"Solar Express"

L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the bestselling author of over sixty novels encompassing two science fiction series and four fantasy series, as well as several other novels in the science fiction genre..

He applied the Page 69 Test to his latest novel, Solar Express, and reported the following:

Solar Express is a very “hard” SF novel set in the year 2114. One of the key aspects of the book is that Alayna Wong-Grant, one of the two protagonists, is an astrophysicist at a full-spectrum optical and radio telescope observatory on the far side of the Moon, trying to discover the reason for a recently-discovered [in our time] pattern of solar behavior, otherwise known as multi-fractal mini-granulations. As the station-keeper, she has to work in her observation time when she can, while making sure all the various instruments and all the support equipment are always functioning. On page 69…

She’d put off answering Chris’s latest message for several reasons, including the fact that she’d been preoccupied with her own research, poring over the data and observations, looking for the smallest hint of something besides the patterns of granulation and mini-granulation that had been studied for more than a century and a half. But it seemed that nothing was there. Nothing was there…

For some reason an old rhyme came into her head.

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today.
I wish, I wish he’d go away.

Like it or not, one way or another, the data, the observational hints she was seeking, the clues, the whatever… she and the solar array weren’t finding them… or not recognizing them, and she was having trouble dealing with that.

This passage and what follows shows her intensity, and the fact that her work comes before answering messages from friends, as well as the fact that the great questions in science don’t always yield quick or easy answers.

And yes… there is an answer to her inquiry, to which, by the way, there isn’t today. There’s also a great deal more, all of which results from her intensity.

Learn more about the author and his work at L. E. Modesitt, Jr.'s website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Recipes for Love and Murder"

Sally Andrew lives on a nature reserve in South Africa's Klein Karoo with her partner, Bowen Boshier, and other wildlife, including a secretive leopard. Her background is in adult and environmental education, and she has published a number of nonfiction books.

Andrew applied the Page 69 Test to Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery, her first novel, and reported the following:

This page shows part of Tannie Maria's response to a man who wrote a letter to her 'Love Advice and Recipe Column' in the Klein Karoo Gazette. He needs help with a gal he fancies, but also mentions he doesn't know how to boil an egg. The man's relationship issue is quickly solved, but the egg boiling recipe is a little more intricate...

Page 69 also catches some of Maria's conversation with Detective Henk Kannemeyer (the tall detective with the chestnut moustache), and gives a taste of the murder and intrigue that flavours the book.

Visit Sally Andrew's website.

My Book, The Movie: Recipes for Love and Murder.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Manners & Mutiny"

Gail Carriger writes comedic steampunk mixed with urbane fantasy in three series: 2 adult, the Parasol Protectorate and the Custard Protocol, and 1 YA, the Finishing School series. Her newest book ends the Finishing School series and is called Manners & Mutiny. Her books are published in 18 different languages. She has 12 New York Times bestsellers via 7 different lists (including #1 in Manga). She was once an archaeologist and is overly fond of shoes, hedgehogs, and tea.

Carriger applied the Page 69 Test to Manners & Mutiny and reported the following:

From page 69:

Vieve glowed. “Recent pamphlets suggest there’s a kind of cosmic mist, no name as yet, but I thought my aunt would appreciate the homage to modern astronomical theory.”

Sophronia was impressed with the artistry and the execution, if not with the resulting style statement. Since Vieve’s shining eyes clearly indicated an expectation of some form of praise, Sophronia said the nicest thing she could think of without lying. “It’s very well made.”

“Do you think my aunt will like it?”

“Does she have anything to go with it?” Sophronia was cautious.

Vieve laughed. “Crikey, no. I do know something about fashionable headgear. No, no. I don’t expect her to wear the wretched thing! It’s a bit of a family joke.”

Sophronia relaxed. “Oh, well, in that case, I think it’s wonderful.”

Vieve’s dimples became more pronounced. She resettled the solar hat into its box and took great pains when strapping it to Sophronia’s back.

“Well, my dear Vieve, amazing work as always. Someday you must allow me to repay you for all you’ve done.”

“Sophronia, ma mie, I’m counting on it.” The girl doffed her hat and strode back toward Bunson’s, hands thrust deep into her pockets, whistling an off-key tune under her breath.

Is page 69 representative of the rest of the book?

Well page 69 turns out to be the last page of a chapter, so it has that aspect of closing down a scene. In that way it certainly isn't reflective of the books pace, which is mostly pretty breakneck. Vieve (a small but mighty inventor) has just shown Sophronia (our main character) an extremely peculiar hat. It is a gift for Vieve' aunt, a rather austere teacher at Sophronia's school. This is a side scene that gives an important glimpse into Vieve's character and a major foreshadow for when she shows up, 20 years later, in Changeless (the second book in my first series). It does show Sophronia's developing relationship with her friends: more accepting of their quirks and their abilities. It also sets up a debt that as yet, in all 12 stories I've written in this universe, I've yet to cash in on.

Would a reader skimming be inclined to read on?

It is very indicative of my style and tone, so I suspect if you're attracted to that, then yes. If you have read my other books, then I think definitely yes because Vieve (and her adult form, Madame Lefoux) is one of my most popular side characters. I believe many loyal readers will be delighted to see her back again in this book, as she wasn't around much in the last one.

One of my favorite things about writing this prequel series was the opportunity to explore Vieve's character further. She's 10 in Etiquette & Espionage (the first Finishing School book) and in her 30s in the Parasol Protectorate series. Throughout both she is charming and a great lover of technology, who is excited by creativity. But in the Finishing School books, I got to write her before her heart is broken and she becomes brittle. In the Parasol Protectorate books, Alexia (the main character) finds Madame Lefoux fascinating, but untrustworthy and for good reason. Sophronia, on the other hand, adores Vieve but doesn't need to trust her. Sophronia is a spy, she doesn't trust anyone. Yet both Sophronia and Vieve are loyal to each other and have a strange kind of integrity. I like the way that the same side character reflects and interrelates differently with my two main characters. This, I hope, tells readers quite a bit about Vieve and how she changes over the years, but also how different Sophronia's view of the world is from Alexia's.

Learn more about the book and author at Gail Carriger's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: Soulless.

The Page 69 Test: Changeless.

The Page 69 Test: Waistcoats & Weaponry.

The Page 69 Test: Prudence.

My Book, The Movie: Prudence.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Dead Investigation"

Charlie Price lives in northern California. He is an executive coach for business leaders and has also worked with at-risk teens in schools, hospitals, and communities. His novels include Desert Angel and The Interrogation of Gabriel James, winner of the Edgar Award.

Price applied the Page 69 Test to his latest novel, Dead Investigation, and reported the following:

Overview: Murray is living in a cemetery lawnmower shed, once again hearing troublesome voices he cannot identify.

Let’s say you have no dad and your mom is a prostitute and the kids in your school find out. So to them you’re an outcast, a loser. Home and school are both miserable and you’re so alienated you wind up taking refuge in a cemetery and so lonely that you talk to the headstones. Let’s say after a while you realize they’re returning your conversation and pretty soon you have a new identity, Friend to the Deceased. In fact, you want those words on your own tombstone. You figure you’ll probably die soon after you graduate from high school, which is fine because life is no wreath of roses.

You get to know several of the dead, especially the younger ones, but one day you hear a voice that you don’t know and had never spoken to. A new voice. A disturbed voice that seems to be crying. And let’s say your only living friend, Pearl, the cemetery caretaker’s daughter, pesters you to find where the voice is coming from and reluctantly, you do. And that finding gets you in more trouble than you ever imagined possible. So that’s the prequel, Dead Connection.

The new book, Dead Investigation, starts right where the first book ends, but Murray’s social position has deteriorated. His classmates have found out Murray admitted he talks with the dead. Now he’s progressed from non-entity dork to certified psycho-ghoul. Not exactly a step up. Worse, something’s happening in his home cemetery that he thought he’d never have to deal with again: New voices, full of pain, crying out for help.

...the sounds were unmistakable. Different voices grumbling, groaning, mixed together, hard to understand. As he honed in he noticed another voice on top of the others. Higher, thinner, but there was so much background noise all he could pick up was “R” and “U.”

“Are you.” Again and again . . . part of a longer sentence but the rest was blurred. His stomach rolled remembering a few months ago, the first time he’d listened closely to the murdered cheerleader. He thought she kept repeating, “hit me.” Later, when they’d actually talked, Murray realized it was, “hid me.” Right now he believed the reedy voice could feel him . . . was saying something directed to him. “Who are you?” Or, “What are you doing?” Or “Are you going to help?” Too many possibilities to make sense of it. Another girl, kidnapped and killed? That was the last thing in the world Murray wanted to find. It practically made him sick.

The voice could connect. Knew Murray was out here. Now what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t just walk away.

But he did.

So Murray’s in a bind. And scared. These voices could literally drive him crazy if they don’t shut up. He can’t seem to ignore them, but he can’t tell anybody either, especially not Pearl. The only thing he can think of is to figure out who they are and why they’re so miserable. His investigation puts him on a collision course with Deputy Sheriff Roman Gates, his feminist partner Deputy Faraday, and his woman confidant, psych caseworker Peggy Duheen.

Murray hopes to hide within the boundary of the cemetery for the rest of his life, but the outside world is banging on the graveyard gate, badgering him to use his possibly clairvoyant skills to help uncover another murderer.

Visit Charlie Price's website.

My Book, The Movie: Dead Investigation.

Writers Read: Charlie Price.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Class Dismissed"

Allan Woodrow is the author of The Rotten Adventures of Zachary Ruthless and The Pet War. Also, under the name Fowler DeWitt, Woodrow has written The Contagious Colors of Mumpley Middle School and its sequel, The Amazing Wilmer Dooley.

Woodrow applied the Page 69 Test to his latest book, Class Dismissed, and reported the following:

From page 69:

On Wednesday, breakfast waits for me on our dining room table, like it’s supposed to. As I take my usual chair, I’m excited about school today. I can’t remember being this excited about anything.

At least, I can’t remember being this excited about anything that doesn’t include shoes.

On the table, my utensils glisten. I smooth a bump from my hair, using the reflection from my spoon for guidance. I put a cloth napkin on my lap.

Everything is perfect.

Wait. It’s not.

Because when I look down at the plate in front of me, my stomach ties itself into a big knot. The yolk dribbles into the egg whites, and the egg whites run into the whole-wheat toast. The crusts on my toast have been sliced off, mostly. But on one edge, parts of the terrible-tasting, too-hard brown bread exterior remain.

Page 69 is actually the first page of Chapter 11, which is written from Samantha’s perspective. The book’s chapters are told from five different character’s perspectives, each of whom are in the same fifth grade class: Adam, Maggie, Samantha, Kyle and Eric. Depending on the chapter you plunk yourself into, your connection to the story and the characters may change dramatically.

Most of the story is told in the classroom, but we do see glimpses of each character’s home lives. For the most part, each character begins as a cliché. But as the story progresses, each character grows and discovers new parts of themselves. This chapter shows Samantha as a bit of a one-note character: a spoiled rich girl, used to getting her way even at breakfast. But by seeing her in this environment, we are able to appreciate her growth throughout the book, as she becomes more accepting of the other students and appreciative of the things she has (such as an appreciation for her Aunt Karen’s breakfast attempts, even when they aren’t up to the usual standards).

Visit Allan Woodrow's website.

Writers Read: Allan Woodrow.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Twain’s End"

Lynn Cullen is the author of The Creation of Eve, named among the best fiction books of 2010 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and as an April 2010 Indie Next selection. She is also the author of numerous award-winning books for children, including the young adult novel I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter, which was a 2007 Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection, and an ALA Best Book of 2008. Her novel, Reign of Madness, about Juana the Mad, daughter of the Spanish Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand, was chosen as a 2011 Best of the South selection by the Atlanta Journal Constitution and was a 2012 Townsend Prize finalist. Her 2013 novel, Mrs. Poe, examines the fall of Edgar Allan Poe through the eyes of poet Francis Osgood.

Cullen applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Twain's End, and reported the following:

Phew! I think Twain’s End might have passed the Page 69 Test. I wrote the book to answer my own curiosity about why Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, had such a nasty break-up with his secretary, Isabel Lyon, in 1909, the year before he died. In order to know what went wrong between the pair, I had to deeply know them before they met as well as during their intense relationship. This applied to every aspect of their lives, from their families to their friends to their homes. As does every page in the book, the happenings on page 69 further the reader’s understanding of what might have led to their crisis.

Page 69 might seem like a simple scene, but actually it’s the result of much research and travel. As the scene opens, we find Isabel Lyon with Mark Twain’s daughter, Jean, at his rented home overlooking the Hudson. Isabel had recently been hired as secretary to Mark Twain’s wife, but had yet to meet the bed-bound Livy Clemens. Isabel was finding herself in the awkward position of being charmed by her employer’s husband while trying to stay in the good graces of Twain’s disconcertingly odd grown daughters. As Isabel noticed about Jean Clemens on page 69, “as sturdy as she looked, there was something vulnerable about her, something broken, like the stray dogs and cats she was continually nursing back to health.”

To write this scene I had to know how the Clemens’s home outside New York City (now in the Bronx) looked. I consulted pictures of the house from the period during which Twain lived in it.

I visited the actual setting, something that I do for every scene that I write. I find that it’s the best way to help the reader feel as if she or he is there.

On-site research is always an education. In the case of Wave Hill, with its commanding view of the Hudson and the New Jersey Palisades, it was also a treat.

I had to know how my characters look, as well. Fortunately, there were plenty of photos to consult. On page 69, I describe Jean as having a “strong chin and Greek-goddess nose, healthy good looks.” I pulled that description from this photo.

[photo right: Jean Clemens, Twain’s youngest daughter, and an animal advocate.]

The scene was viewed from the perspective of Isabel Lyon, a woman I came to admire. In this photo-based portrait by renowned painter Susan Boone Durkee, you can see the intelligence, strength, and perhaps weariness, in Isabel Lyon’s eyes. Her boss was the most famous man in the world at the time. Was he her lover? The answer to what I believe came between the pair lies in the pages of Twain’s End.

Every picture tells a story. Twain’s End reveals a world.

Learn more about the book and author at Lynn Cullen's website.

My Book, The Movie: Mrs. Poe.

The Page 69 Test: Mrs. Poe.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Line of Blood"

Ben McPherson is a television producer, director, and writer and for more than ten years worked for the BBC, among other outlets. He is currently a columnist for Aftenposten, Norway's leading quality daily, and lives in Oslo with his wife and two children.

McPherson applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, A Line of Blood, and reported the following:

An uneasy morning calm hangs over the dirty streets of the worst neighbourhood in North London. In cramped little house on a cramped little road a man wakes up alone and hung over. Yesterday the police removed a body from the identical house next door.

Alex Mercer is not a suspicious man. He’s a happily married father of one. The fact that his American wife Millicent is not in bed with him doesn’t trouble him — not yet, at least — because he doesn’t know how well Millicent knew the dead neighbour.

Millicent has sent Alex a text message:

Twice I tried to wake you, you beautiful lame-assed drunken fool. And yes, I know we have to speak, and yes, you should call me when you wake up.

Given what he’s about to unearth, given the destruction it’s about to wreak on his life, Alex begins page 69 with remarkably tender feelings towards his wife; he realises that she has taken care of him while he slept, drunk on top of the bed, that last night she must have undressed him and slid him gently into bed:

That’s love, I thought, in that one tiny action: my nakedness is proof of Millicent’s love. I wondered whether she had slept.

Alex was with his eleven-year-old son Max when together they discovered the corpse, naked in the bath of the house next door. But Max seems to be OK; he really does. He has even made coffee for his father (though of course the coffee is undrinkable because Max is eleven):

Max came back in with the sugar. I put four spoonfuls into the cup and stirred.

“Want me to open the blind?”

“No.”

“No what, Dad?”

“No thanks, Max. And thank you for making coffee for me.”

“That’s OK. Mum said you might want some.”

“She out?”

“Yeah.”

This is a problem for Alex, whose tender feelings for his wife are being tested by the fact that once again she is “out, thinking”. It’s been happening too much lately, when she should be talking to him. How are they going to protect Max from what he saw? Who was the man next door? And what is Millicent up to?

“Say where she was going?”

“No. Do you like the coffee?”

“I love the fact that you made it for me.”

Max left the room.

Alex needs to ask his wife about her bracelet. The police found it in the house next door, under the neighbour’s bed. How did it get there? That question is going to drive the first act; and Alex’s suspicion that his wife is not the woman he thought is going to push the book towards its final conclusion.

I rang Millicent. She sounded lousy from lack of sleep.

“You get my text, Alex?”

“Yeah.”

“Meet me at the Swedish?”

“OK.”

The Swedish is their local coffee house. There’s a confrontation coming, and Alex will find it hard to reconcile his role as loving father and husband with the role of the jilted lover.

Max and I left the house at the same time and walked the first couple of blocks together. He hugged me when we parted, then set off toward school at a dogtrot.

And that’s it: a last moment of domestic calm before everything breaks apart. But don’t go thinking this is all about Millicent. Max has seen things that no eleven-year-old boy should see, and he knows things about his parents that no child should ever know.

Visit Ben McPherson's Facebook page and Twitter perch.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Yard War"

Taylor Kitchings’ roots in Mississippi run many generations deep, though it took him a while to circle back to them. As a college freshman, he recorded the original album Clean Break, now considered a collector’s item. As a junior, he wrote music for mallet and giant Möbius strip, performed at Manhattan’s Café La MaMa. In the years between his BA from Rhodes College and MA from Ole Miss, he traveled from Memphis to New York to Europe, writing and performing songs on piano. He and his wife Beth have two children and live in Ridgeland, Mississippi, where he teaches English at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. His short story “Mr. Pinky Gone Fishing” was published in the collection Tight Lines from Yale University Press.

Kitchings applied the Page 69 Test to Yard War, his first novel, and reported the following:

Twelve-year-old Trip Westbrook has discovered that his housekeeper’s son Dee can throw a heck of a pass and has invited him to join a football game in the front yard. There’s just one problem: like all housekeeper’s sons in Jackson, Mississippi in 1964, Dee is African American. On page 69 [inset below left; click to enlarge], Trip’s mom and dad have come into his room after supper to tell him the neighbors have complained about his new friend and Dee’s participation in football games will have to stop.

Trip’s mother, Virginia, comes from a wealthy family in Jackson, steeped in Old South traditions and attitudes, but she gives the maid a bonus at Christmas, has taught her children never to say the “n-word” and does not consider herself a racist. Trip’s father, Sam, is a comparative “soft-hearted liberal,” having grown up playing street ball with African American kids in a poor section of New Orleans and having served with African American soldiers in the Korean War. He had planned to join Virginia in telling Trip to honor the neighbors’ demands, but as we see on page 69, he changes his mind.

Heretofore, Trip’s parents have always spoken to the children in a united “Mama-Daddy” voice, so here is a startling shift in the family dynamic and a hint of the turmoil to come as Trip refuses to give up his new friend, no matter what the neighbors think.

Follow Taylor Kitchings on Facebook.

--Marshal Zeringue

"No True Echo"

Gareth P. Jones is a London-based author of over 25 books for children. Titles available in the US include his Victorian ghost story, Constable & Toop (Abrams Books), a series about ninja meerkats called Ninja Meerkats (Square Fish) and a picture book about some dinosaurs having a party called The Dinosaurs Are Having a Party (Andersen - illustrations by Garry Parsons).

Jones applied the Page 69 Test to his brand new YA book, No True Echo:

Page 69:

“It will make it easier if you don’t ask questions that I’m not going to answer,” stated Scarlett.

“How do I know if it’s a question you won’t answer?”

“Perhaps avoid all of them, just in case.”

“Maybe Mr. Cornish is some kind of magician,” I said, careful not to phrase it as a question.

“Maybe,” replied Scarlett.

“Is he?”

“No, and that’s still a question.”

“So, you understand what’s going on but you won’t tell me. Is that it?”

“I understand some of what is going on, and I will tell you this: burying books is pretty old hat where I’m from, and the fact that he thought your mother was alive is interesting. But what I really need to know is what he wrote in that book.”

When the kitchen light went off, Scarlett stood up and hurried across the marsh. She didn’t wait for me, but nor was she surprised when I followed her.

This was far too interesting to give up.

From this page 69 of No True Echo it should be clear that it is a confusing book. It is a first person narrative in which the narrator (Eddie) has no idea what is going on… which means that neither do you. Did I mention that No True Echo is a confusing book? Another interesting thing about this test is that there is a slightly different version of the book in the UK. That page 69 is written in the third person and involves a funny incident with a cat. So if I was writing this was blog for the British version of this website it would be completely different. Which is kind of the point of the book. Did I already say that No True Echo is a confusing book?

Visit Gareth P. Jones's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Knot the Usual Suspects"

Molly MacRae spent twenty years in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Upper East Tennessee, where she managed The Book Place, an independent bookstore; may it rest in peace. Before the lure of books hooked her, she was curator of the history museum in Jonesborough, Tennessee’s oldest town.

MacRae lives with her family in Champaign, Illinois, where she connects children with books at the public library.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Knot the Usual Suspects, her latest Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery, and reported the following:

Here’s page 69, in its entirety, from Knot the Usual Suspects. We enter the page in the middle of one sentence (a line of dialog) and exit in the middle of another sentence (the POV character’s internal thought).

bombing before today, but now that I have, I know it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”

We all agreed. After telling us she’d report back, Thea left the meeting looking pleased.

A few days later, Ardis and I were closing up shop for the day when Thea stopped by, looking even more pleased. Geneva had been lying across the blades of the ceiling fan, listening to us and dangling her arm as though trailing it in water. When the camel bells at the door jingled, announcing Thea, she sat up. Thea came in, stopped near the door, and put her hands on her hips. Always a stylish dresser, she’d worn a mix of browns—from creamy to dark chocolate, including knife-creased trousers, a pair of killer heels, a creamy silk tunic, and what could only have been the stole she’d been knitting since spring.

“I am awesome,” Thea said.

“Hold your arms out and let’s see.” Ardis motioned for Thea to twirl.

Thea’s turn was more of a stately rotation than a twirl, but she spread her arms, showing off the lacy leaf pattern and her fine handiwork. She’d used fingering-weight wool in a rich chestnut brown several shades darker than her skin. “Welcome to the debut of my mocha mousse stole,” she said, advancing on the counter and stopping with a shallow bow.

Geneva clapped.

“You’re right,” I said. “It is awesome. Will you think about letting the mannequin wear it for a week or two?”

“Oh, please, please, please, please!” Geneva said. “I know I will look fetching sitting on its shoulder.”

Somehow I didn’t think “fetching” would have been

The first word, “bombing,” is sort of eye-catching, but will a reader who jumps into the book at this point have any idea what’s going on? Hard to say. “Bombing” doesn’t seem to upset the characters, though, because the next paragraphs find us in a shop admiring a piece of knitting. The yarn shop mentioned in the series title? That makes sense, and that might explain the character named Geneva lying across the blades of the ceiling fan, “dangling her arm as though trailing it in water.” That doesn’t sound like a corporeal being, but the shop is haunted, so maybe she’s a ghost. The general tone, here, is of a gentle read, and that makes sense, too. This is a cozy mystery, where life, work, and knitting go on for the characters in Blue Plum, Tennessee, despite their penchant for stumbling across dead bodies.

Visit Molly MacRae's website.

My Book, The Movie: Knot the Usual Suspects.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Faux Pas"

Sofie Kelly is the pseudonym of young adult writer and mixed-media artist, Darlene Ryan. Sofie/Darlene lives on the east coast with her husband and daughter. In her spare time she practices Wu style tai chi and likes to prowl around thrift stores.

Kelly applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Faux Pas, and reported the following:

A reader who opened Faux Paw at random to page 69 would get a decent sense of the story and the main characters. Faux Paw is the seventh Magical Cats mystery and clearly the cats—Owen and Hercules—are important. They’re the first two characters, along with the narrator, on the page. There’s also a hint here of a little on-going war between the two cats, a sub-plot which will tie into the main mystery.

“I have no idea how long this will take,” I said. Owen meowed and disappeared down the basement stairs. I made a mental note to figure out why he was spending so much time down there.

Hercules wound around my legs as I pulled on my favorite low leather boots.

I reached down to pet the top of his head. “I know it’s asking a lot,” I said in a low voice, “but please try to get along with your brother while I’m gone.”

Page 69 would give the reader a bit of a sense, indirectly, into the kind of person the narrator, Kathleen is. Kathleen describes her neighbor, Rebecca like this:

Rebecca was one of the kindest and gentlest people I’d ever met. She was tiny, with silver hair and blue eyes and a smile that lit up her entire face. She also had a will of iron.

Rebecca has hot chocolate and muffins waiting for Kathleen. It seems clear she’s fond of her younger neighbor, which implies that Kathleen is just as kind as the older woman.

This small sample of the book also lets the reader know who’s dead and hints at why.

Rebecca sat opposite me with her own cup. “The way Everett spoke...”

She hesitated. “What happened to Margo Walsh wasn’t an accident, was it?”

“I uh . . . I don’t think so,” I said slowly. I hated that Margo was probably dead because of a drawing.

And it wouldn’t be a Magical Cats mystery without food. That’s here too:

As promised, she made hot chocolate and topped each pottery mug with two fat marshmallows that smelled of vanilla before setting one cup in front of me.

“Would you like a rhubarb muffin?” she asked.

Cats, chocolate, and a mystery to solve: I hope that would be enough to entice a reader to pick up Faux Paw.

Visit Sofie Kelly's website.

My Book, The Movie: Curiosity Thrilled the Cat.

Writers Read: Sofie Kelly.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Searcher"

Simon Toyne is the bestselling author of the Sanctus trilogy: Sanctus, The Key, and The Tower. A writer, director, and producer in British television for twenty years, he worked on several award-winning shows, one of which won a BAFTA. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and published in more than fifty countries. He lives with his wife and family in England and the south of France, where he is at work on his second Solomon Creed novel.

Toyne applied the Page 69 Test to his latest novel The Searcher, the first book in the Solomon Creed series, and reported the following:

From page 69:

Solomon stood inside the door of the church letting his eyes adjust to the gloom after the fierce sunlight outside. Huge stained-glass windows poured light into the dark interior, splashing color onto what appeared at first glance to be a collection of old junk.

To the left of the door a full-size covered wagon stood behind a model of a horse and a mannequin dressed in nineteenth-century clothes. A fully functioning Long Tom sluice box stood opposite with water trickling through it, making a sound like the roof was leaking. A collection of gold pans was arranged beneath a sign saying Tools of the Treasure Hunter’s Trade. There were pickaxes too and fake sticks of dynamite and ore crushers and softly lit cabinets containing examples of copper ore and gold flake and silver seams in quartz. Another cabinet contained personal effects—reading glasses, pens, gloves—all carefully labeled and arranged, and there was a scale model of the town on a table showing what Redemption had looked like a hundred years ago. And right in the center of the strange diorama a lectern stood, angled toward the door so that anyone entering the building was forced to gaze upon the battered Bible resting on it.

Page 69 of The Searcher is the start of a chapter where my main character enters a church at the heart of the town of Redemption, Arizona. It’ s a very important scene because it introduces key elements of the story, the church included, and so has to be both informative and intriguing. I must have rewritten this scene twenty or thirty times, adding things, taking things away, changing the things Solomon notices or the order in which he sees them. Describing places is always hard in a thriller because you need to do it to ground the action but you can’t dwell too long on it otherwise you risk derailing the pace, and that’s death to your story.

Anyway there it is, you can be the judge of whether I succeeded or not.

Learn more about the book and author at Simon Toyne's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: The Searcher.

Writers Read: Simon Toyne.

--Marshal Zeringue