"The Butterfly Trap"

Before turning to a life of crime (fiction), Boston Globe-bestselling author Clea Simon was a journalist. A native of New York, she came to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University and never left. The author of three nonfiction books and 32 mysteries, most recently the psychological suspense The Butterfly Trap, her books alternate between cozies (usually featuring cats) and darker psychological suspense, like the Massachusetts Center for the Book “must reads” Hold Me Down and World Enough. She lives with her husband, the writer Jon S. Garelick (another Boston Globe alum), and their cat Thisbe in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Simon applied the Page 69 Test to The Butterfly Trap and reported the following:

Page 69 of The Butterfly Trap captures Greg and Anya in a rare domestic moment. Anya is attempting to cook dinner and failing miserably.

“I think the tomatoes were a bad idea,” she says, looking into the pot. “Now I keep stirring it and trying to think about what to add. I don’t think it’s edible. Want to try?”

He does, and when she sees his reaction, she starts laughing and he joins in.

“How about we make reservations instead?” is his response (acknowledging that he’s repeating an old joke) and – after dumping the disaster down the disposal – she goes off to change clothes, “her eyes bright with anticipation.” It’s a lovely moment between a young couple trying to make a home, a life, together.

If only more of Greg and Anya’s life were like this scene! While page 69 captures one side of their relationship, it misses so much else that is going on, often covertly or not spoken about, between the two, especially once they move in together.

Still, there would be no tension, no drama in writing about a mismatched couple that was always at odds. Why would such a couple even be together? Page 69 here may describe a rare and atypical moment of domestic harmony for Greg and Anya. But showing what they had – or could have had – only ups the ante on what they have to lose.

Visit Clea Simon's website.

The Page 69 Test: To Conjure a Killer.

The Page 69 Test: Bad Boy Beat.

Writers Read: Clea Simon (May 2024).

Q&A with Clea Simon.

My Book, The Movie: The Butterfly Trap.

--Marshal Zeringue