"The Room of Lost Steps"

Simon Tolkien is the grandson of JRR Tolkien and a director of the Tolkien Estate. He is also series consultant for the Amazon series, The Rings of Power. He studied Modern History at Trinity College, Oxford and went on to become a London barrister specializing in criminal defense. He left the law to become a writer in 2001 and has published five novels which mine the history of the first half of the last century to explore dark subjects – capital punishment, the Holocaust, the London Blitz and the Battle of the Somme. The epic coming-of-age story of Theo Sterling, set in 1930s New York, England and Spain, is being published in two volumes, The Palace at the End of the Sea and The Room of Lost Steps.

Tolkien applied the Page 69 Test to The Room of Lost Steps and shared the following:

From page 69:

Theo ate hunks of bread with olive oil and pieces of uncooked ham, washed down with water in a goatskin bag. Even before he’d finished, he felt his strength returning, and the men clapped him on the back. Friends now, when they would have shot him in cold blood at a nod from their leader five minutes before. They called the short man Ascaso, and Theo sensed that they would lay down their lives without hesitation if he gave them the word.

In a pew at the back, the wounded man had stopped crying out, and Theo wondered whether he was dead.

Ascaso was over by the main door of the church, which he had half opened to look out. He was smoking a cigarette, and the golden sunlight wreathed with the blue smoke to illuminate his diminutive figure as if he were an actor on a stage. The gunfire, muffled before, was now louder than ever.

Suddenly he shouted twice, calling out a name that sounded like Oliver, and ran out.

“Who’s that?” Theo asked.

“Juan García Oliver. He leads the other group,” said one of the men. “They crossed Chinatown farther up, so perhaps they didn’t lose so many when they came out. If we join together, then maybe it will be enough.” But he looked like he had no faith in what he was saying. A hundred men would be no match for machine guns protected by the walls of the barricade.

A couple of minutes later, Ascaso came back into the church. “Time to go,” he said. “We have a plan.”

He walked to the end of the church and leaned down over the man in the back pew, verifying that he’d died. He closed the man’s eyes and took his pistol and handed it to Theo with an ammunition clip. “Let’s hope you can shoot as well as you can run,” he said.

On the way out of the church, he flicked his burning cigarette into the font and laughed when he saw Theo flinch.

“This church is beautiful, isn’t it?” he said.

Theo nodded, uncertain of the right response.

“It’s the oldest in Barcelona. A thirteenth-century Romanesque jewel, but tomorrow it will burn. All of them will. You’ll see.”

Page 69 of The Room of Lost Steps, reproduced above, conveys the tension of a short still interval between two episodes of street fighting on the first day of the Spanish Civil War in Barcelona. The arresting image of the anarchist leader, Francisco Ascaso, standing in the doorway of the Sant Pau del Camp Church, wreathed in smoke and illuminated by sunlight, conveys the appeal that anarchism held for the hero of the novel, Theo Sterling, but Ascaso’s casual disrespect for the font and promise that the church will burn reveal his ruthlessness, intensified in Theo’s mind by the fact that Ascaso understands that it is unique and beautiful, “a thirteenth-century Romanesque jewel.”

Attraction and repulsion: the contradictory effect that anarchism has on Theo is a central theme of the novel. He admires the anarchists’ courageous resistance to fascism, but he distrusts the violent destruction that they espouse, and this ambivalence leads to an inability to believe and commit that undermines his relationship with the anarchist girl he loves, Maria Alvarez.

The Room of Lost Steps completes Theo’s coming-of-age journey that began in The Palace at the End of the Sea. His participation in the fighting in Barcelona cements his hatred of fascism, and convinces him that he can help to change the world. He volunteers to fight with the International Brigades and so completes the journey from illusion to disillusion that is the overarching thematic arc of the two novels. Page 69 describes an episode that is an essential step along that road and so passes Marshall McLuhan’s test with flying colors.

Visit Simon Tolkien's website.

Q&A with Simon Tolkien.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Fiend"

Alma Katsu's novels include Red London, The Fervor, Red Widow, and The Deep. Prior to the publication of her first novel, she had a thirty-five-year long career as a senior intelligence analyst for several U.S. agencies, including the CIA and NSA, as well as RAND. Katsu is a graduate of the master's writing program at the Johns Hopkins University and received her bachelor's degree from Brandeis University. She lives in West Virginia with her husband and is a contributing reviewer for the Washington Post.

Katsu applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Fiend, with the following results:

From page 69:

Maybe Zef assumed Dardan would keep the other boys in line. But Dardan wasn’t a leader, not of this pack. He was just one of the boys at the periphery. Grateful to be part of the tribe. Conner Garrison—a god on the lacrosse field, the one the girls could not refuse—was the undisputed star of that little universe.

Dardan always burns with shame to remember that part.

He’s always felt guilty for what happened. He knows Zef is to blame for many things, but Conner Garrison’s death is not one of them.

Dardan’s shoulders slump. “I’m sorry but you just have to accept it for what it was: a freak accident. We were night skiing. We shouldn’t have been. We didn’t know the trails well enough. We were stupid. Egging each other one. Conner lost control.”

Garrison is almost trembling with rage. Dardan knows he wants to push back: Conner was an expert skier. There’s no way he would’ve done something so foolhardy. And lose control? He’d practically grown up with skis strapped to his feet.

But Andy Garrison wasn’t there. Dardan was. And he’s plunged back to that night. Following Conner’s screams though the trees and over boulders to the bottom of a sheer drop. Kneeling in the bloodied snow, not knowing what to do, fearing it was hopeless anyway. Headlamp sputtering in and out, running out of juice. Praying while he waited for the medics to show up. Conner unresponsive by the time he heard the medevac copper landing in the distance.

There is something else, too. Something Dardan has admitted to no one else save his father.

Page 69 is not a good example of the book as a whole; that is, it doesn’t reflect all the themes and key issues in the book, but it does give the reader insight into one important part of the story, that of Dardan, one of the major characters.

Here, Dardan is looking back at an incident that happened when he was 17. He’s 28 now and being groomed to take over his family’s empire. From this one scene, you get a sense of the many pressures facing Dardan—his strong, exacting father, the pressure that comes with being part of an extremely wealthy family—as well as a sense of Dardan’s character and, most importantly, his limitations.

Crisis is a good test of character. Being the only person on the scene of a deadly accident, the victim ostensibly a good friend (or maybe more of a frenemy) lets us see exactly what kind of person Dardan is. Most importantly, we know a challenge lies ahead of him and we see through this scene that he is not equal to that challenge. Like his frenemy Conner, he’s going to be crushed—we just don’t know yet how.

Visit Alma Katsu's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Taker.

My Book, The Movie: The Hunger.

The Page 69 Test: The Hunger.

Writers Read: Alma Katsu (March 2020).

The Page 69 Test: The Deep.

The Page 69 Test: Red Widow.

Q&A with Alma Katsu.

The Page 69 Test: The Fervor.

Writers Read: Alma Katsu (April 2022).

My Book, The Movie: Red London.

The Page 69 Test: Red London.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Everything We Could Do"

David McGlynn's books include the memoirs One Day You'll Thank Me and A Door in the Ocean, and the story collection The End of the Straight and Narrow. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The American Scholar. He teaches at Lawrence University and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

McGlynn applied the Page 69 Test to his debut novel, Everything We Could Do, and reported the following:

Everything We Could Do is largely -- though not entirely -- set in a hospital, specifically in a neonatal intensive care unit that cares for premature and critically ill newborn children. I've been fascinated by the NICU for years: not only was my youngest son a NICU patient, but my wife worked as a NICU social worker for close to a decade. The babies treated in NICUs are quite often unfathomably small and live at what Diana Fei calls "the edge of life": too small to survive without intensive medical intervention. Yet life, it turns out, is a powerful force and medical advancements have learned how to treat, nurture, and incubate many of these tiny human beings until they're strong enough to live in the world. It's harrowing and frightening and redemptive and miraculous all at once.

Page 69 is the opening of Chapter 5. The protagonists of the story, Brooke and Harper Jensen, have been holding vigil beside their preemies' beds for several weeks -- long enough for initial shock to wear off and for them to learn the idiosyncrasies of the place. A mother arrives at the unit with her baby, not for treatment, but to visit the nurses and doctor who cared for him. The nurses, however, don't remember him, at least not at first, and instead pretend to marvel over his size and progress. Harper Jensen sees this artificial display of exuberance as an insult, and then as a sign that the baby must not have been in the unit for very long. On the next page -- page 70 -- the reader learns that's not the case. The baby boy was very premature, and sick, and required an unforeseen surgery to live. But in the months since he's left the NICU, he's grown -- a lot. The nurses don't recognize him not because they're callous or cold, but because he's healthy and thriving.

Everything We Could Do tries to present a realistic view of a world few people ever see or even know about. It was important to me to not turn away from the most difficult experiences, to bear witness to them. But throughout the novel are moments like the one found on page 69, in which rays of light and hope poke through, and the characters get glimpses of possible happy endings. It helps them to keep going, and (I hope) adds a little levity to a deadly serious world.

Visit David McGlynn's website.

Writers Read: David McGlynn.

Q&A with David McGlynn.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Mercy of Thin Air"

Ronlyn Domingue's critically acclaimed debut novel, The Mercy of Thin Air, was published in ten languages. It was a fiction finalist for the 2005 Borders Original Voices Award and 2006 SIBA Book Award, a long list nominee for the 2005 James Tiptree, Jr. Award (now known as the Otherwise Award), and a 2010 Costco Pennie’s Pick. The Keeper of Tales Trilogy, which can be read in any order, includes The Mapmaker's War, The Chronicle of Secret Riven, and The Plague Diaries.

Domingue applied the Page 69 Test to The Mercy of Thin Air and shared the following:

From The Mercy of Thin Air, page 69:

Amy didn’t watch the rest of the DVD Chloe had sent her, but I did. There were only a few minutes left. The footage was taken at a party. People waved at the camera and talked to Chloe, the voice behind the lens. The microphone hummed with music and chatter. The shot moved through a dining room next to a narrow kitchen doorway. On the wall behind Amy was a calendar, August 1992. She hugged the dark-haired young man, and he clearly didn’t want them to be interrupted. They shared a strangely intimate moment for such a celebratory atmosphere. He was talking, but his voice did not come through. I strained through the noise and read his lips--It’ll be okay, he said. We’ll have the whole drive up. Sex in at least one strange bed. He nudged her, and she smiled. Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. This is only temporary.

For several days after she hid the disc, the essence of another man billowed intermittently throughout the house. More often, she snapped her head toward doorways and furniture corners with no discernable reason why. Amy was not reacting to me, I knew: there was another reason for her jitters.

Within that time, Amy stopped watching Scott as he slept before she left for work. Then one morning, and another, and each one after, she didn’t kiss him goodbye. The only habit she kept was to keep him warm.

Does the Page 69 Test work for my novel? Absolutely it does on the level of theme—a refusal to confront the past. Amy hides a secret, as well as profound trauma, that will be revealed in the pages that follow. The narrator Razi Nolan—a ghost who wouldn’t call herself a ghost—struggles with similar buried troubles. On top of that, page 69 picks up on other aspects of the story such as heightened senses and matters of intimacy.

So much has changed since the novel was published in 2005—from technology to politics—that I wondered if it would hold up in light of that—and for the story itself. For the book’s twentieth anniversary, a friend invited me to do an interview on his podcast. I had to reread the book for the first time in about 10 years to get ready. In the opening minutes, he quoted several reviews, one I didn’t remember. “In a word: Timeless,” he said. I paused. Yes. Because, at the core, this story is about deep love among friends, family, and partners, The Mercy of Thin Air is truly timeless.

Visit Ronlyn Domingue's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Danger No Problem"

Cindy Fazzi is a Filipino American writer and former Associated Press reporter. She’s the author of the Domingo the Bounty Hunter series. Danger No Problem (book 1), previously titled Multo, was a finalist in the Best Literary category of the 2024 Silver Falchion Award. Book 2 is titled Sunday or the Highway.

Fazzi applied the Page 69 Test to Danger No Problem with the following results:

These are the first three paragraphs of page 69 of Danger No Problem, which follows Domingo, a Filipino American bounty hunter. Page 69 is the start of Chapter 8. It’s one of several chapters that begin with a first-person narrative by Domingo. He’s writing an advice book for people who want to immigrate to the United States based on his experience as an immigrant and his job finding fugitive undocumented immigrants.

THE PRESENT

Assimilation in America: You Are What You Eat

If you are what you eat, you must learn to like what native-born Americans eat. Mac and cheese, hot dogs and hamburgers, pizza, snickerdoodles and cupcakes, mashed potatoes, and lots of cereal. Mind you, I didn’t eat any of these things while growing up in Manila. Mamang still refuses to eat them even after two decades in America. She’s seventy years old; it’s too late to teach her new habits.

In the Philippines, we eat rice at every meal. We’ve thought of all the different ways to eat rice. Garlic rice, steamed rice, chicken rice porridge called arroz caldo, chocolate rice pudding called champorado, a rice cake called bibingka, a rice cake called puto, a rice cake called biko. Do I sound like Bubba talking about shrimp in Forrest Gump? Well, the point is I love rice, but I learned to eat other things here in America.

Unless you’re as old as my mother, your assimilation should include eating like an American. If you want to be accepted, you must embrace the norm. Appreciate the abundance around you. We’re lucky to live in the present America where a halal market sits next to an Italian bistro and an Indian restaurant, where you can buy hard-to-find sauces and spices in a Chinese or Mexican or Filipino store.

The Page 69 Test works in this case. It describes the protagonist, Domingo the bounty hunter, in his own words. In just a few paragraphs, readers learn the following:

• Domingo is from the Philippines; his mother is 70 years old, and she doesn’t like American food;
• He believes that you are what you eat, and therefore, food is an important part of assimilation for immigrants.
• He introduces Filipino cuisine by identifying some popular rice delicacies.
• He’s grateful for the abundance in America, as well as its cultural diversity.

The two-book Domingo the Bounty Hunter series features the first Filipino American and first brown immigrant hero in the bounty hunter trope. Both books tackle ripped-from-the- headlines immigration issues and themes of identity and belongingness.

In Danger No Problem, Domingo is looking for the only quarry that has ever eluded him. He’s chasing an undocumented biracial Filipino woman named Monica Reed for the third time. He has tried to catch Monica for different reasons in a span of almost two decades.

The book pits a dogged bounty hunter against a desperate undocumented woman in hiding. They are compatriots. They are both in the United States in pursuit of the American Dream, but their dreams are on collision course.

As a Filipino American immigrant, the topic of immigration is very close to my heart. I wrote the series to introduce readers to Filipino American characters because there are so few of them in books.

I also want readers to get a glimpse of the common struggles and aspirations of immigrants, whether legal or undocumented. For immigrants of color, regardless of status, it usually boils down to the need for respect and acceptance because they are told in so many ways that they don’t belong here.

Visit Cindy Fazzi's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Bees in June"

Elizabeth Bass Parman grew up entranced by family stories, such as the time her grandmother woke to find Eleanor Roosevelt making breakfast in her kitchen. She worked for many years as a reading specialist for a non-profit and spends her summers in a cottage by a Canadian lake. She has two grown daughters and lives outside her native Nashville with her husband.

Parman applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Bees in June, and reported the following:

From page 69:

AFTER SHE HAD SET THE LAST PAN ON THE DISH drainer, Rennie wiped her hands, slipped off her shoes, and went outside for her evening check on the peanuts, sunflowers, and pumpkins. The soft grass on her feet always grounded her, no matter how frazzled she felt. She inhaled deeply, drawing into her lungs the air that was full of the promise of summer. Soon enough the heat and humidity would become cloying, but for now she welcomed it like a friend. Her little plot of land shone in the golden-hour light. After resting with her uncle in the bee yard following his fall, she had found the energy to dig the holes for the seeds, with Poe circling his encouragement in the skies above her. She was pleased to have finally put in her garden, feeling like she was slowly syncing back into the rhythm of life.

The tender shoots were about eight inches tall, with the delicate oval leaves of the peanut plants resembling butterfly wings, while the bigger pumpkin leaves looked like green umbrellas protecting the smaller leaves underneath. The sunflowers were leaping skyward, taller than anything else growing. So different in appearance, all the leaves had one thing in common, the primal need to reach skyward, toward the sun.

What it conveys: Bees in June, set in the summer of 1969, is the story of Rennie Hendricks, a woman in an abusive marriage who is rediscovering her own joy and power after suffering a tragic loss. She finds solace in two places, the kitchen and her uncle’s bee yard, both mentioned on this page. Rennie is deeply connected to nature, especially when she is with the bees. This page references the idea of both healing the body by breathing air from beehives, a form of apitherapy and grounding, walking barefoot in grass, to further emphasize the restorative power of nature. She nurtures by providing delicious meals, both for the humans and for Poe, the crow she is growing the food for.

What it misses: Bees in June has a diverse cast of characters, including her invalid uncle Dixon, her cousin May Dean, and, of course the bees, but none of them appear on this page. Uncle Dixon personifies the wisdom of the natural world. “Treasure every bee you see, Rennie.” May Dean, described by Rennie’s husband as a “dim bulb,” is worried about the astronauts landing safely on a crescent moon. “Shouldn’t they go when it’s full, to give them a better chance?” Then there are the bees, who have their own chapters. Acting as a Greek chorus, they are wise and omniscient, but also not above interfering when they feel the humans have strayed from their path. The bees’ conversation about the humans begins the story.

The sooner he gets to Spark, the sooner his shattered heart will begin to knit back together.
What about her heart?
It grows colder every day. If he does not hurry, though, more than her heart is at risk. Her very life depends upon our success.
Is he going to save her?
No, something even better is afoot. She’s about to realize she must save herself.

Page 69 of Bees in June does a good job of communicating the overall feel of the book, but it lacks the engaging secondary characters that add to the flavor of the story.

Visit Elizabeth Bass Parman's website.

Q&A with Elizabeth Bass Parman.

The Page 69 Test: The Empress of Cooke County.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Cold Island"

Peter Colt is a 1996 graduate of the University of Rhode Island with a BA in Political Science. Colt was a 24-year veteran of the Army Reserve with deployments to Kosovo and Iraq as an Army Civil Affairs officer. He is currently a police officer in Providence, Rhode Island. He is married to his long suffering wife with whom he is raising two sons.

He enjoys, kayaking and camping and tries to get on the local rivers and ponds as often as he reasonably can. Colt is also an avid cook, a hobby which manages to find its way into his novels. He is a proud member of both the Mystery Writers of America and The Pawtuxet Athletic Club.

He is the author of the Tommy Kelly mysteries, Cold Island (2025). He also wrote the Andy Roark series of books, The Off-Islander (2019) and Back Bay Blues (2020) and Death at Fort Devens (2022), The Ambassador (2023), The Judge (2024) and The Banker (2025). He has also published short stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

Colt applied the Page 69 Test to Cold Island and shared the following:

Page 69 shows the protagonists of Cold Island, Massachusetts State Police Detective Tommy Kelly and Nantucket Police Department Detective Jo Harris at work. They are in the NPD detective bureau, checking emails, reporting to bosses and waiting for forensic evidence. In short they are doing real and boring police work. It aint like the stuff on TV. It's not glamorous but it is authentic.

If a reader were to open Cold Island to page 69 they wouldn't get a good idea about the story. In fact they might be tempted to put the book back on the shelf and move onto something more interesting. The book is a dark, twisty, cold case story. There is a lot in it to grab a reader's attention but there isn't much of it on page 69. That said, page 69 works in the context of the novel because it is one of the threads that make up the tapestry of the novel. In this case the Page 69 Test doesn't work for my book, but the Page 34 Test would!

Part of the reason why the test doesn't work for Cold Island is that the story is a police procedural, a cold case, that bounces back and forth from 1981 to 2016. The story itself involves a serial killer and the investigation that results from the recovery of one of his victims remains thirty-five years later. The downside of being a cop, writing a police procedural is the temptation, no, the need to portray the police work as just work. Nothing sexy. Just putting the pieces together. In that sense, page 69 is reflective of the novel but that mania for relative accuracy is just one part of the novel.

Visit Peter Colt's website.

My Book, The Movie: Back Bay Blues.

The Page 69 Test: Back Bay Blues.

Q&A with Peter Colt.

The Page 69 Test: Death at Fort Devens.

My Book, The Movie: Death at Fort Devens.

Writers Read: Peter Colt (June 2022).

My Book, The Movie: The Ambassador.

The Page 69 Test: The Ambassador.

The Page 69 Test: The Judge.

My Book, The Movie: The Judge.

Writers Read: Peter Colt (May 2024).

Writers Read: Peter Colt (March 2025).

My Book, The Movie: The Banker.

The Page 69 Test: The Banker.

--Marshal Zeringue

“What About the Bodies”

Ken Jaworowski is an editor at The New York Times. He graduated from Shippensburg University and the University of Pennsylvania. He grew up in Philadelphia, where he was an amateur boxer, and has had plays produced in New York and Europe. He lives in New Jersey with his family.

Jaworowski applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, What About the Bodies, and reported the following:

I think I got lucky here: page 69 of What About the Bodies is fairly representative of the thriller's plot, in which good people venture into bad places. On that page, two characters are getting mired in a mess that will put them into debt with a brutal criminal. It’s a harsh moment, and, I hope, a bit of a funny one.

But behind the scene is a serious situation that many, many people are faced with: how to get money in an emergency. Several surveys have found that about half of all Americans wouldn’t be able to secure $1,000 if they needed it immediately. And that’s a reality that too many writers ignore. When I read a novel with a character who impulsively decides to jet across the country or dine in a trendy restaurant without worrying about the cost, I find myself a little put off. Sure, there are plenty of people who can afford expensive things. But there are far, far many more who can’t. And those are the people I like to write and read about.

Visit Ken Jaworowski's website.

Q&A with Ken Jaworowski.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Lonesome Place for Murder"

Nolan Chase lives and works in the Pacific Northwest.

A Lonesome Place for Murder is his second book featuring Ethan Brand. It follows A Lonesome Place for Dying, which earned starred reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.

Chase applied the Page 69 Test to A Lonesome Place for Murder with the following results:

From page 69:

…the remains on the slightly tilted autopsy table, laid out on that stainless steel, affected him more than he’d though. Part of it was the decomposition, the mixture of wax and leather, bone and parchment. Partly it was thinking this was what remained of Tyler Rash. The kid who’d come to live with him for a time. The man who’d intervened and tried to help him.

Something else, too. Ethan had been down in that tunnel. He’d seen the dead man’s resting place, shared it for a brief while. Their lives had intersected over the years—in a way it was like viewing one possible outcome of his own life. If Ty hadn’t come to him that last time…

Ethan left the room.

At heart, A Lonesome Place for Murder is a story about family, loss, and crime. This excerpt from page 69 hits those themes solidly. Tyler Rash might be victim, intended victim, murderer, or something else entirely, but he and Ethan Brand are connected by blood and history. And they’re on a collision course…

Chief Ethan Brand stumbles on an abandoned smuggling tunnel, with a body lying inside. The dead man is somehow connected to Ethan’s childhood friend Tyler Rash. What was Tyler doing in the tunnel, and who wanted to killed him? Ethan and his senior investigator, Brenda Lee Page, have to find answers before the killer finds them.

Visit Nolan Chase's website.

Writers Read: Nolan Chase (May 2024).

The Page 69 Test: A Lonesome Place for Dying.

My Book, The Movie: A Lonesome Place for Dying.

My Book, The Movie: A Lonesome Place for Murder.

Writers Read: Nolan Chase.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sweetener"

Marissa Higgins is a lesbian writer. She is the author of the novel A Good Happy Girl.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Sweetener, and shared the following:

I feel like Sweetener exists so I can talk about page 69. It is perfect for my freaky little book. Sweetener comes in at 256 pages, a hair longer than my first freaky novel A Good Happy Girl. Page 69 of Sweetener opens with a split sentence, the tail end of a bigger picture: "and slower if she can help me call anyone, and I shake my head gingerly." Greasy Rebecca (narrator Rebecca) has just walked in front of (and been hit by) a moving car and Charlotte, my neurotic artist dating two Rebeccas concurrently, is trying to get Rebecca to go to the hospital to get checked out. But Charlotte and the Rebeccas are all disturbed, and Charlotte doesn't really want to go to the hospital; she wants to consume both Rebeccas alive. She settles for going into a bakery with possibly-concussed Rebecca instead.

"You're so confused," Charlotte tells Rebecca, who doesn't realize Charlotte's been the one she's meeting from the sugaring app. Why? Rebecca is thrown by Charlotte's big fake belly, which Charlotte holds while speaking

"I saw it happen from inside," Charlotte tells Rebecca. "I've been waiting..."

"For the arches of Heaven," I fill in. "Or the gates of hell?"

The whole book is a slice of these strange women's lives while they're "dyking out." The reader (and myself) are equally disoriented and consumed by what these dykes are willing to do "in plain sight" to get something they want, even if their desires are a mystery to themselves. In the running include having (or stealing) a baby, being a sugar mama, severing or saving a marriage, and fostering a real child. And explicit lesbian sex with a fake pregnancy belly.

"I've got to get going," Rebecca finally tells Charlotte, incorrectly thinking this can't be the woman she's been messaging; that pregnancy belly looks big. Sweetener is the story of women who don't recognize each other or themselves, but they're emotionally the same: three reduces to one, if not literally, thematically. Style is really important to me, and I think this page represents my writing the best; no quotation marks, weird images, language that's motivated by sound and rhythm. Built to annoy most readers and a little reward for people who let my music get into their head.

"I refuse to see a doctor or a nurse or anyone who has any expectation of being paid for their time," Rebecca, who is calling her broke self a sugar mama online, reasons. "I tell myself to look up what to do after you've been hit by. car when I get back to my room; someone else without insurance must have vlogged it."

If you don't like page 69, you probably won't like the rest of the book: my girls are insufferable, like me. But if you get to page 69, you probably are interested or neutral enough to finish reading. I personally think hate or disgust reads are great, and I don't think you have to enjoy a book to love it or be changed by it.

Visit Marissa Higgins's website and follow her on Instagram and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Gone in the Night"

Joanna Schaffhausen wields a mean scalpel, skills she developed in her years studying neuroscience. She has a doctorate in psychology, which reflects her long-standing interest in the brain―how it develops and the many ways it can go wrong. Previously, she worked as a scientific editor in the field of drug development. Prior to that, she was an editorial producer for ABC News, writing for programs such as World News Tonight, Good Morning America, and 20/20. She lives in the Boston area with her husband, daughter, and an obstreperous basset hound named Winston.

Schaffhausen applied the Page 69 Test to Gone in the Night, the fifth Detective Annalisa Vega novel, and reported the following:

Page 69 finds PI Annalisa Vega puzzling over an anonymous note that proclaims her client, Joe Green, is innocent of murder:

Annalisa reread the note as she walked out. “You know what’s odd?” she remarked to Nick.

“The B at the end. Whoever sent the note went to a lot of trouble to keep their identity hidden, so why write anything at all as a signature?”

“Maybe it’s trying to throw us off. Maybe the B doesn’t mean anything.”

Karma leaned over and peeked at the note as they walked to the main door. “That’s not a B,” she said. “It’s a rune.”

“A what?” Nick stopped walking so Annalisa halted too.

Karma grabbed the note without asking. “I mean, it is kind of a B, like an early B from the ancient Germanic languages. See how it looks like two sideways triangles on top of one another. It’s a Berkanan. It represents rebirth, wisdom, sanctuary, and healing. I’m surprised that Charlotte didn’t tell you this herself.”

“And why is that?” Annalisa asked.

Karma handed the note back to Annalisa with a shrug. “Because she has one tattooed on her leg.”

This half-page is a pretty good sample of what you can expect from the Annalisa Vega novels. Annalisa digs into every tiny detail of her investigations, including wondering about the motive of why someone sending an anonymous note would bother to sign it. Her question leads to an important revelation in this case, which is that the B is not a letter but a rune. Even more crucially, the director of the women’s shelter, Charlotte, has one tattooed on her leg, suggesting a link between her and the person who sent the anonymous note. Charlotte has just finished telling Annalisa she knows nothing about the case, and now Annalisa suspects her of lying.

More generally, the Berkanan represents one of the themes of the book, which is a meditation on whether it’s possible to start over. Can you get a second chance in life? Who deserves one? Annalisa put her brother in prison years ago and the move solidified her moral code at the expense of her personal relationships. The Vegas’ struggle to heal is one of the main currents through all the books, leading to the culmination in this one as Annalisa confronts her brother at last.

Visit Joanna Schaffhausen's website.

The Page 69 Test: All the Best Lies.

Writers Read: Joanna Schaffhausen (February 2020).

Q&A with Joanna Schaffhausen.

My Book, The Movie: Gone for Good.

The Page 69 Test: Gone for Good.

Writers Read: Joanna Schaffhausen (August 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Dead and Gone.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Both Things Are True"

Kathleen Barber is the author of Truth Be Told (2017, originally published as Are You Sleeping), which was adapted into a series on AppleTV+ by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company, and Follow Me (2020). A graduate of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law, she now lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and children.

Barber applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Both Things Are True, with the following results:

Page 69 of Both Things Are True drops the reader into the middle of a conversation Vanessa and Sam are having as they walk from a chance encounter at Walgreens toward either respective homes. This is, in fact, the first time the two of them have spoken in five years, and there's tension between them as they look for safe conversational ground. The Page 69 Test works because this scene is a really accurate representation of the story as a whole: Vanessa and Sam spend most of the book trying to figure out whether they should put the past—and those five years where they didn't speak—behind them, and how their lives might fit together now. In particular, this section in the middle of the page encapsulates so much of the drama between the two of them:

But Sam doesn't ask about Jack, not directly. Instead, he says, "What are you doing in Chicago? Last I heard, you lived in New York."

"I'm staying with my sister for a while. Trying something new."

"Faith, right?"

I blink, genuinely surprised. "I can't believe you remember my sister's name."

"Of course I do," he says softly. "She's important to you, and you were important to me."

Were. Were important. The verb tense is as sharp as a knife.

Those lines hit so many important points of the novel: (2) the looming shadow of Vanessa's ex-fiancé Jack and what he did; (2) Vanessa moving in with her sister to rebuild her life; (3) Sam knowing everything about Vanessa; and (4) the ache of knowing that they once had love and lost it.

Visit Kathleen Barber's website.

The Page 69 Test: Follow Me.

Writers Read: Kathleen Barber (March 2020).

12 Yoga Questions with Kathleen Barber.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Playback"

Raised in Los Angeles, Carla Malden began her career working in motion picture production and development before becoming a screenwriter. Along with her father, Academy Award winning actor Karl Malden, she co-authored his critically acclaimed memoir When Do I Start?

Carla Malden’s feature writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, highlighting the marvels and foibles of Southern California and Hollywood. She sits on the Board of the Geffen Playhouse. Her previous novels include Search Heartache, Shine Until Tomorrow, and My Two and Only.

Malden lives in Brentwood with her husband, ten minutes (depending on traffic) from her daughter.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Playback, and shared the following:

“I want to go after him but am glued to the spot, crunched in the crowd. I can feel the blood rushing through my veins. I close my eyes to let my body recalibrate. I’m metabolizing this new reality that once again includes Jimmy Westwood.”

While the rest of page 69 details a specific moment in a specific scene, this first paragraph at the top of the page fulfills the premise of the Page 69 Test astonishingly well. These few lines echo one of the book’s major themes: Mari has been stuck, trapped in her present-day life, having shoved all that she learned about love and life in her time travel trip to 1967 to an inaccessible cubby in her brain. She may not know it consciously, but she has compared everything that has come after her first trip to 1967 to the love she found there. Here, on page 69, she finds herself face to face with that love, Jimmy Westwood, for the first time in seventeen years, precisely half her life. This little paragraph describes her visceral reaction to the moment, a reaction occurring on such a deeply cellular level that it requires “recalibration” and “metabolization.”

The Page 69 Test reveals the internal struggle that so characterizes Mari Caldwell, the lead character. At its simplest level, it’s a mind/body battle. Mari has sculpted the life she thought she wanted, the one that looked perfect. Now that it has crumbled, Mari finds herself revisiting the time – and the love – that cracked open her heart when she was younger.

This paragraph speaks to the heart of the book: Mari’s rediscovery of her capacity for love beyond that she feels for her daughter. Playback passes the test (at least these four sentences do)!

Visit Carla Malden's website.

My Book, The Movie: Playback.

Writers Read: Carla Malden.

Q&A with Carla Malden.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Too Old for This"

Samantha Downing is an internationally bestselling thriller author whose books have appeared on the Sunday Times and USA Today bestseller lists. Her novels include My Lovely Wife, He Started It, For Your Own Good, and A Twisted Love Story.

Her debut novel, My Lovely Wife, was nominated for Edgar, ITW, and Macavity awards in the US, the CWA award in the UK, and was the winner of the Prix des Lectrices award in France.

Downing applied the Page 69 Test to her new thriller, Too Old for This, and reported the following:

On page 69 of Too Old For This, the protagonist, Lottie Jones, is speaking to the police. Lottie is a seventy-five-year-old serial killer who has recently come out of retirement. The police are searching for a missing young woman, and this scene is quite revealing about Lottie. As she answers their questions, she begins to hint at other things going on, sending their investigation off into another direction by implicating someone else may be a responsible for the disappearance. At the same time, she is a bit forgetful, and it takes a few prompts to help her remember some of the details. Or maybe she is not forgetful at all and is only acting that way?

I will let readers decide for themselves about that…

However, what this page does show is how clever Lottie can be, especially when it comes to lying or making up stories on the spot. Because she is a serial killer, she is manipulative and cunning, even in her later years. This exchange is a perfect example of it, and you get a peek into how her mind works. I would say the Page 69 Test, in this case, does provide a good example of what readers can expect in Too Old For This. Lottie is one my favorite characters that I’ve written, and I hope people find her as fascinating as I do!

Visit Samantha Downing's website.

The Page 69 Test: My Lovely Wife.

The Page 69 Test: He Started It.

The Page 69 Test: For Your Own Good.

The Page 69 Test: A Twisted Love Story.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Burial Place"

Stig Abell believes that discovering a crime fiction series to enjoy is one of the great pleasures in life. His first novel, Death Under A Little Sky, introduced Jake Jackson and his attempt to get away from his former life in the beautiful area around Little Sky, followed by Death in a Lonely Place and The Burial Place. Abell is absolutely delighted that there are more on the way. Away from books, he presents the breakfast show on Times Radio, a station he helped to launch in 2020. Before that he was a regular presenter on Radio 4’s Front Row and was the editor and publisher of the Times Literary Supplement.

Abell applied the Page 69 Test to The Burial Place with the following results:

I love this idea. There is a prize in France called Prix de la page 112, which follows the same principle (based apparently on a line from a Woody Allen film where a woman is compared to a poem on page 112 of an ee cummings collection).

Anyway, to page 69 of The Burial Place! It's not a terrible place to start, as it happens: the book's first murder has, at that moment, just taken place in the Christie-esque location of an archaeological dig atop a beautiful, deserted Iron Age fort in the depths of the English countryside. We learn that the victim - a fussy local reverend, who had been party to the discovery of a treasure hoard - was found dying in a trench, having consumed some lethal liquid. It is not full of descriptive prose (which I am fond of), but there are little hints of the textures I enjoy writing about: the "bearish pelt" of my hirsute Scottish Inspector; the "sandpapery rasps" of the dig's director wringing her hands in distress.

Crime fiction is propelled - sadly and savagely - by murders, so this page is an important part of the forward momentum of the whole novel. It's a good "plot" page. It is also the last page of the chapter, so ends on what the Victorians called a "curtain line", a sentence that is designed to draws the reader ever onwards. Here it is:

"Thanks for securing the scene for us, Jake. It's a good job you did. Jordan died not long after he got to hospital, I'm sorry to say. Heart attack brought on by exposure to hydrochloric acid. There's a goodish chance he was murdered".

Murder and a mystery in a place of ancient history - it's what The Burial Place is about.

[I've checked page 112 for it's prize-winning potential, by the way, and it is only 6 lines long - another chapter ending. So I've done rather better with page 69, I reckon.]

Follow Stig Abell on Instagram and Threads.

Q&A with Stig Abell.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Always the Quiet Ones"

Jamie Lee Sogn is a Filipina American author of adult thriller novels. She grew up in Olympia, Washington, studied Anthropology and Psychology at the University of Washington and received her Juris Doctor from the University of Oregon School of Law.

She is a "recovering attorney" who writes contracts by day and (much more exciting) fiction by night. While she has lived in Los Angeles, New York City, and even Eugene, Oregon, she calls the Pacific Northwest and Seattle home.

Her debut novel, Salthouse Place, was an Amazon First Reads and was long listed for The Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize.

Sogn applied the Page 69 Test to her second novel, Always The Quiet Ones, and shared the following:

From page 69:

“As I was leaving, I thought I saw you and your friend talking to him by his car. Didn’t look like you guys were still fighting is all.”

I shake my head. “I honestly don’t remember; it was so late.” I shake my mouse and pretend to be distracted by something on my screen. “Greg, I have to work.”

“Sure, yeah, I’ll just . . .” He leaves and shuts the door behind him. As soon as I see him disappear around the corner, I go for my phone.

Looking in my contacts, I find her and begin a new text.

What the hell happened last night? I search and easily find a news article about Landon. I send it to Kelli.

The reply doesn’t come immediately. It doesn’t come at all. For a moment, I panic and wonder if she gave me a fake number. She was a stranger, after all. How could I have been so stupid?

I stare at my computer screen and wish I could go back to the person I was twenty-four hours earlier.

I get no work done. The office is like a tomb. There’s none of the usual banter or the charged hustle. We’re all in shock, and sure, he was an asshole, but we are all in mourning. I stay in my office and only see Greg pass by once more; he avoids looking at me.

I open my Uber app and look at the history. No rides home last night. Maybe Kelli or Landon ordered the car for me. No texts or photos reveal anything either. I go to the Saul Group’s website and look at the associate directory. I realize I don’t even remember Kelli’s last name or the department she works in; I scroll slowly through the list of all associates and don’t see a single Kelli listed. But it’s possible the website isn’t up to date; I know the BCC site still lists interns from last summer. I go to LinkedIn next and search for Kellis in the greater Seattle area working at the Saul Group. Still no results.

The Page 69 Test works remarkably well for this book! On this page, the browser meets the main character, Bea, the morning after an eventful night out took a fateful turn. Feeling mistreated by her toxic male boss, Bea is beginning to feel as if she’s never going to get the promotion she’s been working towards. So after meeting a woman at a nightclub, Kelli, and bonding over shared experiences of being women in the male dominated field of law, Bea and her new friend joke about making a deal to murder each other’s boss. Then, Bea wakes up to some shocking news. Her hated boss has been found dead. Bea can’t remember anything from the night before and she fears the worst.

On page 69, we see her arriving at work the morning after her night out with Kelli, her new friend and confidant… and possible accomplice, but to what, Bea isn’t quite sure yet. Unsure yet if she has anything to feel guilty about, Bea can’t help but feel as if all eyes are on her. Her mind is racing through the scenarios of the night before and who could have possibly seen her and Kelli. Then she begins to realize she doesn’t know anything about Kelli at all. Bea is horrified to think that the woman she knows as “Kelli” might not even exist. Bea might be totally alone and a suspect in her boss’s death.

The test works so well because this page is more or less the setup and conflict for the larger mystery of the novel, that is, who exactly is Kelli and who killed Bea’s boss? And how does Bea fit in? I would hope the browser reading this page would want to continue to find out what happened next. Because it turns out that Bea has a past that makes Kelli’s friendship, real or imagined, triggering in of itself. Even though she is the protagonist, she’s not a perfect character either and hides some secrets of her own. But that’s for another page…

Visit Jamie Lee Sogn's website.

Q&A with Jamie Lee Sogn.

My Book, The Movie: Salthouse Place.

The Page 69 Test: Salthouse Place.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Not Who You Think"

Arbor Sloane grew up in the Midwest and earned her master’s degree of English at Iowa State University. She now teaches community college courses and resides with her family in the Des Moines area.

Sloane applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Not Who You Think, and reported the following:

Here is an excerpt from page 69:

Note: This is a meeting between Amelia, a true crime writer who is covering the case of a missing classmate of her daughter, Gabby, and the school counselor.

I sit down and give him an expectant look, wishing he would hurry up and get to the point.

"I spoke with Gabrielle this morning," he says, tenting his fingers.

"Oh?" I think of how she hugged me this morning, reassured me. Maybe she was putting up a stronger front than she really felt.

"It seems that she's pretty troubled about the Mahoney girl's disappearance. Would it be alright if I met with her a few times a week until all this is solved?"

I pause. For a long time, I've been wondering if it would be good to get Gabby into some type of therapy. Now, after she's read my book, I'm leaning toward yes. It can't be easy, realizing the terrible things that happen in this world and that your mother was tangled up in them somehow.

"You know, I think that might be a good idea."

He nods, pleased.

I think of how satisfying his job must be, seeing people in trouble and actively being able to help ease their pain in some way. I wish that I could take away what Bridget Mahoney is going through right now. It only makes me more determined to find her.

I get up to leave, but Mr. Blair holds out a hand, halting me. I sink back into the chair, but all the while I'm thinking that I can't wait to get out of here. I need to be helping the police. I need to be taking steps toward getting Bridget home.

"I shouldn't be saying this, but I think there's something you should know," he says, then hesitates for a moment.

The Page 69 Test worked pretty well for Not Who You Think! It reveals the complicated relationship between mother and daughter, how Amelia feels conflicted about her work of interviewing serial killers and how it might affect her daughter when she actually reads the book and sees what her mother is investigating. Her worldview might change, knowing that there are people capable of such atrocities. Her innocence will be shattered. It also touches on the current case she's working on, Gabby's missing classmate. It hints at a clue that will give the reader an idea of what happened to Bridget, as well.

In Not Who You Think, the main character, crime writer Amelia Child is determined to explore the causes that lead to a serial killer's development. Her first book is about Gerald Shapiro, a prolific killer who raped and murdered a number of women after catfishing them through social media. With her detective friend, she helped put Shapiro away for good. But then something baffling happens; women start dying again, and the new killer seems to be following Gerald's M.O. She reunites with her investigator friend in a race against the clock to save Bridget, her daughter's classmate, who has been kidnapped. The knowledge she gained about Gerald Shapiro will come in handy, and she turns out to be more embroiled in the case than she initially thought.

Follow Arbor Sloane on Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Daughters of Flood and Fury"

Gabriella Buba is a mixed Filipina-Czech author and chemical engineer based in Texas who likes to keep explosive pyrophoric materials safely contained in pressure vessels or between the covers of her books. She writes epic fantasy for bold, bi, brown women who deserve to see their stories centered. Her debut Saints of Storm and Sorrow is a Filipino-inspired epic fantasy out with Titan Books. Saints has been named one of Spotify’s Best Audiobooks of 2024, and Buba a Spotify Breakout Author of 2024, and Saints was one of Reactor’s Reviewer’s Choice: Best Books of 2024.

Buba applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Daughters of Flood and Fury, with the following results:

From page 69:

At least he could ease today’s frustration and give Lunurin a place to vent her fears. He wouldn’t let the past rear its ugly head and poison what he and Lunurin had built together, not yet. Not with so much at stake and nothing to be gained.

He pressed his lips to the nape of her neck. Lunurin lifted her head, her dark eyes catching his with heated intention, and he was drowning. He kissed her. Her fingers threaded into the hair at his nape, pulling him closer. Her touch was electric, and he was water before her.

With a sweep of her arm, she cleared her worktable. Broken shell scattered in all directions. The saw bounced off the floor with a clatter and they both jumped, glancing toward the shut door, to see if anyone would come to investigate. But the distant doings of the house continued undisturbed.

Lunurin’s face creased into a laugh. “They’re avoiding my tantrums, I fear.”

Alon kissed the wrinkles above her pert nose. “Good… if anyone comes to check on us, I might do something drastic.”

“Promise?” Lunurin teased.”

If there was going to be anything on page 69 of Daughters of Flood and Fury I couldn’t have orchestrated it better, I love a good innuendo. As a window into the whole work those coming in from page 69 would end up expecting a much higher percentage of steamy scenes and a banter-filled Romantasy vibe. They might be blindsided by the amount of high stakes fantasy politicking, family drama, and high seas piracy they get instead. But as a character study I think page 69 tells you everything you need to know about Alon and Lunurin’s relationship, two of the three main characters of Daughters of Flood and Fury.

I’m a huge fan of intimate scenes that dig at characters’ deepest emotional vulnerabilities. If my characters are stripping down, they’re doing it both physically and figuratively. At home, in private, with her husband, Lunurin doesn’t have to be all powerful, always poised, Lady Stormbringer crowned in lightning with her goddess burning in her eyes. And with his wife Alon doesn’t have to have all the answers, be the perfect diplomat, being present with her is enough.

Where the test falls down is that this passage gives no hint of Inez, and Daughters of Flood and Fury is truly Inez’s book. While Alon and Lunurin remain behind in Aynila struggling to unite their allies to defend their city against the Codician Armada, Inez is chasing her own demons. Busy running away to sea to find her own way with her tide-touched magic and the truth of the rumors about her traitor of a sister returned to the archipelago as a Saint, to aid in the reconquest of Aynila.

Visit Gabriella Buba's website.

My Book, The Movie: Daughters of Flood and Fury.

Writers Read: Gabriella Buba.

Q&A with Gabriella Buba.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Five Found Dead"

After setting out to study astrophysics, graduating in law and then abandoning her legal career to write books, Sulari Gentill now grows French black truffles on her farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of Australia.

Gentill’s Rowland Sinclair mysteries have won and/or been shortlisted for the Davitt Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and her stand-alone metafiction thriller, After She Wrote Him won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel in 2018. Her tenth Sinclair novel, A Testament of Character, was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Best Crime Novel in 2021.

Gentill applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Five Found Dead, and shared the following:

From page 69:

It is actually quite tricky to follow someone on a train without being seen, or so we found. Duplantier’s friend might have been in any of the compartments. We lost him fairly promptly. With no idea where he was, Joe and I decide to return to our own compartment where we can speak unheard. And so it is that we hear something from within 16G as we pass. Joe presses his ear against the door and listens.

“There’s someone in there,” he whispers.

“We should inform— ”

Joe shoves the door to 16G with his shoulder, and I note a fleeting look of surprise on his face when the door flings open.

“Napoleon!” I find myself looking at the Frenchman, who sidesteps hastily to avoid being bowled over by Joe. “What are you—?”

Duplantier places as finger on his lips. A couple of awkward seconds follow wherein we just stare at each other. Finally, the Frenchman speaks.

“This isn’t… I assure you… Allow me to… ” He struggles for some explanation and then, apparently finding nothing even vaguely plausible, shakes his head. He motions me in.

Page 69 is a shorter page, sitting beneath the Chapter 7 header. It features three of Five Found Dead’s most important characters: Meredith Penvale, the narrator, a young woman who gave up her career as a lawyer to support her brother through serious illness; Joe Penvale, Meredith’s twin, a writer who having survived and recovered, is finding his muse on the Orient Express, and the somewhat enigmatic, retired French policeman, Napolean Duplantier. The page finds the three of them in the process of sleuthing. Indeed, it captures the moment when their separate unauthorised investigations run into each other, arguably a microcosm of the overall book in which several “detectives” are running their own inquiries which inevitably collide and cross.

The interaction on this page hints at the natures of Meredith and Joe. She wants to inform someone of the fact that an intruder is in room 16G (the scene of the murder) and he simply barges the door and goes in. As protagonists they embody caution and impulse.

The first line “It is actually quite tricky to follow someone on a train without being seen” is revealing and kind of emblematic of the book as whole. It is tricky to do many things on a train, including write a mystery! The moving train is a closed set in which the spaces are in line, so that in order to reach a particular carriage one must pass through others. Location is crucial and movement complicated. It is not possible to kill someone and simply run away. However, on a train there are many doors through which a murderer may step.

And so page 69 does afford the browser a taste of how Five Found Dead works, but is only a tiny snapshot of the multilayered complications and chaos onboard. It doesn’t really give you an idea of the relationships and connections, some longstanding others newly made, which are at play, and it is neither as thrilling nor as funny as other pages might be. It also does not speak in any way about the influence of story on the way in which we deal with reality—a major theme when one writes a new contemporary mystery on a literary landmark like the Orient Express. Even so, it does give the browser a glimpse, that if limited, is not inaccurate.

Visit Sulari Gentill's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Sulari Gentill & Rowly, Alfie, Miss Higgins and Pig.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Close Call"

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 Close Call, the third novel in the series, and reported the following:

When I turned to page 69 in Close Call, I found the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. The chapter that ended had to do with a woman who promised to share information with my main character Kate about her father. Then, at the last second (and on this page), the woman reneges on the deal.The new chapter takes Kate back to the US Open, the setting for much of the action in the book. 

So the question is, did the Page 69 Test work? In a round about way, I’d say yes. On one hand, the page doesn’t contain any reference to the kidnapping at the heart of the story. So that’s a negative. But the page is filled with a very important development in the Kate Green series arc. Namely, why did Kate’s father abandon her as a child.  Just as Kate was about to learn the truth, the woman with the answer, refused to share the information. And that happened on page 69.

“Don’t contact me again, Kate. And if you’re smart, let this go.” 

She turns and steps down the brick walkway and into her car, not once looking back. The disappointment crushes down on me, physically gutting my insides.”

The second part of page 69, which begins the new chapter, is really just a scene setter at the US Open Tennis Tournament. Kate is hanging out with her photographer, Bill, who recently quit smoking. While the page  mostly contains interpersonal banter between Kate and Bill, it does take place at the most important spot for this thriller. So I’m going to chalk that portion up to a win too. So, I’d say the Page 69 Test sort of, kind of worked.

Visit Elise Hart Kipness's website.

The Page 69 Test: Lights Out.

Q&A with Elise Hart Kipness.

The Page 69 Test: Dangerous Play.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Odds of Getting Even"

Amanda Sellet is a former journalist and the author of romcoms for teens and adults, including By the Book, which Booklist described in a starred review as, “impossible to read without laughing out loud.” She loves old movies, baked goods, and embarrassing her teen daughter.

Sellet applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Odds of Getting Even, and reported the following:

From page 69:

Jean had plenty of time during her evening shift to figure out how to even the cosmic balance. Charlie had brought her coffee in bed that morning, so she would spice up his evening with a little treat of her own.

As soon as she clocked out, Jean crept to his front door, placing a rolled sheet of paper on the mat. She rang the bell before lunging off the patio to hide behind one of the planters.

The door opened with Charlie’s typical hinge-straining enthusiasm. His smile fell when he realized there was no one there.

“Jean?” he said, uncertainly.

She watched him squint down the path, trying to see into the darkness beyond the trees.

“Is there someone there?” He was retreating into the cottage when he spotted the paper.

“What’s this?” Charlie murmured, bending to pick it up. A grin broke out as he read the words painted across the top of the page. “A treasure map.”

He took a step down, pausing when something crunched underfoot. Lifting his leg, he peered at the scraps clinging to his heel.

“The trail of breadcrumbs,” Jean hissed. “You’re supposed to follow it.”

“Jean?”

“I’m a disembodied voice. Totally anonymous.”

“Oh, right.” Charlie glanced at the path. “They’re very big breadcrumbs.”

“I thought tortilla chips would be easier to see.”

“Good point, anonymous voice. Am I supposed to eat them?”

“No. That would be gross. But I appreciate your commitment to the process.”

What can we tell from page 69 of The Odds of Getting Even? A lot! In this scene, we see our central couple, Jean and Charlie, at the height of the halcyon period of their relationship. These seeming opposites—an impetuous artist and shy snake scientist—have tumbled headfirst into a romance after meeting by chance at the resort where Jean works. From the beginning, their dynamic is playful and full of games, a theme that will continue until the very end of the book. Jean teases and cajoles Charlie into stepping out of his comfort zone, in this case literally, via the treasure map she leaves at his door.

There are hints of brewing tension in Charlie’s reluctance to leave the safety of his room. By now, the reader is beginning to suspect what Jean has willfully ignored: Charlie is hiding something from her, and his secret has made him leery of discovery. After he follows Jean’s map to the end, she opens up about a painful chapter from her own past—an act of trust he can’t quite reciprocate.

Very soon, the book will take a sharp turn into Part Two of the story, where we go from the blissful honeymoon stage to a characteristically ridiculous revenge scheme full of farcical twists and screwball scenarios. But for now, we are witnessing two people who delight in each other’s company, heading out for a moonlit stroll with only the faintest sense of a ticking clock counting down the hours until the outside world intrudes on their secluded hideaway.

The unlikely love story between Jean and Charlie is the beating heart of The Odds of Getting Even, and it’s right out in the open on page 69.

Visit Amanda Sellet's website.

Q&A with Amanda Sellet.

The Page 69 Test: By the Book.

Writers Read: Amanda Sellet (December 2022).

Writers Read: Amanda Sellet (August 2024).

--Marshal Zeringue

"Mess"

Michael Chessler was born and raised in Los Angeles. He graduated from Harvard College with a degree in English and American literature, and also studied Italian literature at the Università di Firenze. After working various odd jobs in the entertainment industry—perhaps the oddest being a short stint as a motion picture literary agent—he began a career writing, producing, and directing television. Chessler has developed pilots for all the major networks, and has been a showrunner, producer, director and writer on a number of TV series.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Mess, with the following results:

From page 69:

Teddy had kissed Jane goodbye before she left. She smiled when she felt his warm lips on her cheek, but also tensed. Part of her wanted to take his hand and lead him back to bed and spend the day there with him, whereas another part of her just wanted to run. She wouldn’t be able to resolve any of this now, and she had a job to get to, so she held him tight for a lingering moment, nibbling his ear, something that reliably delighted him.

Lindsey’s Honda CRX pulled up as Jane took a last sip of her now-tepid coffee.

“Oh my god, I am so, so sorry I am late! Wow, this house is cute! Like, super cute, right?”

“It’s beautiful. Let’s hope it’s not a big nasty mess inside.”


When Leila Allen opened the door and invited them in, Jane sighed with relief. The interior was gorgeous, beautifully appointed, and immaculate. Leila appeared to be in her mid-fifties and exuded elegance. Her hair was in a neat chignon, and she carried herself with the grace of a dancer.

“Good morning, welcome.”

“Your home is really beautiful.”

“Yeah, so cute!” Lindsey chirped.

“Thank you. I’ve been here a while, so— lots of time to try to get it right.”

From the entrance hall, Jane could see a living room, a library, and a grand split staircase with Mexican tile on the risers.

The floors were a dark stained oak, and the walls were painted a soothing parchment. Antique pieces artfully intermingled with contemporary ones. The color palette was mostly saturated greens and crimsons, but nothing felt heavy— just grounded.

Page 69 of my book is a surprisingly good preview of my novel. At the top, while my protagonist Jane Brown sits in her car parked outside the house she’ll be organizing that day, waiting for her co-worker to show up, she reminisces about that morning’s good-bye with her boyfriend Teddy. This passage illustrates that she is deeply conflicted about her feelings for him, and resolving these feelings is central to the novel.

Next, we follow Jane and her co-worker Lindsay into the home they’ll be organizing, and see how Jane is constantly assessing and making assumptions about her clients. This dynamic repeats throughout the novel as Jane goes into a different home in almost every chapter, and her initial judgments of people are often completely subverted once she gets to know her clients better—usually because their attitudes toward their possessions are so unintentionally revealing.

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--Marshal Zeringue