jutting windowpane. “These houses look like they were drawn by someone trying to remember their childhood home,” he said. His expression cracked as he studied the humble siding. What childhood home was he trying to remember? “Blueprints made from nostalgia.”

“I’m not married,” she said, unprompted, catching her breath. “Yet.” She watched his features rearrange. Her chest fluttered, beating with hundreds of frantic wings. She tried to hold steady. “My fiancé is somewhere in the northeast of France. 38th Infantry Regiment.”

Caleb still had his hand on the windowpane, and he seemed afraid to move it, to break the spell of whatever was happening between them. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Don’t be. It’s easier for him to have a relationship with a pen and paper than a woman who talks back.”

“I never liked the phrase ‘talking back,’” he said carefully. “Maybe you were just talking forward.”

Alice felt something tighten in her chest at the suggestion that her words might mean something more. “I shouldn’t be so hard on him,” she said in a rehearsed voice. “He’s fighting to save us.” She tried to mean it.

I’ve always been intrigued by Marshall McLuhan and his theories about objects and media—so, it’s fascinating to see books as an extension of that. Yes, the Page 69 Test worked brilliantly with my book. This is a pivotal scene. It unfurls into the past through references to childhood, and simultaneously presupposes a shared future. There’s this sense of the transient nature of the whole town conveyed through the flimsy architecture and the two characters standing there on the deck, neither inside nor outside, waiting for the world to rearrange. They are longing for each other but unable to make contact, frozen outside of time. It’s the first moment of suspended time in the book, which is a major theme derived from my grandmother’s archival letters home during the war.

Los Alamos had many nicknames, but my grandmother referred to it as Shangri-La, an homage to the novel Lost Horizon by James Hilton. It’s a fitting reference since Hilton’s novel portrays a set of plane crash survivors who end up in the mountains of the Himalayas, far away, high up, and outside of time. Since Los Alamos was certainly isolated, first by its geography, and second due to necessary wartime security, I wanted my book to convey a sense of timelessness. This is why some chapters move in reverse while others explore the scientific underpinnings of the strange relationship between space and time, which to this day, we don’t fully understand.

Learn more about The Sound of a Thousand Stars at the publisher's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Hitchcock Hotel"

Stephanie Wrobel is an international and USA Today bestselling author. Her first novel, Darling Rose Gold, was published in March 2020, hitting the Sunday Times, USA Today, and Globe and Mail bestseller lists. The book has sold in twenty-one countries and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, the Barry Award for Best First Novel, and the Macavity Award for Best First Novel. Her second book, This Might Hurt, about a woman trying to rescue her sister from the clutches of a cult that promises fearlessness to its followers, published in 2022.

Wrobel applied the Page 69 Test to her third novel, The Hitchcock Hotel, and reported the following:

Page 69 of The Hitchcock Hotel begins with host Alfred suggesting his old friends and weekend guests resurrect their film club, followed by a group dinner. They all agree, then part ways.

“Does seven o’clock work for everyone? If no one objects to a slightly later dinner, we can eat after the movie. Say around eight thirty?”

“Sure,” Grace says. “I’m going to put in a few hours of work until then.”

“I’m heading out for a run.” TJ pulls his earbuds from his pocket.

“In this weather?” Samira says. “You’ll be soaked.”

“No big deal,” he says. “I’ll dry.”

The three of them say goodbye to us, then make for the lobby.

“Can I talk to you for a minute, Alfred?” Julius asks—it can’t be—nervously? I almost say Me? But he’s already leading me by the elbow across the room, away from Zoe, who stares at her toast as if she’s vacated her body.

I put my hotelier voice back on. “Has everything been to your expectations thus far?”

Julius appears puzzled. “What? Yes. Listen. I’m a big fan of what you’ve set up here.”

Part of me is thrilled, filled with pride. Another part is skeptical. Julius is hardly a movie fan. He took film studies because he heard it was easy, and he joined the film club for fear of missing out. “I’d like to invest,” he adds.

I chuckle politely. Another stupid prank.

He scowls. “I’m serious.”

“As in an angel investment?”

Julius fusses with the silk scarf tied around his neck. “More like a grant.”

“A grant?” I repeat. “You mean a donation?”

“Call it what you want. I’m no savant, but I’ve heard money is key to the success of small businesses.”

My brain struggles to compute this new reality.

I don’t think the Page 69 Test works very well for this book. In The Hitchcock Hotel, page 69 is one of transition, of getting the characters from one scene to the next, which means it fails to give readers the sense of pace and plot zigzags that set the tone for most of the novel.

One thing page 69 does telegraph well is a sense of my ensemble cast. Here’s Alfred, unfailingly polite and trying to convince everyone to watch a Hitchcock film, just like in their college days. Grace is the workaholic hedge fund manager—even on her weekend away, she’s working. TJ, a muscled bodyguard, heads off to exercise. Samira, the group mom, worries over his welfare if he gets caught in the rain. Zoe, who struggles with alcoholism, is hungover. Last but not least, trust fund kid Julius tries to solve a problem (ongoing friction between him and Alfred) by throwing money at it. In just over two hundred and fifty words, we get glimpses into the heart of all six of our potential victims—and the killer.

Visit Stephanie Wrobel's website.

The Page 69 Test: Darling Rose Gold.

My Book, The Movie: Darling Rose Gold.

Q&A with Stephanie Wrobel.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Night Woods"

Paula Munier is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Mercy Carr mysteries. A Borrowing of Bones, the first in the series, was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and named the Dogwise Book of the Year. Blind Search also won a Dogwise Award. The Hiding Place and The Wedding Plot both appeared on several “Best Of” lists. Home at Night, the fifth book in the series, was inspired by her volunteer work as a Natural Resources Steward of New Hampshire. Along with her love of nature, Munier credits the hero dogs of Mission K9 Rescue, her own rescue dogs, and a deep affection for New England as her series’ major influences. A literary agent by day, she’s also written three popular books on writing: Plot Perfect, The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings, and Writing with Quiet Hands, as well as Happier Every Day and the memoir Fixing Freddie: The True Story of a Boy, a Mom, and a Very, Very Bad Beagle.

Munier applied the Page 69 Test to her new Mercy Carr mystery, The Night Woods, and reported the following:

Turn to page 69 of The Night Woods, the sixth entry in my Mercy Carr mystery series, and what you’ll find is our very pregnant heroine Mercy Carr at home at Grackle Tree Farm between the storms plaguing her neck of the Vermont wilderness. She’s being chastised by her mother Grace for running around trying to prove hermit Homer Grant innocent of murder, when she should be planning her baby shower.

“I’ll be careful,” Mercy said. “Promise.”

“If you’re not, you could find yourself delivering that baby alone in the woods with nothing but a dog for a midwife.”

Mercy’s mother worries that Mercy’s game warden husband Troy is not going on paternity leave soon enough, and instructs their young cousin Tandie, whom she’s sent to stay at Grackle Tree Farm for the duration, to keep an eye on Mercy, “you don’t let her out of your sight.” Which more or less sums up the plot of The Night Woods. Tandie follows Grace’s advice, but not in the way she intended. Tandie plays Watson to Mercy’s Sherlock Holmes, and together they must solve the case—as the storms rage and the wild boar rampage and Mercy’s own water breaks—before it’s too late.

Visit Paula Munier's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Paula Munier & Bear.

My Book, The Movie: A Borrowing of Bones.

The Page 69 Test: A Borrowing of Bones.

Writers Read: Paula Munier (October 2019).

My Book, The Movie: Blind Search.

The Page 69 Test: Blind Search.

My Book, The Movie: The Hiding Place.

The Page 69 Test: The Hiding Place.

Q&A with Paula Munier.

My Book, The Movie: The Wedding Plot.

The Page 69 Test: The Wedding Plot.

Writers Read: Paula Munier (July 2022).

Writers Read: Paula Munier (October 2023).

My Book, The Movie: Home at Night.

The Page 69 Test: Home at Night.

My Book, The Movie: The Night Woods.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Two Good Men"

S. E. Redfearn is the award-winning and Amazon #1 bestselling author of seven novels: Two Good Men, Where Butterflies Wander, Moment in Time, Hadley & Grace, In an Instant, No Ordinary Life, and Hush Little Baby. Her books have been translated into twenty-five different languages and have been recognized by Goodreads Choice Awards, Best Book Awards, RT Reviews, Target Recommends, Publisher’s Marketplace, and Kirkus Reviews. In addition to being an author, Redfearn is also an architect. She currently lives in Laguna Beach California, where she and her husband own two restaurants: Lumberyard and Slice Pizza & Beer.

Redfearn applied the Page 69 Test to Two Good Men and reported the following:

I love the Page 69 Test. It’s amazing how that page always ends up being so elucidative of the central theme in almost every novel I write.

Page 69 for Two Good Men starts with:

“Doesn’t matter how much time passes,” she says. “Those we lose linger in our souls.”

What a wonderful start to the test!

Two Good Men is a story of two men on a quest for justice on opposite sides of the law. The scene on page sixty-nine is from FBI agent Steve Patterson’s perspective. Steve is a bereaved father who made it his mission to protect the rights of released felons after his son was killed by a vigilante mother who targeted the wrong person. In this scene, Steve is conducting an interview with the neighbor of a felon whose sudden death is suspicious.

Dee has also experienced deep, irretractable grief, and Steve is deeply affected by the conversation. Dee goes on to explain why she is not sorry her neighbor is gone. The man, Otis Parsons, had vowed vengeance against Dee for the testimony she gave twelve years earlier that put him behind bars, and he had made it clear that he planned to exact that revenge by hurting Dee’s eleven-year-old son.

“And what would you have done if he hadn’t died?” Steve asked.

She shakes her head. “I don’t know. Seriously, I don’t.” He hears the distress in her voice. “I prayed every night for an answer.” She lifts her green eyes to his. “And it seems God was listening.”

Steve doesn’t know about the Almighty taking heed of her plea, but he fully believes someone did.

“So you were relieved when you found out he was dead?” he asks.

Her gaze unflinching, defiantly she says, “More than relieved. Happy. Ecstatic. I celebrated. I grabbed my son, and we danced around the room.”

He nods in understanding, swallows the last of his cookie then asks almost casually, “And did you have anything to do with his death?”

This is a great representation of the novel, of the tug of war between good and evil, right and wrong, and justice and vengeance.

Visit Suzanne Redfearn's website, Facebook and Instagram pages, and Twitter perch.

Coffee with a Canine: Suzanne Redfearn and Cooper.

My Book, The Movie: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: Hush Little Baby.

The Page 69 Test: No Ordinary Life.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2016).

My Book, The Movie: No Ordinary Life.

My Book, The Movie: In an Instant.

The Page 69 Test: In an Instant.

Q&A with Suzanne Redfearn.

My Book, The Movie: Hadley and Grace.

The Page 69 Test: Hadley & Grace.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (March 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Moment in Time.

My Book, The Movie: Moment in Time.

Writers Read: Suzanne Redfearn (February 2024).

Writers Read: S. E. Redfearn (October 2024).

--Marshal Zeringue