"Speakers of the Dead"

J. Aaron Sanders is Associate Professor of English at Columbus State University where he teaches literature and creative writing. He holds a PhD in American Literature from The University of Connecticut and an MFA in Fiction from The University of Utah. His stories have appeared in Carolina Quarterly, Gulf Coast, Quarterly West, and Beloit Fiction Journal, among others.

His first novel, Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery (Penguin Random House) features a young Walt Whitman’s as he finds himself in the middle of body-snatchers, medical students, and the law.

Sanders applied the Page 69 Test to Speakers of the Dead and reported the following:

Speakers of the Dead is a mystery novel centering around the investigative exploits of a young Walt Whitman, in which the reporter-cum-poet navigates the seedy underbelly of New York City's body-snatching industry in an attempt to exonerate his friend of a wrongful murder charge.

On page 69, Walt has reunited with his former boyfriend, Henry Saunders:

The two men fidget in silence. Walt can see himself in the mirror, his swollen face and prematurely graying hair, and that’s when he catches Henry looking at him.

“Stay awhile, if you like,” Walt says.

“Oh?”

“Only if you want to.”

Though we don’t get much plot on page 69, this scene captures well the emotional center of the novel, the reuniting of ex-lovers and their uncertain future. I don’t want to give anything away, but I have to say when I turned to page 69 to write this, I couldn’t believe how important the scene is.

Visit J. Aaron Sanders's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Fall of Moscow Station"

Mark Henshaw is a graduate of Brigham Young University and a decorated CIA analyst with more than sixteen years of service. In 2007, he was awarded the Director of National Intelligence Galileo Award for innovation in intelligence analysis. A former member of the Red Cell think tank, Henshaw is the author of Red Cell and Cold Shot.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Fall of Moscow Station, and reported the following:

From page 69:

He curled up on the ground in a twitching heap, groaning and gasping for air.

Kyra stepped back, far enough that he couldn’t grasp or kick her. “I’d tell the Bureau to add assault to your indictment, but it’s already a long list.” She squatted down so he could see her face. “I’ll tell Barron about your offer, but you’re not going to get your deal. And even if you do get to Moscow, CIA defectors have a bad habit of falling down long staircases after they’re not useful to their Russian friends anymore. So I wouldn’t plan on a peaceful retirement, back home or in Moscow.”

“Uh-uh,” Maines grunted. “Full . . . full pardon . . . and fifty . . . million.” He sucked in some air, then pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. Kyra didn’t move, ready to defend herself again. “I get that,” he wheezed, “I keep my mouth shut. I don’t . . . and I tell the Russians everything . . . take my chances.”

“If you want the president or anyone else to take your offer seriously, you need to give something up first.”

“What’s that?”

“The name of your handler,” Kyra told him.

“I don’t think . . . he’d like that,” Maines said, his chest rising and falling rapidly. The pain between his legs was fading enough to manage. He pushed himself back onto one knee. “If Barron gets me the deal, you stand out front of the embassy tomorrow at noon . . . wear a red jacket. If you’re there, I come out. If you’re not, I take care of myself.” He was catching his breath now, but his legs were still too shaky for him to stand.

“Either way, I’ll be seeing you pretty soon.” Kyra turned around and walked toward the door.

“I should’ve left you in that safe house,” Maines said, his voice still weak from the abuse she’d dealt to his crotch. “I see you again and I’ll kill you.”

Kyra made an obscene gesture without looking back.

I was very happy to find this scene fell on page 69. Here, Kyra (the hero of our tale) is confronting Alden Maines, a CIA defector on the rooftop of the Russian Embassy in Berlin. Maines has already given up one high-value CIA asset to the Russians to prove his bona fides, which resulted in a murder that set the entire story in motion. The twist is that Maines saved Kyra’s life a few years before and she’s taking his betrayal personally. She doesn’t like the idea that she owes her life to a traitor.

The moment is pivotal for them both. It’s Maines’s last chance to show remorse and some shred of loyalty to the United States and he rejects it out-of-hand. Kyra decides that his mercenary attitude proves that her former friend is beyond redemption or deserves no mercy; she’d love to do more than just knee him in the groin, but the Russians are watching and will protect their prize. But Maines’s blackmail attempt forces the Russians’ hand in a way that both Maines and Kyra very quickly and painfully come to regret.

Visit Mark Henshaw's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Murder on a Summer's Day"

Murder on a Summer’s Day, chosen by the New York Post as a “must read” book, is the fifth in Frances Brody’s 1920s series featuring Kate Shackleton, First World War widow turned sleuth. Murder in the Afternoon, third in the series, was named a Library Journal Best Mystery 2014. A Woman Unknown, book four, is nominated for an Edgar – the Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award.

Brody lives in Yorkshire, England, the setting for her mysteries.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Murder on a Summer’s Day and reported the following:

On page 69 of Murder on a Summer’s Day, Kate Shackleton is in the Cavendish Arms Hotel in the village of Bolton Abbey on the Duke of Devonshire’s estate. She is interviewing former dancer Lydia Metcalfe, daughter of Yorkshire farmers and mistress of a missing maharajah, Prince Narayan.

Yesterday Narayan went deer-stalking and failed to return. This caused consternation locally and among civil servants at the India Office in London where Kate’s cousin James works. James telephoned Kate who drove to Bolton Abbey as quickly as she could. It is hoped that she will solve the puzzle of the disappearing prankster prince before his absence sparks a scandal or creates political difficulties. Could his disappearance be the result of a lovers’ tiff, or the desire to surprise his mistress by returning with a wedding ring?

Lydia is upset and resentful. Kate needs all her skills in order to find out what she needs to know.

‘I wondered whether the maharajah’s true purpose in coming here was to ask your father’s permission to marry you.’

Her eyes widened. ‘D’you know, I bet that was it. It would be just like him to behave like an old-fashioned suitor. When we arrived on Tuesday, the farm was our first call, at Narayan’s insistence. He particularly wanted to see my father but he was out of luck.’

‘Why was that?’

‘Dad wasn’t there. He and my brothers stayed clear until we had gone. Narayan talked to my mam.’

‘Did he mention marriage?’

‘He might have said something to Mam, while I was looking round the farm. My mother always tries to give me a job, tries to draw me back in. I went to collect eggs. But Narayan would get short shrift from Dad if he asked permission to marry me. I know exactly what he’d say.’

‘What?’

‘The usual. Narayan’s married already, his skin’s the wrong colour, I’m old enough, I’ve been pleasing myself all my life. Shall I go on?’

‘Not unless it helps to get it off your chest.’

She re-filled her glass and took a long swig. Her face was now flushed, her eyes a little glassy and fierce.

‘I don’t understand why Narayan is taking so long. He’s too used to his comforts …’

Learn more about the book and author at Frances Brody's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dying in the Wool.

The Page 69 Test: A Woman Unknown.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Red Storm"

Grant Bywaters's The Red Storm won the Minotaur Books/Private Eye Writers of America Best First Private Eye Novel Competition. He applied the Page 69 Test to the novel and reported the following:

If you were to open up to page 69 you would find my detective, William Fletcher, in a lot of trouble. So much that his cop acquaintance Brawley is telling him he needs to lawyer up. It is an important scene because it gives insight into how a black detective in the 1930s uses his resources to get important connections which allows him to do his job while staying out of jail or worse.

From page 69:

“Get over to City Hall. Emerson wants to see you. You might want to bring that hotshot mouthpiece of yours, too.”

Brawley was referring to Jim Prescott, who was representing me. My previous lawyer and good friend, Jean Fisher, had been murdered less than a year ago, shot coming out of court with a not-guilty verdict for a colored man accused of rape. When the American Bar Association would not allow Fisher, and any other colored, for that matter, to be a member, he joined the National Bar Association in the late twenties. It was Fisher that retained me to do legal assistant work for him, which included finding witnesses, interviewing, conducting legal research, and performing other activities Fisher did not have the time to do. He was directly responsible for my current profession. Fisher also helped push for me to get licensed.

I had been forwarded to Prescott after Fisher’s murder. Prescott was gracious enough to take me on as a client, and charged me a fraction of what his normal fee would be, perhaps because Prescott had been good friends with Fisher as well, but I think it was predominantly because of the pro bono work I do for him. I had located enough key witnesses when he needed them for him to realize I would be no use to him in jail.

And it seems that’s what it always came down to. You had to make yourself look irreplaceable enough with the right people. It made no difference if this was true or not, as long as they believed it to be so. Prescott knew how to work the legal system, no matter how crooked it could be, and without his counsel, I’d have been in jail over a trumped-up charge long ago.

Learn more about The Red Storm at the publisher's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Eight Juxtapositions: China Through Imperfect Analogies"

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom's most recent books are Eight Juxtapositions: China through Imperfect Analogies from Mark Twain to Manchukuo and China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, which has been translated into Korean, Turkish, Indonesian, and Chinese (complex characters). Wasserstrom is Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine; editor of the Journal of Asian Studies; advising editor for China at the Los Angeles Review of Books; a member of Dissent Magazine's editorial board; and an Associate Fellow at the Asia Society.

He applied the Page 69 Test to Eight Juxtapositions and reported the following:

The top of Page 69 of my latest book has the Roman numeral VII, followed by the words “The Flat and the Bumpy.” After that come two quotations, one from a Financial Times blog post on 2014 as the centenary of World War I’s start, the other from a Chinese official’s remarks that China’s position has changed markedly in the 120 years separating 2014 from 1894, when a disastrous war with Japan began. Then, we get this first post-epigram sentence of Chapter VII (the last four words spilling over onto page 70): “One can learn a lot about how globalization has changed the world by considering how time was conceptualized in different places a century or so ago—for instance at the moments flagged in these two quotes—and how it is marked now.”

The chapter title is definitely representative. All others also contain two juxtaposed words or phrases separated by a conjunction, as in “Orwell and Huxley” (III), “Chicken or Beef” (VI), and “The People’s Pope and Big Daddy Xi” (VIII). The epigrams are not representative: no other chapter starts with two quotations. The way these quotes, combined with the opening sentence, suggest that the chapter will move both through time and space, though, is definitely typical. In many chapters, the reader is taken to at least two periods and at least two locales, a pattern set in “Tibet and Manchukuo” (I), which explores parallels between Beijing’s handling of Tibetan issues circa 2008 and Tokyo’s approach to Manchuria in the 1930s.

More generally, Page 69, like the beginnings of all chapters, launches an effort to use juxtapositions to unsettle assumptions that many readers are likely to have. In this case, a chronological one: that the war anniversary on everyone’s mind in 2014 would naturally be that which began in 1914. Not so, as in China, where 60 year cycles can be as important as centuries, making the passage of 120 years a bit like a bicentenary, the war the Qing Dynasty lost to Japan in 1894-95 was what publishers were issuing new books about like crazy in 2014.

What then of the “flat” and the “bumpy”? These words flag the contrast between Thomas Friedman’s view of globalization as smoothing out difference and Pico Iyer’s view of it as something where things get mixed together in way that create new kinds of varieties and hybrids. I use the marking of time to highlight differences between a “Friedman Flattening” and “Pico Proliferating” view of the world, and then explain why I’ve long been on “Team Pico” in the debate and will stay there. One uncharacteristic thing about page 69 is that there is nothing particularly playful about the sentences it contains. Those a bit later where I take liberties with alliterative phrases about Friedman and Iyer and make the pop culture reference to “Team Pico” are more representative of the feel of much of this short book—a work so short that I couldn’t have written a “Page 99 Test” response, as there is no 99th page.

Learn more about Eight Juxtapositions at the publisher's website.

The Page 69 Test: China's Brave New World.

The Page 99 Test: Global Shanghai, 1850–2010.

The Page 99 Test: China in the 21st Century.

--Marshal Zeringue

"What Remains of Me"

Alison Gaylin's debut book Hide Your Eyes, was nominated for an Edgar Award in the Best First Novel category. Her critically acclaimed suspense novels have been published in such countries as the UK, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway and Japan.

She has been nominated for the ITW Thriller, Anthony and RT Awards and won the Shamus Award for And She Was, the first book in the Brenna Spector series. Her books have been on bestseller lists in the US and Germany.

Gaylin applied the Page 69 Test to her ninth book, a standalone suspense novel entitled What Remains of Me, and reported the following:

From page 69:

“They do that for suicides?” Shane said. Stupid thing to say. He didn’t even know why he’d said it. It was as though his mouth was moving of its own accord, reality knocking into him like waves. His parents’ home. The big window overlooking the canyon that he used to press his nose against, Flora complaining about the prints. And in it, in this place that used to be his whole world… Crime scene tape. Police uniforms brushing by, staticky radios. The click of cameras. White gloved hands. And then, his mother in a white silk robe on the red couch by the window, doubled over, collapsed…

“Mom.” Shane moved toward her, Bellamy sticking close behind. “Mom.”

Her head lifted, very slowly. She looked up at him, her mouth a trembling line, eyes like smashed glass. For a few seconds, it seemed as though she didn’t recognize him. Then she whispered his name.

Shane tried to think of the last time he’d seen his mother. Had to have been at least a year ago. He’d gone to one of her charity luncheons and she’d greeted him with a big smile, a hug. She never changed, Mom. Not before today. But now, it was as though someone had scooped all the life out of her. “You’re here,” she said…

In 1980, Kelly Lund, then 17, is convicted of murdering a famous director. The story goes back and forth between 1980 and 2010, when, five years after serving her prison term, Kelly is suspected of committing a similar crime -- the victim this time her father-in-law, movie legend Sterling Marshall.

Page 69 of the book takes place in 2010, and is told, not from Kelly’s point of view but through the eyes of her husband (and Sterling’s son) Shane Marshall. In it, he has recently learned of his father’s death, and believes it to have been a suicide.

At first, I wasn’t sure whether this page was representative of the book. But looking at it closely, I realize that thematically speaking, it is. In the scene, Shane is seeing his normally content mother completely changed. That happens throughout WHAT REMAINS OF ME. Every character has deep, dark secrets that, once revealed, change lives irrevocably. By the book’s end, nearly everyone has had “the life scooped out of them,” and emerges a changed person, whether it’s because of a traumatic event, a lie coming back to haunt them -- or learning, at long last, the ugly truth.

Learn more about the book and author at Alison Gaylin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Into the Dark.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Chains of the Heretic"

Jeff Salyards's debut hard-boiled fantasy novel Scourge of the Betrayer began the series called Bloodsounder’s Arc and was followed by Veil of the Deserters.

Salyards applied the Page 69 Test to Chains of the Heretic, the final installment of the series, and reported the following:

From page 69:

A horseman came riding hard towards the convoy. I’d been with the Syldoon long enough to know that rarely boded well. Scouts never galloped up to report that our enemies had been swallowed up by marshland or stricken by the plague.

Braylar called out, “Report, Syldoon.”

The scout sat straighter in the saddle as he saluted, the morning sun giving him a golden silhouette, totally at odds with the news he delivered. “Urglovians are moving to intercept us, Cap, heading southwest. And Denvin reports the army to the west is closing in, too. Can’t see slipping between them, not if they got any brains at all and got men patrolling ahead.”

Braylar pulled Bloodsounder off his belt. “So be it. Ride down the line, and tell the lieutenants we head due east now.”

Braylar’s personal retinue felt comfortable arguing tactics with him, but the men were a different story. Still, some doubt crossed the scout’s face, as if he wasn’t sure he heard the order correctly. But before Braylar could berate him for dawdling, he replied, “Aye, Cap. Due east.”

Clearly, the rank and file didn’t know much about what bedeviled their captain, so they had no reason to suspect he was about to march us straight into the Godveil.

As the scout rode off, Braylar gave me a long look. “If your assertion proves correct, you could very well rescue all of us from doom. And if it proves false—”

“I will be the second man to die,” I said, wondering if I would keep the goat in my stomach.

The captain twitch-smiled. “You are beginning to think more and more like a Syldoon. It is time you dress the part. I asked the men to put a spare gambeson and nasal helm in the wagon. They should be somewhere in the back.”

“Captain?”

“Put them on, you dolt. If we do somehow survive the Godveil, we have no idea what to expect on the other side, and I would like to keep you alive long enough to congratulate you for your mad, mad plan.”

I stood, nearly falling off the bench as the wagon rocked over the hard ground, and my heart felt like it was trying to beat its way out of its ribcage. I swallowed hard. “Aye, Captain.”

He said, “Oh, and Vendurro jiggered together a scabbard to fit Lloi’s blade. Syldoon don’t favor sabers or curved swords in general, so it took some work. So buckle that around your waist as well and be sure to thank him later. You have no competency with the thing, I know, but should you find an enemy in your face, it will prove more useful than trying to club them with an unspanned crossbow. More importantly, I don’t want you damaging any more crossbows.”

He laughed at his own joke and then said, “Well? Get to it, Arkamondos. It is uncharted territory ahead for us all.”

When you pick an excerpt to share, you can obviously be judicious and select a chunk of writing that will engage a reader, hopefully intrigue them, and something that ideally encapsulates the flavor or feel of the whole book.

The Page 69 Test, on the other hand—where you strip out page 69 and see what you get—is more dicey. You might end up with something totally confusing or incomplete (being such a small sample size), or not representative of the book as a whole, or really spoilerish. When I opened Chains of the Heretic to 69 to see what I’d find, I had a feeling it might be a non-starter, but I lucked out. Page 69 actually captures the spirit of the book pretty well and comes at a good moment.

It has some pointed Arki and Braylar banter (and the book is full of snarky and sarcastic dialogue, so that’s apropos), and some mounting dread as Arki wonders if he’ll brown his britches, as this bit immediately precedes the company embarking on a seriously dangerous and possibly suicidal gambit. It might be a tiny bit spoilery, but the marketing copy already alerted the reader to the fact that our intrepid band will cross the Godveil at some point in the book, and this happens pretty early on, so it’s not ruining any big discovery for the reader. If page 69 actually showed what was beyond the Veil, I would have backed off this immediately, because that surprise is well worth waiting for. There is some crazy, creepy stuff over there.

Learn more about the book and author at Jeff Salyards's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: Scourge of the Betrayer.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Opposite of Everyone"

New York Times bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson's books include the novels: Someone Else’s Love Story, gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, and A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty.

Jackson applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, The Opposite of Everyone, and reported the following:

The Opposite of Everyone is narrated by a successful, ruthless lawyer, Paula Vauss, who hasn’t spoken to her mother, Kai, in more than fifteen years. She gets a cryptic letter from Kai, who is dying. It indicates that Paula might not be an only child.

Page 69 is a flashback to Paula’s disordered childhood. I think it’s perfect as a single page representation, because Paula here defines her relationship with Kai. Kai is an itinerate storyteller who uses Southern Oral tradition to retell Hindu god stories. Paula says her mother speaks with “with all the authority vested in her by her flea market prayer beads and her lotus flower tramp stamp.” They live a nomadic life, close to homeless, and Kai also reinvents and retells their personal history as they rove.

She acts like this is just another chapter in our endlessly mutable story, Kai towing me as she moves from man to man. I never fought or even questioned it, because of the truth at the root of our shared life: Kai doesn’t love me like she loves the boyfriends.

Boyfriend Love is the light on a bug’s back end, flicking on and off across a lawn. It begins with lies and kissing. It devolves into fighting and boredom. It ends with hasty packing and sometimes robbery. It is easily replaced by fresher love.

Me and Kai were always more than that.

In this scene, eleven year old Paula is about to tell a story of her own, one that will land her mother in jail for two years, put her into foster care, and cause a rift in their relationship that will form the book’s central conflict.

Learn more about the book and author at Joshilyn Jackson's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming.

My Book, The Movie: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming.

The Page 69 Test: Backseat Saints.

The Page 69 Test: A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty.

--Marshal Zeringue

"If I Run"

Terri Blackstock, author of If I Run, has sold over seven million books worldwide and is a New York Times bestselling author. She is the award-winning author of Intervention, Vicious Cycle, and Downfall, as well as such series as Cape Refuge, Newpointe 911, the SunCoast Chronicles, and the Restoration Series.

Blackstock applied the Page 69 Test to If I Run and reported the following:

From page 69:

small fridge in his room that his mother stocked with Gatorade and Coke. We spent most of the time on the floor, though there were high-end easy chairs.

I wonder if he still has those bean bags.

Had. I correct myself and force my brain back into gear. I'm not a grieving friend. I'm an investigator.

I follow the two detectives to Brent's door, slip on the blue shoe covers and gloves they offer me, and when they unlock it, I duck under the tape across the door keeping people out. The stairs where he was found are in the foyer, just five feet from the front door.

There is still plenty of dried blood on the floor where it bled out of him. I'm sweating now, and my heart hammers in a weak staccato beat. I force myself to think like a cop. I study the blood splatter on the wall. There are drops on the bottom quadrant of the wall close to the stairs, but I see a couple circled closer to the door, suggesting that the first time he was stabbed may have been as the person came in. Risking Keegan's wrath, I take quick pictures on my phone. The stab wound across his carotid artery was too high for Casey to have landed easily, since Brent was considerably taller than her.

Page 69 of If I Run has a lot of clues to the murder that took place before the book opened. Dylan Roberts, the point of view character in this scene, is a war-weary veteran with PTSD. He's been trying to get a job in law enforcement, but he's seen as damaged goods. When his best childhood friend is murdered, Dylan is hired as a private contractor to hunt for the suspect, a job that gives him a chance to prove himself. In this scene, the police detectives take him through the crime scene before they send him off to track the girl who allegedly killed his friend.

But what is the truth? That's the question haunting Dylan. Though the crime scene seems to tell the whole story, details of the murder aren't adding up. Casey Cox doesn't fit the profile of a killer. But are Dylan's skewed perceptions keeping him from being objective? If she isn't guilty, why did she run?

Unraveling her past and the evidence that condemns her will take more time than he has, but as Dylan's damaged soul intersects with hers, he is faced with two choices. The girl who occupies his every thought is a psychopathic killer ... or a selfless hero. And the truth could be the most deadly weapon yet.

Visit Terri Blackstock's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Why They Run the Way They Do"

Susan Perabo is Writer in Residence and Professor of English at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. Her books include the short story collection Who I Was Supposed to Be and the novel, The Broken Places.

Perabo applied the Page 69 Test to her new story collection, Why They Run the Way They Do, and reported the following:

Page 69 of  Why They Run the Way They Do is not even a full page -- it’s the last few sentences of a story called “Shelter.” In the story, the owner of a no-kill dog shelter in rural New Hampshire realizes that she has breast cancer; rather than seeking treatment, she spends her final healthy days trying to find homes for the dogs in her shelter before she is no longer able to care for them. She pins most of her hopes on Jerry, an unpleasant recluse who wants only one dog, but whom she tries to convince to take more. This story sounds pretty maudlin, but the narrator’s defining characteristic is an utter lack of self-pity, even in the darkest of circumstances; her desire to place the dogs stems not from affection but from a no-nonsense practicality. I am wary of spoiling the end of the story, but I can say that it takes place mostly in the narrator’s imagination, as she tries to predict the ultimate fate of her remaining dozen dogs.

I didn’t’ realize it until writing this piece, but characters throughout my collection spend a whole lot of time imagining. Sometimes this imagining is constructive, other times destructive. Very often what my characters imagine is a different outcome to a situation than what’s actually occurred, though in the case of “Shelter,” I’m pretty sure that what the narrator imagines is what happens. Will Jerry come through for her in the end? Is Jerry someone readers might find familiar? Perhaps.

Here’s a tiny bit of it:

“Shhhhh,” I said, because I could hear something in the distance, gravel crunching under tires, claws scraping on metal, a man cursing me. I smiled.

Learn more about Why They Run the Way They Do.

--Marshal Zeringue

"On Edge"

Gin Price lives in Michigan with her partner David, two children, many reptiles and an ornery cat.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, On Edge, and reported the following:

From page 69:

I couldn’t hide my wince. “Yikes.”

“They were terrified of getting arrested for child neglect, so they both took turns staying home for a month.”

“Well that was good at least, right?” I wasn’t sure trying to make her feel better about her parents’ behavior was a good tactic, but I didn’t feel comfortable not saying anything in support.

“Are you kidding? I wanted to make them panic, not stay home and glare at me. I couldn’t wait for them to leave again. Rosahlia is all the guardian I can handle. She comes, she cooks and cleans, and doesn’t try to get in my way when I want to do something. She does kinda nag, though. Hey, isn’t that—?”

Liv pointed off toward the ticket booth and I followed her finger. Yup. My luck from the rest of the day stayed consistent. “Yeah. Haze.”

“I’m used to calling him Bren, but I’ll try to remember Haze. You know me, I could give a rat’s ass about that street bullshit.” And then as if she remembered who she was talking to she added. “Except you, Ellie.”

Feeling suddenly happy, I laughed openly, a part of me wondering if Haze would recognize the timbre of my voice and home in.

There was no home-age.

“I know you dig what I do. Don’t sweat it. Maybe one day you’ll get over your fear of heights.”

“No way. I’ll leave all the cool acrobatics to you. Hey, they’re looking over here. Think they’ll come over?”

Sexay Home-age after all! I kept my happy feet from dancing. “I have no idea. Maybe you should wave, Liv. You said you wanted to start slow with talking to him again. If he sees you looking and you don’t wave...”

This excerpt of On Edge is an accurate representation of some of the main emotions running through the book.

There’s the awkwardness of not knowing what to say to your friend when they talk about something tragic that happened to them. I personally feel you don’t know what to say in those moments mostly when you don’t know how to trust. Also, you can see the need to change focus past that awkwardness not only by the person confessing, but by the friend who feels inadequate.

The transition between uncertainty of comfort into uncertainty of giddy, romantic feelings introduces one of the main underlying tones of On Edge. Is the main character falling in love with friend or foe?

Visit Gin Price's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Violent Crimes"

Former trial attorney Phillip Margolin has been writing full-time since 1996. Most of his many novels have been New York Times bestsellers.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Violent Crimes, and reported the following:

Unfortunately, page 69 of Violent Crimes is at the end of a chapter and only has five lines and one short paragraph. It does, however, end an important chapter. In Violent Crimes Amanda Jaffe is hired to represent a returned veteran who is charged with assault growing out of a bar fight and who is referred to her by an old friend, Christine Larson, a lawyer in a huge law firm. Amanda has no trouble getting the case dismissed but she has more trouble helping Tom when Christine's bludgeoned body is found in his house. Evidence points to a set up. Then Dale Masterson, the senior partner in Christine's firm is also bludgeoned to death. Suspicion falls on Tom but Dale's crazy son, Brandon, is seen running from the Masterson estate covered in blood. When he walks into the police station and confesses, his mother hires Amanda to defend him. The case looks like a sure loser until Amanda starts to question the evidence.

Visit Phillip Margolin's website and Facebook page.

--Marshal Zeringue