"A Conspiracy of Ravens"

Terrence P. McCauley is an award-winning writer of crime fiction and thrillers.

He applied the Page 69 Test to the third novel in his University Series, A Conspiracy of Ravens, and reported the following:

From page 69:

“But I thought you said Scott would spell him if—”

“I’ve got other plans for Scott. And I need you here while I’m in the field.”

“Understood,” Jason said. “In the meantime, the Trustee contacted me a few minutes ago. She said she needs to speak to you. It’s urgent.”

Of course it is.

He groaned as he ran his hand over his face. The hand was rock-steady now.

Normally, he could picture his Carousel of Concern spinning at an orderly pace, each priority clearly presenting itself to be dealt with in an orderly fashion.

Now the goddamned thing had been blown to bits and he didn’t have the time to try to put it back together again. Now wasn’t the time for contemplation. It was the time for action.

But contemplation edged its way in anyway. He’d only been concerned about the attack. He hadn’t the time to think about why it happened until that very moment.

The facts began coming into focus on their own.

Roger had given him a lead on a Russian thug who called himself Boris.

OMNI showed Boris was tied to a mysterious thug named Wilhelm/Willus Tessmer.

Hicks had called Tayeb to start digging into Tessmer.

Tayeb’s facility went CROATOAN hours after that.

Then someone dropped a missile on his facility. A Russian squad had lased his building for it.

All of it was related. Only question was if the Vanguard or Russian contractors were working for Demerest.

Jason snapped him out of it. “Are you still there? The Trustee is waiting.”

“I’ll call her in a minute. In the meantime, find out what happened to Tayeb and his men. Look at media accounts, police channels, everything. I know OMNI’s reach is weak in that part of the world, but try it anyway. Call me if you get something definitive. Send me a report in an hour no matter what.”

“God,” Jason said. “You think all of this is related, don’t you?”

“I don’t know, and that’s what bothers me. And by the way, sorry for snapping at you just now. You saved my ass today.”

“No need to thank me. It’s my job.”

I think this test is a good representation of my novel, A Conspiracy of Ravens. It shows the constant turmoil Hicks faces as the University attempts to recover from a devastating surprise attack.

Visit Terrence McCauley's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Conspiracy of Ravens.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Lie to Me"

J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of eighteen critically acclaimed novels, including the newly released Lie to Me.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Lie to Me and reported the following:

From page 69:

Sutton loved Dashiell. Carried him with her everywhere. He’d outgrown the withy basket she kept by her desk and spent his out-of-arms time in a car seat stationed within five feet of her at all times.

Ethan had finally won the battle to let the tyke sleep in his crib in his nursery instead of in their bed a month earlier. It had been hard for Sutton, even harder for him. It was impossible to sleep well knowing Sutton was getting up to check on the baby every hour.

He’d told her because he knew she’d gotten used to it. To being a mother. To having a child. To being a family.

He knew she loved Dashiell.

But when he admitted what he’d done, it was like something inside her snapped.

Page 69 of Lie to Me is the very end of a hugely pivotal chapter in the novel. The basic premise of the book is the perfect family loses their baby to SIDS and their world goes off the rails. They blame each other for his death – but remember, this is a mystery novel at heart. So, without any more clues…

This chapter is a flashback to the evening Ethan and Sutton find their son dead in his crib. It’s powerful and heartbreaking and inserts doubt as to the situation they find themselves in. But you can hear Ethan’s unspoken thoughts loud and clear – and also realize Ethan has done something to Sutton that makes him think she’s capable of killing their child.

And important chapter, and an important page. It establishes the basic question of this entire book: What is really going on here?

Visit J.T. Ellison's website, or follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Crazed"

Jacob Stone is the byline chosen by award-winning author Dave Zeltserman for his new Morris Brick series of serial-killer thrillers. His crime, mystery and horror fiction has won top praise and has been translated into six languages.

His novels Small Crimes and Pariah were both named by the Washington Post as best books of the year. Small Crimes topped National Public Radio's list of best crime and mystery novels of 2008 and is being made into a feature film.

Stone applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel Crazed, the second Morris Black thriller, and reported the following:

Page 69 falls at the end of a chapter and only has 6 lines, so I'll make this a Page 68 test instead. Serial killer Griffin Bolling has traveled from Seattle to LA cutting a bloody path along the way. On page 68 he's alone with Sheila Proops, my wheelchair-bound serial killer from Deranged who escaped prosecution. Griffin has always killed in the shadows, and he has taken offense at the publicity Sheila has generated and he had traveled to LA to kill her. Now that he's alone with her, he's beginning to feel enough of an affinity to her that he plans to kill Sheila's caregiver when the woman returns before turning his attentions to Sheila so that Sheila can enjoy one final kill. But Sheila is able to convince Griffin that he had a very different reason for seeking her out. The twisted nature of this page, along with the hints of violence and suspense, make this highly representative of the rest of the book. I'd think a crime thriller reader would be hooked if they read this page.

Visit Dave Zeltserman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Deranged.

The Page 69 Test: Deranged.

My Book, The Movie: Crazed.

Writers Read: Jacob Stone.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Magicians Impossible"

Brad Abraham is the author of Magicians Impossible, creator of the Mixtape comic book series, screenwriter of the films Fresh Meat and Stonehenge Apocalypse, writer on the television series The Canada Crew, Now You Know, I Love Mummy, and RoboCop Prime Directives, and a journalist whose work has appeared in Rue Morgue, Dreamwatch, Starburst, and Fangoria.

He applied the Page 69 Test to Magicians Impossible and reported the following:

Magicians Impossible is many things. It’s a fantasy, it’s a thriller, it’s a mystery. But at its heart it’s the story of someone who, for much of his life, felt he was unexceptional. Then he discovers he’s much more than that. Page 69 in the book is where Jason Bishop first finally gazes upon The Spire – the training facility for the Invisible Hand; a cabal of magic-wielding spies locked in a centuries-old conflict against forces of chaos and darkness. The Spire is is as much a physical representation of the difficult road that lies ahead for Jason Bishop, as it is an Escher-esque training facility.

Below them lay an immense arena, but calling it immense sold it short. On first glance he thought you could fit the old and new Yankee stadiums into it, and still have room for Storm King Mountain in the cheap seats. As Jason focused on one corner of the arena, the view seemed to get closer even though the room didn’t move; like everywhere he focused the viewing window magnified to see every last detail. To call the effect disorienting was as great a disservice as calling the arena immense.

On the ground, a large racing track surrounded a patch of green Astroturf that was covered with obstacles set up its length and around it. But the track seemed to undulate, looping in and around itself like the coils of a snake, and Jason felt dizzy just trying to figure out where it began and where it ended. Heavy-looking crates rested on the field and more floated in the air, stretching all the way up to the ceiling hundreds of feet above. There were people visible, too, all dressed in red-and-black training uniforms. He saw a girl leap gracefully onto the stack of crates and vanish in a puff of smoke. She reappeared midway up, balanced on one of the floating crates. She disappeared again, then reappeared again balanced on the edge of the highest one. She held there for a moment, peered over the edge, like a child contemplating the distance from the high board at the local pool. Then she stepped off, plummeting like a rock. Jason sucked air as she fell. Midway down, she disappeared in a thunderclap of smoke, and reappeared back on the ground, light as a feather.

What I like about this page and this sequence is how it gives Jason (and us) a sense of scale by comparison; a technique I return to throughout the book, especially when describing the fantastical world of the Invisible Hand. Describing it as something that would fit two baseball stadiums and a mountain and still have room left over gives the reader a sense of what he’s seeing. I wanted Magicians Impossible to move with a good amount of momentum, while still giving you a chance to envision everything in your head. This is especially important with The Spire, which comes into play in the climax in a big way.

Visit Brad Abraham's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Beyond Absolution"

Cora Harrison published twenty-six children's books before turning to adult novels with the "Mara" series of Celtic historical mysteries set in 16th century Ireland.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, Beyond Absolution, the third book in the Reverend Mother Mystery Series, and reported the following:

By a piece of bad luck, page 69 in Beyond Absolution turns out to be the beginning of a chapter, chapter six, and so is a short page. And to add to its shortness, each chapter which deals with my main character, Reverend Mother Aquinas, opens with a quote in Latin from the works of her namesake Saint Thomas Aquinas – with English translation beneath it. The Reverend Mother is a great admirer of Thomas Aquinas and she finds support for many of her views on life and people from his pithy sayings, such as: ‘To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection; to bear with patience wrongs done to others is a mark of imperfection and even of sin’.

However, this page also brings in Dr Scher who is a favourite character of mine. An elderly man, descendent of a Jewish immigrant, he is humorous, compassionate, quick-thinking and attractive. On this page we hear him before we see him. He is joking with a new recruit to the novitiate. It would be a few minutes before he arrived at her room, she guessed. The girl was homesick and her tear-stained face would make him take trouble with her.

The Reverend Mother, also, turns her thought to this new recruit. She had promised to give the girl a month’s trial, but that was: Before she had heard that the girl had been seeing visions, just like Sister Bernadette at Lourdes and had imagined herself a nun in the making.

However the Reverend Mother hopes that soon the girl will see that that she is unhappy and will agree to go home for a few months and to think again about her vocation. She is worried about the child but tells herself that: ‘Judging by the giggles that greeted Dr Scher’s feeble jokes, she was tiring of the angelic and melancholic pose adopted when first admitted to the convent.’

So, the luck was against me with this page 69 as it is, if one counts the words, barely half a page. On the other hand, I am reasonably satisfied as I think two of the main people in the book, the Reverend Mother and Dr Scher, show their characters. Dr Scher his kindness, his liking for jokes, his interest in all whom he meets and the Reverend Mother, who also shows concern, displays her quick-witted, common-sense, her deep sense of responsibility for those in her convent and, perhaps above all, her wisdom.

Visit Cora Harrison's website.

My Book, The Movie: Cross of Vengeance.

My Book, The Movie: Beyond Absolution.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Devil's Cup"

Alys Clare lives in the English countryside, where her novels are set. She went to school in Tonbridge and later studied archaeology at the University of Kent.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Devil's Cup, and reported the following:

On page 69, Josse, his brother Yves and his son Geoffroi are on their way north from Kent to join King John and his army, reputed to be in East Anglia. Josse has been summoned by the King because they knew each other when they were young and Josse has always been faithful to the Crown, even when it’s on the head of someone as contrary, slippery and headstrong as John. Josse has been known to reflect that, despite John’s deep character flaws, he just can’t root out his affection for him. I’ve adopted Josse’s attitude, so that my version of King John presents a man who can be both ruthlessly cruel and totally unreasonable, yet also humorous, self-deprecating, wry and, to a very few, affectionate and loyal.

The page is representative of the book in that we have some of the main characters travelling through the land and intent on reaching their goal for a reason they consider very important; Josse has found an encampment where the standard flying is that of someone else loyal to the King, so it’s looking as if he’s going to be successful. As to whether a reader skimming through would read on, I can only say I hope so because there’s good stuff to come.

Learn more about The Devil's Cup at the publisher's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Nyxia"

Scott Reintgen has spent his career as a teacher of English and creative writing in diverse urban communities in North Carolina. The hardest lesson he learned was that inspiration isn’t equally accessible for everyone. So he set out to write a novel for the front-row sleepers and back-row dreamers of his classrooms.

Reintgen applied the Page 69 Test to his latest novel, Nyxia, and reported the following:

From page 69:

It’s only as we head back to our rooms at the end of the day that I realize the real significance of our win: it has me in first place. I remind myself there’s still a long way to go, but as I fall asleep that night, there’s a smile on my face. For the first time, I feel like I belong here, like I actually deserve to go to Eden. I know that when I wake up in the morning, I won’t just be content with the top eight.

I want to win.

To my great delight, Nyxia passes The Page 69 Test.

This brief section highlights what the entire story is about: Emmett’s entrance into an in-space competition that could change his life forever. One big question I wanted to ask in this book was, “What happens when you find your lottery ticket, but other people are reaching for it, too?” And more importantly, “How much of your humanity are you willing to let slip through your fingers in order to go home a king?” In this scene, Emmett’s clearly feeling positive about his chances of succeeding. But that feeling changes. He has highs and lows in the competition. Bones will break. Enemies will be made. And through all of it he will have the choice to fight hard or fight dirty.

There are two important pieces of the novel that are noticeably absent on this page, however: there’s no mention of nyxia, the substance Emmett’s being trained to use and the entire reason for their mission to the alien planet. Finally, we have no mention of the 9 other contestants that have boarded Genesis 11 alongside Emmett. These characters—and their varying friendships with Emmett—act as a strong centerpiece for the entire novel.

Still, I could read this excerpt and give someone the general idea of what’s happening in the story. So let’s call Nyxia a Page 69 Test success.

Visit Scott Reintgen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Laird Takes a Bride"

Lisa Berne read her first Georgette Heyer book at fourteen, and was instantly captivated. Later, she was a graduate student, a teacher, and a grant writer — and is now an author of historical romance.

Berne applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, The Laird Takes a Bride, and reported the following:

My heroine, Fiona Douglass, has been forced to take part in a Bachelor-like situation, and is the only candidate who despises the very idea of it. At this particular interval in the story, she’s riding her horse away from an ancient monastery, to which she and a large party have traveled on a sightseeing jaunt. She’s mulling over the events of the day. At 27, she is, in 1811, very much in “old maid” territory, and wonders uneasily if jealousy motivated her, earlier, to engage in some sharp badinage with a much younger woman.

She’s also recalling some of the things said by a little girl she’s recently met, who has an unnerving tendency to utter opaque, sibylline remarks — The Laird Takes a Bride is set in Scotland, and this is a tiny, tiny tip of the hat to Macbeth’s Three Witches — and she’s puzzling over their significance.

We see Fiona, then, on a kind of temporal pivot: she’s thinking about what happened today, she’s musing about the past and questioning if her best years are behind her, and is also wondering, with some apprehension, what the future will bring.

So is page 69 representative of the book as a whole? To a large degree, yes, as it portrays my heroine as a thinking, feeling human being who’s struggling to make sense of her life. But it doesn’t happen to also reveal the story’s fluid point of view which offers insight into the psyche and circumstances of Fiona’s counterpart, Alasdair Penhallow. You’d have to back up to page 66 for that, or read on to page 72...

Visit Lisa Berne's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Laird Takes a Bride.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Lie For A Lie"

Robin Merrow MacCready is the author of Buried, recipient of the Edgar Award for Best YA novel. She teaches reading and writing to middle school students, and lives in Maine with her family.

MacCready applied the Page 69 Test to her latest YA novel, A Lie for a Lie, and reported the following:

A Lie For A Lie takes place over the course a summer in the life of seventeen year old Kendra. The story begins when she sees her father with a woman who is not her mother. Rather that confront him; she spies on him. On page 69, she and her friend Bo have just found out that the relationship is more serious that they thought. “He was trying to insinuate himself into her life, like he wanted it to last.” This is a great disappointment. The relationship doesn’t seem to be a fling. This is also about the time the reader is realizing that Bo wants his friendship with Kendra to be more serious than it is, but Kendra is crazy about another guy. He gives her a gift that reminds her of their childhood games together—not his intention. When she arrives home from being with Bo, she sees her mother dressed up and ready to go out. To her this is a sign that her mom is doing better emotionally and maybe her father’s bad behavior, if it’s found out, won’t be as damaging to her as she thought.

But not everything is as it seems…

Visit Robin Merrow MacCready's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Lie for a Lie.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Spring Break"

A graduate of Yale, Gerald Elias has been a Boston Symphony violinist, Associate Concertmaster of the Utah Symphony since 1988, Adjunct Professor of Music at the University of Utah, first violinist of the Abramyan String Quartet, and Music Director of the Vivaldi Candlelight concert series.

His novels include Devil's Trill, Danse Macabre, Death and the Maiden, Playing With Fire, and the newly released Spring Break.

Elias applied the Page 69 Test to Spring Break and reported the following:

From Page 69:

‘What were they talking about?’ Jacobus asked Yumi.

‘The Feldsteins?’

‘No, the Cooney cluster.’

‘Mainly about how much Aaron Schlossberg would be missed. What a great man he was. How much he did for the conservatory. You know, things that would be appropriate for the occasion.’

‘You mean the customary bullshit,’ Jacobus said.

‘Yes, that’s accurate,’ Yumi replied.

‘I assume that’s after they noticed you. Did you hear what were they talking about before that?’

‘No. The sound is too live in that room. It’s all a wash. All I can say is that they seemed ...concerned about something.

‘The food poisoning incident,’ Lilburn said. ‘This Dr Pine is a doctor, after all. Maybe they’re worried about medical expenses, or legal action. Or, perish the thought, maybe even about people’s health!’

Jacobus heard Lilburn slap at a mosquito.

‘Possible. But that’s over and done with,’ Jacobus said. ‘The more recent incident is Aaron Schlossberg found dead slumped over a piano keyboard.’

It began to drizzle.

‘I think we’d better go.'

This Page 69 excerpt underscores multiple currents of conflict in Spring Break. The scene is a gathering to comfort the wife of Aaron Schlossberg, famed composer of the Kinderhoek Conservatory of Music who has just died. Jacobus recognizes the artificial grieving of other faculty members who had no love lost for Schlossberg and who are customarily at each others' throats. There is also the coterie of conservatory bigwigs, whose main concern is money and who view Schlossberg's death more as an impediment to their plans than as a loss to the music world. Finally, there is also the sense of unease of the unresolved manner of Schlossberg's death. Was it diabetes, food poisoning, or something else?

My Book, The Movie: Spring Break.

Writers Read: Gerald Elias.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Alan Cole Is Not a Coward"

Eric Bell is an author of middle grade fiction.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his debut novel, Alan Cole Is Not a Coward, and reported the following:

Alan Cole Is Not a Coward is the story of a twelve-year-old boy who is blackmailed over his secret crush on another boy in his class. Page 69, which opens chapter six, begins with Alan at the dinner table. Alan’s family is a major source of stress: his older brother is the blackmailer, his father is emotionally abusive, and his mother is a non-presence. The dinner environment is oppressive—even Mom’s tasty chicken stew doesn’t leave much of an impact—and so Alan retreats to a familiar setting: the art world. For Alan, art is like breathing; his attempts to change the world via a portrait of someone’s face permeate the novel. In the middle of this tense situation, he narrates:

I’m thinking about the principles of design Mrs. Colton went over today in art class, and how the scene in front of me would look if I painted it. Where would the emphasis be? On the clock? At the head of the table? On the carefully prepared food? Where would the movement flow? What patterns would be repeated?

This is Alan attempting to make sense of the illogical world before him. He doesn’t understand why his brother hates him so much, where his father’s anger stems from, why his mother has withdrawn from affection. His quirky new friends befuddle him and he struggles with the possibility that his crush might not reciprocate Alan’s hidden feelings. The world is overstimulating and messy and confusing. So when Alan turns to the vocabulary of his art, it’s with the goal of understanding his own world a little better. Throughout this chapter he sees things through an artist’s lens, noticing patterns and movement and other aspects of his toolkit.

Page 69 does not showcase any of the book’s humor—the family scenes are when the book is at its most serious—though Alan does mention the hot pepper flakes from the stew “practically leave scorch marks as they dribble down my throat,” which hints at the normal tone of his narration, full of exaggerated comparisons.

Visit Eric Bell's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Lone Wolf"

Michael Gregorio is the pen name of Michael G. Jacob and Daniela De Gregorio. Best known for their Hanno Stiffeniis series, featuring a Prussian magistrate in a country invaded by Napoleon and the French, they have more recently launched a contemporary series set in Italy, where they live. The Seb Cangio novels follow the exploits of a forest ranger as he combats Mafia infiltration of the unspoilt national park in Umbria where he works.

The authors applied the Page 69 Test to their latest novel, the third in the series, Lone Wolf, and reported the following:

It’s always intriguing to open your novel at a specific page and see what you’ve got.

In the case of Lone Wolf, page 69 finds all of the major characters – with one notable exception – on the same page. Marshall McLuhan, the inventor of the page 69 test, would be ninety-nine percent pleased!

The good guys – Seb Cangio, gorgeous Lucia Rossi of the Italian carabinieri, and Inspector Desmond Harris from New Scotland Yard – are cooped up inside a tiny surveillance booth. They’re watching a security video of passengers arriving on a flight from London as they go through customs control at the small provincial airport of Assisi in Italy.

The reader doesn’t know it yet, but two of the people in the video are already dead.

Dead men don’t talk, of course, but a video can tell you a lot about them. One man is nervous, the other is not. They ignore each other, yet both men were carrying false passports. Is it a coincidence, or is it a conspiracy? And one of them went back to London, while the other man did not. If they were together, what the heck were they doing in Italy?

That is what the investigators have to discover.

The solution will turn out to be far more disturbing than the reader might imagine.

Why bring a British brain surgeon to Italy? And why are so many Italian doctors dropping like flies? Above all, what does the fearsome ’Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, have to do with it?

Only Seb Cangio can read the signs. He’s from Calabria, he knows how the ’Ndrangheta works.

But even Seb cannot guess exactly what is going on. Not until he finds himself laid out helpless on an operating table in a private clinic in idyllic Umbria…

The ‘one notable exception’ mentioned above is one of the most frightening men alive, as Seb Cangio is destined to discover. Our editor asked us to add an extra chapter featuring ’Ndrangheta boss, Don Michele Cucciarilli – “he’s so deliciously evil,” she said.

Visit Michael Gregorio's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Cry Wolf.

My Book, The Movie: Cry Wolf.

--Marshal Zeringue