intact home by killing off fictional characters. There was one detour on Henry's path to destruction: when she was 12 she sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to noted children's author Roald Dahl. He liked it so much he showed it to his editor, who asked if she could publish it in Puffin Post, an international children's magazine. By the time Henry was in her 30s, she had started writing about hit men, kidnappers, and drug dealers. She has published 29 mysteries and thrillers for teens and adults, with more to come. She is known for meticulously researching her novels to get the details right.
Henry applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, When We Go Missing, and reported the following:
Page 69 of When We Go Missing starts mid-sentence:Learn more about the book and author at April Henry's website.herself, let alone a bunch of strangers. And certainly not John. He was too impatient. Too dismissive.So that initial half sentence is teenage Willow debating what adult she could share her disturbing find with. After picking up a camera card from the sidewalk, she had thought she could find its owner by looking at the photos. But she was alarmed to find hundreds of photos of teenage girls, and instinctively feels something bad might have happened to at least some of them.
While Mrs. P had seemed scattered lately, she was still the adult Willow trusted the most. But downstairs, it was just like Neil had said. Mrs. P was deep in conversation with a guy in coveralls holding a clipboard. His index finger was tracing a two-foot long crack in the wall as both of them frowned.
She was going to have to wait. On the other side of the basement, Dare was putting a leash on Spearmint. She was oddly pleased he wasn’t walking the dogs in the same order as the day before. It seemed only fair a different dog got to be first.
Willow volunteers as a photographer at a small private animal shelter run by the elderly Mrs. Palmerstein. What Willow doesn’t know is that Mrs. P, as she calls her, is keeping a secret from her. And there’s a new volunteer, Dare, who also has a secret. Both secrets threaten to push Willow away and/or break her heart.
Page 69 captures the lighter side of the book: Willow’s work with these unwanted animals, whom she loves completely and unreservedly (unlike many of the humans she knows). But with that half sentence at the top, it also hints at the darkness in the book, which was loosely inspired by the serial killer Rodney Alcala, also known as the Dating Game Killer. He posed as a professional photographer, and hundreds of his photos of teenage girls were discovered in a Seattle locker years ago. Despite periodic media appeals, most have never been identified.
Since I write for teens, I try to imply rather than describe in brutal detail. When We Go Missing was a really challenge to that delicate balancing act.
My Book, The Movie: Girl, Stolen.
The Page 69 Test: The Body in the Woods.
The Page 69 Test: Blood Will Tell.
The Page 69 Test: Run, Hide, Fight Back.
The Page 69 Test: The Girl in the White Van.
The Page 69 Test: Girl Forgotten.
--Marshal Zeringue