City of Secrets, City of Ghosts, City of Sharks), featuring "one of crime's most arresting heroines" (Library Journal), private investigator Miranda Corbie, and set in 1940 San Francisco.
Stanley also writes an award-winning, highly-praised series set in Roman Britain (Nox Dormienda; The Curse-Maker).
Her newest novel, The Reckoning, is a first-in-series mystery-thriller set in Northern California's "Emerald Triangle" in 1985.
Stanley applied the Page 69 Test to The Reckoning and reported the following:
I love this test! Not because it accurately captures the essence of a book—it really couldn’t, not with a crime fiction novel’s potential for twists, turns and the rolling-hill cadence of suspense and setting—but because it’s simply fun!Visit Kelli Stanley's website.
So here’s the first part of page 69 from The Reckoning. That page happens to feature the end of one scene and the beginning of the next. We’ll tackle the end of the scene.“Though what’s happened—Jennie—so, so horrible and scary. I hope to God they find this—this monster soon.”OK, what may we surmise from this—and does it hold true for the book?
He shook his head. “She’s not the first. And I’m worried—very worried—that she won’t be the last.”
Another older man in a sweater was waving him down from the bleachers and he looked at his empty hands with chagrin.
“I’m sorry—I need to get back in line. I told Copely I’d buy him a hot dog—he’s the choir master at South Fork and my—hope to God!—temporary roommate. I hope we can talk again, Natalie. Maybe you could come to the school and speak to my English class about law school preparation—we need all the outside influence—outside of Humboldt County, I mean—that we can muster.”
“I’m sure I’d like that. You can always reach me through the hospital.”
“Count on it.”
He trotted back to the Snack Shack. Renata stared after him.
She wanted to know more about Ian Sharpe—and why Phyllis Dawson said he “ruined” girls.
She slid into the bleachers. Two rows down, Mike was deep in conversation with a large man who was bending over to hear him better.
Wayne Hunt.
First, something’s wrong—something happened. Whatever happened to Jennie, she was not the first. Serial killer in (yes, the setting is mentioned!) Humboldt County?
Check. That is the main plot line of the novel, so page 69 came through!
The bleachers and Snack Shack suggest a game, and from his dialog, Ian Sharpe sounds like a high school English teacher at a school named South Fork. So, high school football game?
Check. A high school football game plays a major role in the story.
The diction, pace and tone of the passage conveys an unsettled, uneasy feeling. I think the page does a good, understated job at suggesting a sense of dread, something I’ve tried to express throughout the narrative—as though there’s a fuse running and a bomb’s about to go off. “Ruined” girls”? Who is Phyllis Dawson? Why is Renata—whom Ian is calling “Natalie” —focused on the man called Hunt? Is she a cop? A lawyer? Why the double name? Who is Mike? Page 69 raises some provocative questions!
All of the information is crucial to the characters and the plot, but what the page achieves most effectively, I think, is capturing some of the emotional tension that runs very high throughout the novel. The Reckoning is a slow-burning thriller and you never know what’s around the corner—at a shop, a library or a high school football game in a tiny town in the middle of the woods. Even the fact that the page contains a break between two scenes emphasizes the relentlessness of time, an element which is not in Renata’s favor.
All in all, I think page 69 hits the mark in some unexpected ways!
Coffee with a Canine: Kelli Stanley & Bertie.
The Page 69 Test: City of Dragons.
The Page 69 Test: City of Secrets.
The Page 69 Test: City of Ghosts.
My Book, The Movie: City of Ghosts.
The Page 69 Test: City of Sharks.
My Book, The Movie: City of Sharks.
Writers Read: Kelli Stanley (March 2018).
--Marshal Zeringue
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