The Page 69 Test: "The Driftwood Bones"

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

"The Driftwood Bones"

Peter Colt is the author of Cold Island in the Detective Tommy Kelly series and the Andy Roark Mysteries. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1973 and is a

graduate of the University of Rhode Island. Colt spent twenty-four years in the army reserve, with deployments to Kosovo in 2000 and Iraq in 2003 and 2008. He is currently a police officer in Providence, Rhode Island, where he lives with his family and two perpetually feuding cats. Colt’s hobbies include cooking, camping, and kayaking.

Colt applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Driftwood Bones, the second title featuring Detective Tommy Kelly, and shared the following:

Page 69 of The Driftwood Bones, takes place in the middle of a conversation between State Police Detective Tommy Kelly and Nantucket Police Detective Jo Harris. They are discussing the case involving a woman's corpse that has been found floating in an oyster farm. The woman is young, and has no ID on her and nothing to indicate who she is. Kelly and Harris are speculating as to her origin and identity. They are also laying out their plan for the investigation. The reader has a front row seat to a conversation between two detectives as they plot their next moves.

This page gives the reader a good idea of the novel. It shows the realistic steps that police will take in an investigation. They also describe the challenges that detectives face in reality as opposed to the media. The back and forth between the two characters is always a staple of the Kelly/Harris novels. It gives excellent insight into their relationship which is central to the series. It also describes or begins to describe some of the societal challenges of a place like Nantucket Island where there are vast disparities in wealth.The detectives have differing opinions about their community. The detectives will have many discussions regarding the gulf in living standards, and income between the "haves" and the "have nots" on the island. While the book is meant purely to be entertainment and not social commentary, the discussion serves to illustrate how the two main characters feel about their community.