The Page 69 Test: "Then He Was Gone"

Sunday, March 8, 2026

"Then He Was Gone"

Isabel Booth is the pen name of Karen Jewell, a former trial attorney and now a writer. She holds an undergraduate degree in English, a Master’s in Business Administration, and a

Juris Doctorate degree. When she’s not writing she loves to read, travel, and cook dinner for friends. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband.

Booth applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Then He Was Gone, and reported the following:

The scene on page 69 in Then He Was Gone is narrated by attorney Elizabeth English, the mother of six-year-old Henry, who has gone missing at the end of a family hike in the mountains. Elizabeth is packing a suitcase for Henry’s older brother Nick, to send him back to Houston, and giving him instructions about his flight home.
“You’ll board first, with any other unaccompanied minors. Aunt Kathleen will be waiting for you when you land.”

“Mom. This isn’t the first time I’ve flown by myself.”

True. He was a seasoned traveler, having been on trips with Paul and me from the time he was born, to London, Paris, Mexico, all over the U.S. and Canada. But as I packed, a scene kept playing in my mind. Nick walking down the runway in Denver, disappearing into the plane—never to be seen again.

“I know. You’ll be fine.”

I zipped the suitcase and set it on the floor. Nick took the handle and rolled it into the living room.

“Ready to go?” Paul said.

“Yup.”

We’d agreed that Paul would take Nick to Denver, buy him dinner at the airport, and stay with him until the plane took off. The press was still camped out beyond the gate. We put Nick’s suitcase in the Jeep in the garage, with the door closed. He lay down in the back seat, and I sat beside Paul in front. Paul opened the garage door and backed out, turned the Jeep around, and headed down the driveway. As we approached the gate, I said, “I love you, Nicky,” and he said, “I love you” back. I hopped out and unlocked the gate, opened then closed it after Paul had driven through. Cameras clicked and whirred, still and video shots of Paul driving away, me walking back to the cabin as the reporters shouted, “Is there any news of Henry, Mrs. English?” “Have they found anything—any articles of clothing?” “It’s been almost forty-eight hours since Henry went missing . . . Do you believe he’s still alive?”
Page 69 establishes that Henry is missing, which is the main plot line of Then He Was Gone. It introduces Elizabeth, as well as Paul and Nick, who will narrate their own chapters of the story. It reveals the anxiety Elizabeth feels about being separated from Nick, and her fear that she’ll lose him, too. It shows the family being hounded by the press, and the parents’ desire to protect Nick from that.

Page 69 doesn’t give a sense of the tense pace of the investigation into Henry’s disappearance, or the twists of the narrative as evidence turns up. It doesn’t offer a full picture of the desperate parents searching for their son, or the heartbreaking effects of Henry’s disappearance on Nick. It doesn’t reveal Elizabeth’s mounting anguish as the days turn into weeks, then months, and she relentlessly combs the trails in Rocky Mountain National Park and drives the towns in the surrounding area looking for Henry. And it doesn’t introduce the other interesting characters who narrate the story: Monroe, a former Montana sheriff, now park ranger, who leads the investigation; Alexis, Henry’s godmother, a high-powered corporate lawyer and Elizabeth’s best friend; and Eddie, an ex-con obsessed with Elizabeth because she helped send him to prison years before.

But I hope page 69 leaves the reader wanting to know the answer to this question and read on: What happened to Henry? If so, I guess it passes the test.