"Dead Insider"

Victoria Houston is the author of the Loon Lake Mysteries, which are set in the Northwoods of Wisconsin against a background of fishing – fly fishing as well as fishing for muskie, bass, bluegill and walleyes.

Houston applied the Page 69 Test to Dead Insider, the thirteenth book in the series, and reported the following:

I am pleased (and surprised!) with Page 69 for a couple reasons. First, it catches a main character, Doc Osborne, puzzling over another character’s loneliness. As he wonders, he thinks back to a similar time in his own life – so we learn about Doc Osborne losing his wife and how he slipped into alcoholism. At that point the story shifts to “real time,” in which a note is discovered by a young woman – a note about a hat and six bluegills. What? Who ARE these people? And so we have Page 69: a page full of guesses.

Learn more about the book and author at Victoria Houston's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sacred Games"

Gary Corby is a novelist and former systems programmer at Microsoft. He lives in Australia with his wife and two daughters. His debut novel is The Pericles Commission.

Corby applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Sacred Games, and reported the following:

Sacred Games is a mystery set at the ancient Olympics of 460BC. A Spartan athlete has been murdered. An Athenian stands accused. Nicolaos must either prove the Athenian did it -- and that Athenian happens to be Nico's best friend -- or he must prove his friend innocent. Either way, if the case isn't made it could lead to war between Sparta and Athens.

Page 69 sees my hero Nicolaos meet the famous praise singer Pindar. Praise singers were poets-for-hire who, for a fee, would write and then sing the victory song of a winning athlete. Pindar was the greatest praise singer of his day. He might even have written the two most famous lines of poetry of all time: the epitaph for the 300 who held the pass at Thermopylae ("Passer-by, go tell the Spartans, that here, according to their law, we lie.")

This is all very relevant to the story because Pindar has crucial evidence for Nico, which he's about to tell him. Pindar likes Nico and is very willing to help him. But Pindar will equally assist the Spartan investigator Markos, who's been put on the job representing Sparta. It's this contest between Nico and the Spartan Markos to solve the crime that fascinates Pindar.

It's a very real contest too, and very official: the judges who control the Games have sworn both Nico and Markos by the Olympic Oath, to hunt down the killer. For the first time in history, murder investigation is an Olympic event.

Learn more about the book and author at Gary Corby's blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Pericles Commission.

Writers Read: Gary Corby (November 2010).

My Book, The Movie: The Pericles Commission.

My Book, The Movie: The Ionia Sanction.

Writers Read: Gary Corby (November 2011).

The Page 69 Test: The Ionia Sanction.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope"

Rhonda Riley is a graduate of the creative writing program at the University of Florida.

She applied the Page 69 Test to The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope, her recently released debut novel, and reported the following:

At first glance, page 69 may seem more like a transition scene. But, in fact, there is a lot happening. On that page, the narrator, Evelyn’s parents arrive at the farm she is taking care of. Nineteen-year-old Evelyn was there alone during a huge storm that brought a stranger to her, someone who has changed dramatically and now looks very much like her. On this page, Momma and Daddy come to check on Evelyn and they meet the stranger, Addie, for the first time. Evelyn tells them the lie she made up to explain Addie’s similarity to her. She wants to protect Addie, and she is certain no one would believe the truth. While she is doing that, the low inaudible vibration of Addie’s voice, calms the scene. And though neither Evelyn or the readers knows it at the time, Momma’s reaction to Addie is tainted by her own secret, a secret that will not be revealed until the second half of the book. The long-term love story between A. and Evelyn is not so evident on this page, but their complicity is. Evelyn covers for Addie and Addie uses her voice to sooth and change the tone of the situation, as she will throughout the novel. Most readers seem to focus on the relationship between A. and Evelyn, but for me, Evelyn’s relationship with her mother is also very important. This page certainly reveals the beginning of the novel’s theme of lying and story-telling, it begins the books exploration of the ways we reveal or hide ourselves even in love, in all kinds of love, not just romantic sexual love. The most important elements of the novel are there on page 69, but I think a reader popping open the book and checking that page might not see that. It is not a particularly dramatic scene.

Learn more about the book and author at Rhonda Riley's website and Facebook page.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sight Reading"

Daphne Kalotay's fiction collection, Calamity and Other Stories (Doubleday), was short listed for the 2005 Story Prize, and her debut novel, Russian Winter (HarperCollins), won the 2011 Writers’ League of Texas Fiction Prize, made the long list for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and has been published in 21 foreign editions.

Kalotay applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Sight Reading, and reported the following:

From Page 69:

“What I want you to learn,” Conrad Lesser said that first day, leaning back in a wooden swivel chair so that his flaplike ears seemed even larger, “more than anything else that you learn in this class, is how to love music.”

Remy and the others nodded reverently. The class was small; besides Remy there was a pretty brunette named Barb; a Russian boy called Mischa; twin sisters named Penelope and Pauline; and a timid blond boy (the youngest in the class) who said his name so softly, no one caught it. Each of them had been assigned a new piece to learn by heart, and Remy could tell that each of them was terrified.

The blond boy was asked to go first. He had been assigned Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D Major, and as he began to play, with a definite flair but also somehow too slick, Remy recalled some of the musical friends she had known who flew from continent to continent to compete in contests and had this same, overly polished air.

Mrs. Lepik had forbidden Remy to follow that path; she said it was bad to always be in the spotlight, that competitions narrowed one’s creative field, that by playing the same carefully perfected pieces over and over, one’s playing became mannered. Remy supposed this was what had happened with the blond boy, who seemed to have modeled his playing on Jascha Heifetz; his bowing and slides, his very stance, were recognizable, almost a pose. Lesser told him to stop.

“It’s very clear which recording you’ve been listening to,” Lesser said. “A marvelous one. But what you’re doing now is an imitation. A copy. If this were a math exam, you wouldn’t copy, would you?”

The boy shook his head.

“Do you know why it’s wrong to copy?” Lesser didn’t wait for an answer. “Not just because it’s unoriginal. It’s that it’s insincere.”

The boy said something too soft for anyone to understand.

“We must always, every one of us, play from the heart. In fact, please sit down. Let’s hear from one of your colleagues.” He motioned for Remy to stand.

This is the first time I’ve ever done this test with one of my books, so I was delighted to find the page pretty representative of the book as a whole. This scene takes place on the first day of summer-long master class that the young violinist, Remy, has auditioned for. She is one of three protagonists in the novel, a soulful character, serious and driven to succeed as a musician but passionate in other ways, too, and what she learns from this teacher will ultimately change the course of her life--and of the two other main characters. By pushing her harder than she has been pushed in the past, Conrad Lesser enables Remy to act on her desires in ways that have life-altering ramifications. Yes, she will learn “how to love music.” But in being genuine and true to herself as a musician, she expands emotionally as well, eventually wondering if it might in fact be more important to love—and be loved by—another human being.

Learn more about the book and author at Daphne Kalotay's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"All the Summer Girls"

Meg Donohue is the bestselling author of All the Summer Girls and How to Eat a Cupcake, which was translated into Dutch, German, Italian, and Polish. She has an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from Dartmouth College. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she now lives San Francisco with her husband, two young daughters, and Cole, her endearing Taiwanese rescue pup.

Donohue applied the Page 69 Test to All the Summer Girls and reported the following:

Page 69 of All the Summer Girls both is and is not representative of the book as whole. I’ll start with the ways it’s not: The scene on page 69 is not set at the beach, and it doesn’t mention summer, both of which are integral to the tone and setting of the book. Page 69 is representative of the book because it’s a conversation between old friends, and the book revolves around the friendship of three women—the ways and reasons each woman, and their friendship, has changed over the years. The chapters are told from alternating points of view, rotating between each woman. Page 69 falls in one of Vanessa’s chapters; it is the scene in which she reveals to her friend Kate that she is thinking of reconnecting with an old boyfriend. Kate has her own issues going on, which the reader knows from her chapter, and in this phone call we see the way information is passed between the friends, how some things are left unsaid, and others are misinterpreted. Some secrets are bared, and others kept longer still.

Learn more about the book and author at Meg Donohue's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: How to Eat a Cupcake.

Writers Read: Meg Donohue (April 2012).

My Book, The Movie: How to Eat a Cupcake.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Son of Destruction"

Kit Reed's books include a new novel, Son of Destruction and The Story Until Now: A Great Big Book of Stories, which features some Reed classics as well as her personal favorites over several decades, including six new stories, never before collected.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Son of Destruction and reported the following:

Would a reader skimming that page be inclined to read on? I think so. No allusion to spontaneous human combustion, which is at the center of the novel, but a representative slice of "society" in Fort Jude, Florida, where these human fires take place.

God damn Davis, he lit up like it was Christmas morning. "Great, I'll need the weekend to pack. Do you want to me to pick up cartons or can I borrow the roller bags?"

I'm glad Steffie crashed into the kitchen just then, before I screamed at him. She thumped through the Florida room in a panic, calling, "Mom?" like the world was ending. "Dad?" She tumbled into the living room with her hair gone wild and when she saw us facing off, all hostile and stony, she stopped cold, and I can't tell if she was disappointed, or just surprised "Oh! You're all right."

"Steffy!" And we tried so hard to keep her out of this. "Honey, of course we are."

"I was so scared!"

She looked so stricken that, forgive me, I yelled at her. "Well, get a grip!"

And God damn Davis, he just blinked, sticky sweet and bland as custard pie. "Scared, honey? Tell Daddy what you're afraid of."

What do you think she's afraid of, you sniveling cheat. I was furious at Davis, but that's not who I hurt. "Go upstairs and get decent. You look like shit!" She ran out sobbing even though I called after her, trying to make it right. "I bought you a great dress. Carter's coming to the party, Sallie made him swear."

Now she's upstairs, crying in the tub.

Davis let loose as soon as she cleared the room. At least she didn't have to hear her dad swearing and slamming as he stomped out through the Florida room and drove away. That's the beauty of central air. We're sealed up tight against heat and street noises and outside interference of any kind.

Except Bobby, waiting for somebody to answer the bell. I have to to wipe my hand across my face and go to the door with a smile. Live in this town long enough and you learn how to do that in seconds, bump up the rheostat so nobody knows what just happened or how bad it was, and I will be charming. "Bobby?"

"No Ma'am." Who is this lovely man? Look at him! Good-looking in a blurred, messed-up kind of way, with such a hopeful grin that you just know he's OK. I come to the door a walking shipwreck, and here he is on my doorstep, like a gift. "Mrs. McCall?"

"Nenna. It’s short for Genevieve." As if we're already friends.

"I'm Dan. Your daughter left her backpack and I..." He hands it off like a calling card.

"Oh, you must be from the school."

He takes a little bit too long to answer but that's OK...

Learn more about the author and her work at Kit Reed's website.

My Book, The Movie: Son of Destruction and The Story Until Now.

Writers Read: Kit Reed.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Story Until Now"

Kit Reed's books include a new novel, Son of Destruction and The Story Until Now: A Great Big Book of Stories, which features some Reed classics as well as her personal favorites over several decades, including six new stories, never before collected.

She applied the Page 69 Test to The Story Until Now and reported the following:

One of my all-time favorite stories starts on page 69; it's called "High Rise High" and this is the opening page:

The situation at the school is about like you'd expect: total anarchy, bikers roaring through the halls pillaging and laying waste; big guys hanging screaming frosh out of windows by their feet, shut up or I let go; bathroom floods and flaming mattresses, minor explosions and who knows how many teacher hostages; this is worse than Attica and the monster prom that puts the arm on Armageddon is Saturday night. The theme is Tinsel Dreams; expect wild carnage fueled by kid gangs sallying forth to trash your neighborhood and bring back anything they want. Who knows how they got out of the citadel? Who can say exactly how they get back in?
An interesting thing has happened. Nobody's cell phone works inside the walls. Worse. The land lines have been cut so you can't phone in.

Then there is the problem with the baby. See, this Bruce Brill, he tries to get down with the kids, you know, call me Bruce, but the kids call him the Motivator? He's always, like, "Come on, if you want to, you can get a C," big mistake trying that on Johnny Slater: "Why are you holding back like this? You could go to MIT!" Well, that and his stupid play. OK, this is what you get for pissing Johnny off. He and his gang have snatched your pregnant wife, they broke into your house while you were scrubbing your hands in front of English class, we'll Macbeth you. Johnny is holding pregnant Jane in the woodworking shop while his seven best buds rig the table saw to rip her fuckin in half. Boy, you should hear her scream. Listen, when Mr. McShy the band teacher begged them to let her go the seven of them did, yes they did smash sensitive Eddie McShy's Stradivarius over his sensitive head; while he weeps and the pregnant lady screams for help, Johnny uses the splinters to pick his front teeth.

It's Teach, this eager jerk Bruce Brill, that alerted us in the city. "I tried to tell you but you wouldn't listen." Look up from supper and Teach is on your screen sobbing for Global TV. "Now it's too late."

Hunkered down in his office with a handful of survivors, deposed principal Irving Wardlaw shakes his fist at the TV. Frankly, the riot broke out because Bruce tried to make Johnny play a fairy in his "Midsummer Night's Dream." Fucking Shakespeare, what do you expect?

Learn more about the author and her work at Kit Reed's website.

My Book, The Movie: Son of Destruction and The Story Until Now.

Writers Read: Kit Reed.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Caretaker"

A .X. Ahmad was raised in India, educated at Vassar College and M.I.T., and has worked internationally as an architect. His short stories have been published in literary magazines, and he’s been listed in Best American Essays. The Caretaker is his first novel, to be followed by Bollywood Taxi next year. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Ahmad applied the Page 69 Test to The Caretaker and reported the following:

Much to my chagrin, page 69 of my thriller, The Caretaker, was a quiet scene.

The protagonist, a recent Indian immigrant, has just come home, and stands in the doorway of a borrowed house in Martha’s Vineyard, looking in at his wife and young daughter. At first glance, just a quiet, domestic moment.

And yet: things are not what they seem.

Someone wants to kill this man. He has just been attacked by a savage dog, and killed it with a knife, utilizing skills learned years ago in the Indian Army.

He hides his wounds from his wife and daughter, because they are, for once, happy. In the midst of a brutally cold winter, he has illegally moved them into a rich man’s empty mansion. Here his family, warm and safe, can wear Indian clothes and pretend they are back in India.

This is why the man hesitates at the doorway. Looking in at his own life, he savors this moment of domestic bliss. But he knows that it cannot last, because there is a darkness out there.

The Caretaker is, after all, a thriller. Here’s an excerpt from page 69:

It is dark by the time Ranjit gets back to Aquinnah. He parks outside the house and unbuttons his shirt to check for scratches: his shoulder is bruised, but, thank the Guru, his skin is unbroken, the thick canvas jacket having absorbed the impact of the dog’s assault. The jacket is ripped and useless now. Taking it off, he stuffs it into his toolbox before entering the house.

He expects Preetam to be on the phone, but instead it is quiet, and he can hear the low murmur of voices.

Standing in the entryway, he sees Preetam sitting on the gray leather couch, with Shanti on the floor below her. He watches as Preetam gently combs through the tangles in Shanti’s long, curly hair, then pours oil from a bottle and massages it into her daughter’s scalp. The sickly sweet fragrance of coconut oil fills the room.

Learn more about the book and author at A.X. Ahmad's website and Facebook page.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Angel Baby"

Richard Lange is the author of the story collection Dead Boys, which received an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the novel This Wicked World. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2004 and 2011. He lives in Los Angeles.

Lange applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Angel Baby, and reported the following:

Angel Baby is the story of Luz, the beautiful, abused wife of a Tijuana drug lord, who decides to escape her husband’s clutches and return to the U.S. to reclaim her young daughter, who is being raised by relatives. The getaway doesn’t go as smoothly as she planned, however, and she finds herself on the run with a bag of her husband’s money and his pimped-out Colt .45. In the course of her journey across the border and through Southern California, she crosses paths with an alcoholic human smuggler nursing a tragic secret and a death wish, a ruthless ex-gang member ordered to track her down, and a corrupt border cop who will go to any lengths to get his hands on the money she’s carrying.

Page 69 is the first meeting between Luz and Malone, the man who’ll be driving her across the border. It takes place in a Tijuana body shop under the watchful eye of a pollero named Freddy.

The car’s horn bleats twice, and a voice calls out in English, “Open up, already.”

Goyo waddles over and takes hold of the gate, drags it sideways. A beat-up silver BMW pulls into the lot. The engine sputters and dies, and darkness and quiet return. Luz lowers the gun into the pack but stays where she is, back pressed against the chain-link fence.

A white man steps out of the car, some beach bum, tall and thin, older, maybe thirty, thirty-five. He’s wearing a T-shirt advertising a surf shop, plaid shorts, and black Converse tennis shoes. Surely this isn’t the guy Freddy’s been talking up all day, his best driver. This pendejo can’t even keep his hair out of his eyes, keeps having to brush it back every time he turns his head.

“Just so you know, this isn’t going to be a regular thing,” he says to Freddy. “Nighttime is the wrong time to be fucking around down here.”

“If you have trouble with anyone, tell them you know me,” Freddy says.

“Yeah, right,” the bum says. “I do that, I’ll end up in the river.”

“Hey, we’re all going to end up in the river someday,” Freddy says.

He leans in close to speak quietly to the bum. The bum listens for a while, nodding agreeably, but then suddenly stops Freddy and says, “In the morning? You didn’t say anything about in the morning.” Apparently, there’s a disagreement over the details of the trip. Not being able to hear what’s being said, all Luz can do is watch the men argue in urgent whispers. The bum puts up a fight, but Freddy is relentless and eventually gets his way. He slaps the bum on the back and steers him to where Luz is waiting.

“Now come and meet our friend,” he says. “She needs our help.”

“There any beer around?” the bum asks.

“Goyo,” Freddy calls and tips an imaginary can into his mouth. Goyo grunts and walks into the office.

Freddy brings the bum over, and Luz moves away from the fence, standing up straight to look down her nose at him. His blue eyes are bloodshot, and he looks as if he could use a shower.

“Señorita Luz, this is Kevin Malone, who’s going to take you across,” Freddy says.

Malone lifts his chin by way of greeting, doesn’t even meet her gaze. It’s like he could take or leave this job. This infuriates Luz. She can’t believe she’ll be putting her life in the hands of this cabrón.

Angel Baby zooms along at a relentless pace; you’ll be hanging on for dear life after the first page, I promise. But there are also characters you’re going to care about, cheer on, and grieve for, because all the thrill and chills in the world don’t mean anything if you’re not emotionally involved with the people in peril. It’s a lean, mean crime novel, one that takes you on a wild ride, but also breaks your heart.

Learn more about the book and author at Richard Lange's website.

Writers Read: Richard Lange (August 2007).

The Page 69 Test: This Wicked World.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Benjamin Franklin's Bastard"

Sally Cabot lives in Brewster, Massachusetts, with her husband, Tom. A lifelong resident of New England, she is active in the local historical society and creates tours that showcase the three-hundred-year history of her village.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Benjamin Franklin's Bastard, and reported the following:

Much to my delight, once I’d agreed to write this blog, I discovered how neatly page sixty-nine reflects several of the main themes in Benjamin Franklin’s Bastard. Franklin fathers a child with one of the “low women” he admitted in his autobiography that he visited. On discovering the child’s existence and the poor chance at life it faced in its present circumstance, Franklin claims the child, brings it home to his brand-new common-law wife, Deborah Read, and asks her to raise the child as her own. Deborah, uneducated, unworldly, and already compromised by the desertion of a former husband, feels she has little choice, if she wishes to remain with Franklin, but to accept this child. Page sixty-nine describes the scene where Deborah meets her new son:

Deborah looked at the infant and saw Benjamin; there could be no doubt of it. There was the wide forehead and the dimpled chin; there, already, were the round, intelligent eyes that looked at every new thing with such great interest. But what of those things that hadn’t come from Benjamin? By now Deborah knew every inch of her husband’s square, solid flesh, and it couldn’t account for the pointed little chin, the delicate nose, the long, slender fingers.

Benjamin made as if to hold the child out to Deborah but she took a step back, concealing her cowardice by saying, “Let me get his pap.” She retreated to the kitchen and Benjamin followed; she set the bowl and spoon on the table and waved Benjamin to the chair before it, but he shook his head.

“His first meal must be from his new mother,” he said, pushing gently at Deborah’s shoulder till she’d backed up into the chair, placing the child in her arms. “Meet William,” he said. “William, meet your mother.” The small face puckered. Deborah dipped the spoon and thrust it at the infant – he took it at once in a great gulp that made him sputter; he took another and settled his surprising weight against her, his eyes – Benjamin’s eyes -- fixed on Deborah’s. She felt as she looked at him that he knew more than she did already, that he knew better than to trust her. Yes, already his eyes had drifted away and fixed on Benjamin as he ate, as if they were long acquainted.

This passage signals much of importance about Deborah Read: that she loves Franklin, that she struggles all her life to keep up with his stellar trajectory, that she doesn’t handle this sudden inheritance of his bastard well. It further reflects the insecurities, resentments, and jealousies that might accompany an adoption in which the child is a constant reminder of a partner’s betrayal. The scene foreshadows two other voices/themes in the book -- the bastard son and his struggle to find his way beside a father who eclipses him and a mother who can’t quite accept him, and the “low woman” who manages to physically but not emotionally relinquish her child. These three characters lock into orbit around the sun that is Franklin and propel the book forward from this early scene.

Learn more about the author and her work at Sally Cabot's Facebook page.

My Book, The Movie: Benjamin Franklin's Bastard.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Case of Redemption"

Adam Mitzner is the author of A Conflict of Interest and the new legal thriller, A Case of Redemption.

He applied the Page 69 Test to A Case of Redemption and reported the following:

At the start of A Case of Redemption we learn that Dan Sorensen is a former partner of a major New York City law firm who has left the practice of law 18 months earlier after his wife and daughter are killed in a car accident. He is approached by a family friend to take on the case of an up and coming rapper named Legally Dead, who has been accused of murdering his pop star girlfriend.

Page 69 contains an important scene in the book: a discussion between Dan and Nina in which Dan expresses his hesitancy to take on the case of Legally Dead. Nina tells him that she thinks that Legally Dead is innocent, and that's why she's on board. However, she also tells Dan that he has to have his own reasons for becoming involved. As Dan considers the issue, he realizes that representing Legally Dead might be his last, best chance to put his own life back on track. The page ends with Dan pressing the send button to file his notice of appearance with the court that he would be counsel of record in the murder trial of Legally Dead.

Learn more about the book and author at Adam Mitzner's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Conflict of Interest.

Writers Read: Adam Mitzner (May 2011).

My Book, The Movie: A Conflict of Interest.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Dear Lucy"

Julie Sarkissian is a graduate of Princeton University, where she won the Francis Leon Paige Award for creative writing, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. She lives in New York City.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Dear Lucy, and reported the following:

From Page 69 of Dear Lucy:

“‘How much longer, Baby,’ I ask.

Then we are quiet while the baby thinks about how much longer.

Then Samantha says, ‘He’s almost ready.’”

On page 69 of Dear Lucy, Lucy, a learning-disabled young woman, and Samantha, a pregnant teenager, both living and working on a mysterious farm, talk intimately on Samantha’s bed. Lucy asks Samantha when her baby will be born, and Samantha tells Lucy, just a little longer. As they are talking, an unopened letter falls from Samantha’s diary. Lucy can’t read but is nonetheless fascinated by words and considers a letter to be a scared object because it is a form of communication - something Lucy cherishes in any form. Lucy asks who the letter is for, and when Samantha admits the letter is for her, Lucy asks why Samantha hasn’t opened the letter. Samantha disregards Lucy’s question.

On the this page the reader learns that Samantha has been telling lies about the relationship between her and her baby’s father. Samantha, unwilling to taint Lucy’s naïve understanding of love and family, has been telling her that the father of the baby doesn’t know where Samantha is, and that Samantha has no way to get in touch with him. But when Lucy relays to the reader the letters addressing the envelope: TO SAMANTHA, FROM ALLEN, we know that the father of Samantha’s baby does indeed know how to contact her, though we don’t yet know why Samantha chooses not to open his letters.

Page 69 introduces Samantha’s duplicity in regards to her past, as well as highlights Lucy’s tenderness for, and lack of understanding of, the written word. Both these themes are essential emotional through-lines of Dear Lucy.

Learn more about the book and author at Julie Sarkissian's website.

--Marshal Zeringue