"Behind Sunset"

David Gordon was born in New York City. His first novel, The Serialist, won the VCU/Cabell First Novel Award and was a finalist for an Edgar Award. It was also made into a major motion picture in Japan. His work has also appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times, Purple, and Fence, among other publications.

Gordon applied the Page 69 Test to new his novel, Behind Sunset, and shared the following:

Behind Sunset is a neo-noir mystery set in LA in the 90s. Elliot Gross, a twenty- something aspiring writer living in a garage in Hollywood, is working as an editor at X- rated magazine Raunchy, when the notorious owner sends him in search of his lost love, a missing model, a journey that takes him through the depths of the porn underground, the equally shady New-Age spirituality business, and into the heart of Hollywood’s dream factory.

This time, page 69 is, perhaps fittingly, misleading. It is, to be honest, not a thrilling page for a thriller. Elliot is just watching TV. He is killing time waiting for his three gorgeous roommates, all wannabe actress/models, to get ready to go to a party in the Hollywood Hills. He is tagging along because a stripper he met at a club told him the woman he seeks is close friends with the birthday boy. As a last minute, zero-cost present, he decides to wrap up the obnoxious satin jacket with a Raunchy Magazine logo that his boss gave him and which he hates. All important story stuff but, like I say, nothing much happening on that page as he watches the news.

However, what he sees on the TV is a freeway police chase tracked by helicopter, a classic LA event. The most famous of course was the OJ Simpson white Bronco chase, but locals know this happens a lot and it is always surreal to see the suspect flee, as if he might escape despite being on what was the forerunner of reality TV. Some even drive to their own homes. Then Elliot sees news footage of a wildfire - images that are sadly only more frequent and terrifying today. As for the birthday party, several disturbing and fateful encounters will occur up in those hills tonight, and even the jacket he is bringing will trigger unforeseeable and violent consequences.

Lastly, the Hollywood Hills themselves, (the title refers to the hills “behind” Sunset Blvd) are central to the book - a maze of streets where the book’s most mysterious characters live, where Elliot gets lost constantly, and which symbolizes the labyrinth of danger and desire into which he has been led.

Visit David Gordon's blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Serialist.

The Page 69 Test: Mystery Girl.

The Page 69 Test: White Tiger on Snow Mountain.

Writers Read: David Gordon (August 2019).

The Page 69 Test: The Hard Stuff.

Q&A with David Gordon.

The Page 69 Test: The Wild Life.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Memory Hunters"

Mia Tsai is a Taiwanese American author of speculative fiction. Her debut novel, a xianxia-inspired contemporary fantasy titled Bitter Medicine, was published in 2023. Her new novel, The Memory Hunters, is an adult science fantasy.

Tsai applied the Page 69 Test to The Memory Hunters and reported the following:

From page 69:

“Those of you not going to see the curator, would you be interested in hearing about our most recent exhibits? There’s some literature by the ticket window.”

Alec continued his speech, and Key’s group broke off toward the bank of elevators to their right. As they approached, Jing and Cal came up alongside Key, each of them wearing a smile. “Managed to say hi to Vale, but not to you,” Jing said, his smile going roguishly lopsided. He swept his forelock of impeccably styled black hair back into place. “So, hi.”

“Hi.” Key supposed Jing was handsome in a pretty, symmetric way; that was probably why Vale liked him. He had an easy charisma and breezy nature that put everyone at ease, even Vale, which Key counted as a small miracle. Objectively speaking, his features were youthful and pleasing to the eye, with cut-glass cheekbones and soulful, dark brown eyes that could be melancholy and haunted in one moment and sparkling with mischief in the next.

She smiled at Cal while Vale poked the down button. “Hey, Cal.”

“Hey, Key.” Calamus’s resonant baritone voice was a pleasure to hear, and his singing even more so. Whereas Jing was supple and wiry and an unassuming height, his tan skin evoking the warmth of early autumn, Cal was a thick and looming sort of tall, the pin-tight curls of his black hair kept close to his scalp, his deep brown skin glowing with the robustness of summer. His sweet, earnest face and placid nature had drawn Key instantly at their initial meeting, and they had been fast friends since.

Jing slung an arm around Vale, who grunted, staggering with the unexpected weight before bracing herself to hold him.

While the proper introduction of both Jing and Cal is important to the book overall - we see them show up in a previous chapter, but there's no real time to slow down and spend a minute with them - this doesn't get at the heart of the plot in The Memory Hunters. It does, however, hint at the dynamics between the two hunter-guardian pairs, which come into play later in the book. Jing and Cal are foils and mirrors for Key and Vale but are also outsider points of view that help give the reader a sense of what is right or wrong about the city of Asheburg. Prior to this, the reader is introduced to the Museum of Human Memory during business hours, as opposed to its earlier introduction where Key arrives at work, hoping to be the first on the job (mild spoiler: she isn't).

I'll be frank: I've been told I read chaotically. When I pick up new books, I read beginnings, then ends, then middles, and then will go back to where I left off at the beginning and read all the way through. Spoiling the end is a way to ensure I'm not so anxious or nervous about what'll happen that I can't focus on what's presently happening in the text. So the Page 69 Test appeals to the chaos in me!

Visit Mia Tsai's website.

Q&A with Mia Tsai.

Writers Read: Mia Tsai.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Tea with Jam & Dread"

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers and a national bestseller in the U.S. She has written more than forty books: clever cozies to Gothic thrillers to gritty police procedurals, to historical fiction and novellas for adult literacy. She is currently writing four cozy mystery series: the Tea by the Sea mysteries for Kensington, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series for Crooked Lane Books, the Catskill Resort mysteries for Penguin Random House, and the Lighthouse Library series (as Eva Gates) for Crooked Lane.

Delany is a past president of the Crime Writers of Canada and co-founder and organizer of the Women Killing It Crime Writing Festival. Her work has been nominated for the Derringer, the Bony Blithe, the Ontario Library Association Golden Oak, and the Arthur Ellis Awards. She is the recipient of the 2019 Derrick Murdoch Award for contributions to Canadian crime writing. Delany lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Delany applied the Page 69 Test to Tea with Jam & Dread, her newest Tea by the Sea mystery, with the following results:

From page 69:

Annabelle wasn’t prepared to leave without getting in one last shot. “That watercress is limp. Can’t you find anything fresher?”

The watercress looked fine to me.

“Feel free to hit the shops yourself,” Ian said. “But don’t bring the bill to me. I have what I need, all recorded and accounted for.” He turned back to his workbench.

“Carry on, everyone.” Annabelle sailed out of the kitchen, head high, heels pounding a furious rhythm on the floor.

I’d scarcely finished drying the watercress when the kitchen door swung open again. A young woman passing by with a bowl of hardboiled eggs to be shelled and made into egg sandwich mixture, yelped and jumped out of the way.

“Everything okay in here?” Emma asked.

“Out!” Ian yelled. “I’ve had enough. Out out out.”

Emma lifted her hands. She backed slowly away.

“One more person comes in here under the pretext of ‘just checking’, and I quit.”

I noticed two of the kitchen helpers exchange winks. Good chefs had the reputation of being temperamental, the head chef at the Michelin-starred restaurant I’d worked at in Manhattan came instantly to mind, but clearly Ian’s staff didn’t live in fear of him. He had, I thought, the right to be getting seriously annoyed. This party was a big event, and everyone wanted everything to go off smoothly.

Tea with Jam and Dread passes the Page 69 Test easily. The book is a ‘culinary cozy’ and we can see from this short section that food is a large part of the book. The main character in the series, Lily Roberts, owns an afternoon tea restaurant, and the hints of the food being prepared here (watercress sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches) imply that afternoon tea is going to be served. Lily mentions that she once worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

The occasion is a 100th birthday party and although that isn’t stated it’s obvious they are preparing for a big event. Big enough that it requires the services of a chef, more than two kitchen helpers, and ‘me’. Whoever, me is, is not given in this page.

We see the beginnings of conflict. Ian, the chef, wants to get his work done, and everyone else (Annabelle and Emma are mentioned but it’s clear there are others) wants to ‘help’, by which they mean interfere. Conflict is the heart of any sort of literature, and particularly in a mystery novel. We see the characters clashing on page 69. Is this degree of conflict enough to end in a murder? Maybe, maybe not, but the seeds are set.

The Tea by the Sea series, of which Tea with Jam and Dread is the sixth, is set on Cape Cod. But in this book, Lily, her grandmother Rose, and several American friends have come to England for the 100 th birthday party of Elizabeth, the Dowager Countess of Frockmorton. The slightest hint that the book is set in the UK, or at least that the character of Ian is English, is when he refers to ‘the shops’ rather than ‘the store’.

I would prefer that the setting of the book was clearer, not only England but a historic manor house in Yorkshire, but other than that the Page 69 test is a success for Tea with Jam and Dread.

Visit Vicki Delany's website, and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

The Page 69 Test: Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen.

The Page 69 Test: A Scandal in Scarlet.

The Page 69 Test: Murder in a Teacup.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (September 2021).

The Page 69 Test: Deadly Summer Nights.

The Page 69 Test: The Game is a Footnote.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (January 2023).

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (January 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Sign of Four Spirits.

The Page 69 Test: A Slay Ride Together With You.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany (December 2024).

The Page 69 Test: The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime.

Writers Read: Vicki Delany.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Last Seen"

J.T. Ellison is the Nashville-based New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 30 psychological thrillers, and the Emmy® award-winning co-host of A Word on Words on Nashville PBS. She created the Taylor Jackson and Dr. Samantha Owens series, co-wrote the Brit in the FBI series with Catherine Coulter, and has penned multiple standalone hits like A Very Bad Thing, It’s One of Us, and Lie to Me. With millions of books sold across 30 countries, her work has earned the ITW Thriller Award, Indie Next picks, Amazon Editor’s Pick, Book of the Month, among other honors.

Ellison applied the Page 69 Test to Last Seen, her most recent thriller, and shared the following:

I love applying the Page 69 Test to my work. I never know what I might find on this particular page—will it be a quiet moment, or an explosive action scene? Something intrinsic to the story, or a cliffhanger, or something not really relevant because it’s being taken out of context, but obviously exists in the book for a compelling reason. I’ve experienced all of these situations in previous tests. This one, though, might just be my favorite.

As it happens, page 69 of Last Seen is a critical moment in the book. It is a confession. And also an insight into why my character is named Halley. A very important page.

My main character, Halley James, returns home to help her father after an accident and discovers that the story she’s been told her whole life about the car accident that took her mother’s and sister’s lives, and left her with a head injury, is a lie. In truth, her mother was murdered, and her father hid that from her for various reasons, including the fact that the murderer is known and went to jail. And that person is closer to Halley than she’d like.

In this scene, Quentin James is confessing one of the reasons he hid the truth and revealing part of the world that he’s kept hidden from her for the past 28 years. Her sister, who was also supposedly killed in the accident, had a very troubled past.

“She was very jealous and, turns out, at a really difficult age for a bad divorce and remarriage. Her behavior was getting more and more aggressive, so we took her to doctors. They said she was having issues adjusting because of an impulse disorder and put her on a stimulant medication. And it helped. Tremendously. Until it didn’t. They call it borderline personality disorder now, and they’re more careful with the medications. She was diagnosed in 1986, right before the comet.”

Halley’s Comet was the through line of Halley’s young life. It is her first memory, the four of them at the planetarium, her dad shivering in excitement. She was three, and she can remember almost all of that night—the darkened sky, the tail of the comet, her sister holding her hand and saying in awe, “You were named after that. Cool.” Her mother, laughing and kissing her dad as if he was the one to discover it through his telescope in the living room. As if he named it himself.

Three years later, her mother and sister were dead, and her memories become flaky.

“A year before she . . . it happened, things went bad again. It was like a light switch. She wouldn’t take the medicine willingly, said it made her feel weird. She was depressed, then she was manic, then mean, then crying. They tried all kinds of different treatments. She finally admitted she was hearing voices. It was getting worse and worse, and we were afraid for you, and for ourselves. At that point, she was beyond our abilities as parents. We thought you were in danger.”

He blows out a breath, and Halley feels for him. He is struggling for control. She should tell him they can talk later, but she has to know. This is too big to wait any longer.

Too big to wait, indeed. I hope you’ve enjoyed this look into the novel!

Follow J.T. Ellison @thrillerchick and read about the process of writing Last Seen at The Creative Edge Substack.

The Page 69 Test: Edge of Black.

The Page 69 Test: When Shadows Fall.

My Book, The Movie: When Shadows Fall.

My Book, The Movie: What Lies Behind.

The Page 69 Test: What Lies Behind.

The Page 69 Test: No One Knows.

My Book, The Movie: No One Knows.

The Page 69 Test: Lie to Me.

My Book, The Movie: Good Girls Lie.

The Page 69 Test: Good Girls Lie.

Writers Read: J. T. Ellison (January 2020).

Q&A with J.T. Ellison.

The Page 69 Test: A Very Bad Thing.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ashes to Ashes"

Thomas Maltman’s first novel, The Night Birds, won an Alex Award, a Spur Award, and the Friends of American Writers Literary Award. In 2009 the American Library Association chose The Night Birds as an “Outstanding Book for the College Bound.” Little Wolves, his second novel, was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award and won the All Iowa Reads selection in 2014. He teaches at Normandale Community College and lives in the Twin Cities area with his wife, a Lutheran pastor, and his three daughters. His third novel, The Land, was published in October, 2020.

Maltman applied the Page 69 Test to his fourth novel, Ashes to Ashes, and reported the following:

Here’s page sixty-nine in the entirety:

Chapter Nine

At home, beef stroganoff steams in the cast-iron skillet and the rich, creamy aroma fills the farmhouse kitchen. His father’s hands tremble as he carries the hot skillet over to the table. He looks better in this golden hour, his eyes clear instead of bloodshot. Even though he’s shaved and cleaned himself up, a light down of perspiration clings to his upper lip.

“Happy belated,” his father says. “I’m sorry I fell asleep early last night.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Basil says. Beef stroganoff is one of his favorite dinners, but he hesitates before joining them at the table.

“Cows tried to get out again,” Davy says.

“It’s that old heifer with the bent ear,” his dad says as he pulls back a chair. “She’s trouble. But Davy spotted them in time.”

Basil stands there, uncertain how to explain himself.

“What’s wrong?” his dad asks, reading his face.

“I hurt a kid today.” There’s no easy way to say it. “Broke his arm.”

“Ah no,” his father says.

“I meant to hurt him, Dad. And I feel terrible about it.”

His father takes this in as he sits, his gaze steady on Basil. “You quit, didn’t you?”

Basil nods, unable to say any more.

If readers turned to page sixty-nine of my book, would they know what it’s about? Absolutely. Turn to that page and you’ll meet the central protagonist, Basil Thorson, who has just caused a terrible injury to another boy during a wrestling match. You’ll meet his wounded father, whose health Basil fears for. You’ll glimpse how this story takes place in a rural area with many of the characters either farming or living on farms. Does it capture the story entirely? No.

There’s so much more to Ashes to Ashes, which includes magical realism. The people of the town of Andwen are marked with ashes during an Ash Wednesday service that mysteriously won’t wash away. There’s magical realism and a stone bearing strange markings that speaks of a journey by Vikings deep into American territory, a hundred years before Columbus.

The page sixty-nine test doesn’t capture these things, but it does get to the beating heart of the story.

Learn more about the book and author at Thomas Maltman's website.

The Page 69 Test: Little Wolves.

Writers Read: Thomas Maltman (February 2013).

--Marshal Zeringue

"House of Beth"

Kerry Cullen's short fiction has been published in The Indiana Review, Prairie Schooner, One Teen Story, and more. She is a freelance editor focusing on literary and genre fiction, and she lives in New York.

Cullen applied the Page 69 Test to her debut novel, House of Beth, with the following results:

Page 69 reads:

“Um,” I called, too quietly. In the kitchen, the faucet ran. I cursed, gathered my dress high around my waist, and leapt with both feet into the center of the flames.

Embers scattered under my boots, and I crushed them. I felt crazed, cursed, like a dancer from a fairy tale, stomping out tongue after tongue of flame. I was starting to make progress when Preston skidded back in and hurled a bucketful of water at me. Steam hissed and I felt like an idiot, soaking wet and coughing in the wreckage. The carpet was ruined. My boots squelched when I moved.

“Sorry?” Preston asked, and I laughed awkwardly. Annabel barreled into me, threw her arms fiercely around my waist. “You saved our lives.”


Later, I was back home and replaying it all, working to quash the part of my brain that wanted to tell me I had purposely set up the whole situation to convince them of my false heroism. Annabel’s hug was imprinted on my body; I could remember the exact weight of her head pressing against my belly, her ridiculous hair bows digging in under my ribs. My dad’s house was quiet, devoid of cannibal hamsters and house fires. I kept remembering the turmoil with blushing warmth, like it was a celebration or a kiss, a little embarrassing in its intimacy. I wondered if they were all still replaying it too, telling the story over and over together like I was telling it to myself, alone.

This test is so interesting. I wouldn't say that a reader who read only this page would understand the tone or plot of the rest of the book. However, this page is, to me, one of the top three most important pages in the book.

The main character, Cassie, has harm OCD, which means she is constantly terrified that she might secretly be a villain--a serial killer, or otherwise depraved. At this point in the story, has just met her new paramour (and old friend) Eli's kids for the first time, at Christmas. There is an accidental fire, which Cassie puts out amid the hubbub, showing herself that she can be helpful, heroic, even, and save lives rather than ruining them.

Until this point in the book, Cassie has mostly been fleeing connection. In the beginning of the book, she left her job, her girlfriend, and her friends. She’s crashing alone at her dad’s house in her hometown, avoiding running into anyone she knows aside from Eli. She's wary of taking on an important role in anyone's life, fearing that she will hurt anyone she gets close to. This page is the first moment in the book when she lets herself believe that she might be needed by people around her--and that she might need them, too.

Visit Kerry Cullen's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"American Sky"

Carolyn Dasher grew up in a military family, which meant she lived in ten different places before she graduated from high school. It also meant that every 4th of July she got to climb around on tanks and helicopters and watch the Blue Angels buzz overhead in tight formation. When she learned about the WASP—amazing women who stepped up during World War II to serve their country, and, as soon as the war was over, were told to step right back down again and transfer their talent and energy to home and family life—she knew she had to write about them.

Dasher applied the Page 69 Test to American Sky, her first novel, and shared the following:

From page 69:

Yet here she was, stuck on a back road for another half hour while he drove her home.

“Aw, George. Don’t cry, now. I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

If only she could make lightning come out of her eyes instead of tears. She wasn’t sad. She was furious. “Just take me home.” She put her face in her hands and didn’t look up until they reached her house. As soon as he braked, she bolted out of the car, not even bothering to slam the door shut behind her. She raced up the steps and into the house with a roar.

“George!” Adele tossed aside the latest issue of Popular Mechanics and rushed toward her. “Oh, honey, what is it?” George flung herself into her mother’s arms and sobbed.

Adele stroked her hair back from her forehead, the way she had when George was little. George wished she were little again so she could curl up in her mother’s lap.

“What happened? Did he . . .”

George snorted through her tears. Mel was a coward. Too cowardly to go up in her plane. Too cowardly to introduce her to his mother. Too cowardly to do more than kiss her, even though she’d given him every indication that he could.

“No. Nothing like that.” She sniffled and pulled away.

“Then what?”

“He asked me when I planned to stop flying.”

“He what?”

“He asked me when I thought I’d get it out of my system.”

Even though page 69 is mostly dialog, it gives readers a decent sense of the novel’s “aboutness.” Georgeanne (George) is a teenage girl who dreams of becoming an aviator. Unlike her best friend, Vivian, she’s fortunate that her family can afford flying lessons, and she’s just earned her pilot’s license. Leading up to page 69, her boyfriend dismisses her offer to take him up for a flight. (He’s also not as adventurous in the backseat as she’d like.) The boyfriend assumes flying is something George will “get out of her system.” Because flying planes isn’t something nice, normal girls do, especially in middle America in the early 20th century.

American Sky follows three generations of women who refuse to live life on nice, normal girl terms. They repair cars, fly planes, serve in combat zones, and more. The book is also about female friendship and family secrets, but readers will have to look beyond page 69 for that part of the story.

Visit Carolyn Dasher's website.

Q&A with Carolyn Dasher.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Felons' Ball"

Polly Stewart is the author of The Good Ones. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Good Housekeeping, and other publications, and she writes the monthly Backlist column for CrimeReads. She lives in Lexington, VA.

Stewart applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Felons' Ball, and reported the following:

Page 69 of The Felons’ Ball includes an interview between the main character, Natalie Macready and the local sheriff, Hardy Underwood, after the murder of Natalie’s boyfriend, Ben Marsh. The sheriff is asking Natalie, who found Ben’s body, whether she knows what happened to the weapon that killed him, and then they move into a more general conversation about why Ben might have been stabbed rather than shot. A reader opening the book to this page would lack quite a bit in context, but they’d also get a great insight into some of the underlying tensions at work in this novel. Natalie wants to know who killed Ben, but she has a strong suspicion that her father might be responsible for his death, and she wants to keep the sheriff from looking in his direction. In this conversation and throughout the novel, she’s torn between helping law enforcement and actively trying to obstruct them.

I think this push-and-pull within the character and the dialogue illustrates something important about the novel as a whole. In his younger days, Natalie’s father, Trey Macready, made his living as a moonshiner, and though he’s now a legitimate businessman, Natalie wonders if Trey and his brother might have returned to making illegal liquor on the side. The whole family is caught between living within the law and outside it, and that’s what we see in this conversation between Natalie and Hardy. A man in Natalie’s situation might try to pay off the local cops, but Natalie and Hardy end up in a relationship instead. The reader will have to figure out not only who killed Ben, but what Natalie will do when faced with a choice between finding the truth and protecting her family.

Visit Polly Stewart's website and follow her on Instagram.

The Page 69 Test: The Good Ones.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Night Sparrow"

Shelly Sanders is the bestselling author of the adult novel Daughters of the Occupation and the acclaimed young adult historical novels The Rachel Trilogy. She began her writing career as a freelance journalist working for major publications, including the Toronto Star, National Post, Maclean’s, Canadian Living, Reader’s Digest, and Today’s Parent. She lives in Ontario.

Sanders applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Night Sparrow, with the following results:

On page 69 of The Night Sparrow, Elena Bruskina is being prodded by her superior, Major Bystrov, to finish translating the Berliner Frontblatt. She’d started the night before but had promptly fallen asleep. The Major tells her to get it to him before they leave.

I need more time, she wanted to shout. I need more sleep. I need to pee. She wobbled into the bathroom and shut the door. She looked in the mirror and saw newsprint on the right side of her face. She started to laugh at herself and didn’t stop until she saw black ink smeared on her cheeks and realized she was crying.


“Reprehensible, says Bystrov.

He was poring over Elena’s hastily scribbled translation of the front page of the newspaper, a statement from Hitler. They were in the jeep driving through a chalky mist.

The statement said anyone who “approves of orders that weaken our resolve” would be considered a traitor, ordering them to be “shot or hanged.”

“Unbelievable,” she agreed. Much like Stalin’s order to die rather than retreat, she thought.

Elena was confused and disappointed by Bystrov’s unquestioning obedience. How did he not see that Stalin and Hitler were cut from the same cloth? She’d only been a child when Stalin had killed thousands of his own people—generals, those who spoke out against the Party, bourgeoisie—but she remembered, with an astonishing clarity, how this had embittered her father. He’d yelled at the newspaper and the radio. He’d become paranoid, looking over his shoulder whenever he was out of their flat…

If browsers opened to Page 69, they would wonder why Elena is translating a German newspaper instead of sniping on the front line. Although The Night Sparrow is told entirely from Elena Bruskina’s point of view, the chapters shift from her progression to becoming a sniper to her secretive role as an interpreter within SMERSH (death to spies), a Soviet counterintelligence agency responsible for exterminating spies. This alternation means that no matter what page browsers opened to, they would be limited to just one of the several positions Elena fills throughout the war. On page 69, browsers miss part of the historical significance of the novel, the story of the first female snipers in history. However, they do get a glimpse of Elena’s divisive thoughts about Stalin and Hitler.

Page 69 is interesting in its own right as it reveals an underlying theme of the novel, Elena’s dangerous belief that “…Stalin and Hitler were cut from the same cloth.” On this page, browsers can infer that her opinion was shaped by her father who was “embittered” by Stalin’s purges. And browsers could surmise that she is frustrated by people like Major Bystrov who can’t or won’t see the frightening similarities between Hitler and Stalin.

Visit Shelly Sanders's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Myth Maker"

Alie Dumas-Heidt lives in the Puget Sound with her husband, adult kids, and two Goldendoodles – Astrid and Torvi. Growing up she wanted to be a detective and a writer and spent a few years working as a police dispatcher. Now, working is writing in her home office with the dogs at her feet. When she’s not writing she enjoys being in the forest, creating glass art, yarn crafts, and watching baseball.

Dumas-Heidt applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Myth Maker, and shared the following:

Page 69 of The Myth Maker starts: “Every major news studio had caught wind of the latest suspicious death.” and goes on to recap the difficulty the lead detectives had gaining access to a scene that is already overcrowded once they arrive. The rest of the page is Detective Cassidy Cantwell and her partner Bryan Ramirez walking into a home that is now a murder scene, being greeted by the officers who were first on scene and making a quick assessment of differences between this scene and an earlier scene. Amazingly, the page offers no spoilers!

If someone was browsing through a bookshop or a library and flipped to page 69 of The Myth Maker I believe they’d have a pretty good idea of what type of story they were reading. They would meet the main character, Detective Cassidy Cantwell, and her partner, Bryan. I think they would get a feel for the setting and time period – modern day, city – and the pace of the characters because there is a bit of dialogue. There is mention of a chandelier our narrator thinks would fit better at Buckingham Palace, which I realize could make someone question what city we’re in. They would be at the start of a new murder scene, where there are no answers, only questions, and I think readers would want to know what was going on.

It’s an interesting test to jump into a random page and see if you could be pulled into a story. Looking over page 69 of The Myth Maker, I realized there’s plenty to give away what genre a reader picked up, but it gives little of the actual story away. You wouldn't know that our main character is new in her career as a detective. You wouldn't know about her connection to an early suspect, or that she's trying to balance her own failing two-year romance, and her family with her new career. A previous victim is mentioned without detail, and while the officers are at the general location of a murder, there’s no details revealed before the end of the page. It’s not even clear on that page who our main character is. If they hadn’t at least peeked at the jacket blurb, a reader wouldn’t even know our main character’s name! While Cassidy speaks and is spoken to on page 69, her name is not used at all, and that was not something I'd ever thought about before doing this test.

Visit Alie Dumas-Heidt's website.

Q&A with Alie Dumas-Heidt.

Writers Read: Alie Dumas-Heidt.

My Book, The Movie: The Myth Maker.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Daikon"

Samuel Hawley is a Canadian writer with BA and MA degrees in history from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He was born and grew up in South Korea and taught English there and in Japan for many years. His books include The Imjin War, the definitive account in English of Japan’s 16th-century invasion of Korea and attempted conquest of China; Speed Duel, about the 1960s rivalry between Craig Breedlove and Art Arfons for the world land speed record; Ultimate Speed, the authorized biography of land speed racing legend Craig Breedlove; and The Fight That Started the Movies: The World Heavyweight Championship, the Birth of Cinema and the First Feature Film.

Hawley applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Daikon, and reported the following:

On page 69 of Daikon, we are meeting the fourth and final main character in the story, Noriko Kan. She is the wife of Dr. Keizo Kan, the scientist tasked with investigating the atomic bomb the Japanese have recovered from the wreckage of a crashed B-29. Noriko is a Japanese-American who Keizo met and married during his studies at UC Berkeley in the States. And she is now in prison. She has run afoul of the Tokko, the Japanese version of the Gestapo. Locked in her solitary prison cell, the propaganda broadcasts she used to make at Radio Tokyo run through her mind.

I think—I hope—the Page 69 Test works in the sense Marshall McLuhan intended, namely that a reader would find page 69 intriguing and compelling enough to want to read the whole novel. But in terms of giving a good idea of the whole book, what it’s about—maybe not. Noriko’s storyline in the novel is quite different from the rest.

That being said, she plays a key role in the dangerous game of cat-and-mouse between Colonel Sagara, the officer who wants to use the atomic bomb against the United States to stave off defeat, and Keizo Kan, ordered by Sagara to turn the recovered bomb into a workable weapon. Keizo doesn’t want to take on the job, but he does so, and risks his own life, in order to get his wife freed. This sets Noriko on a journey of redemption and survival, a starving wraith using her last reserves of strength to keep going on the long walk back to Tokyo to find her husband and try to rebuild their lives.

Visit Samuel Hawley's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Haggard House"

Elisabeth Rhoads is the author of Haggard House and numerous short stories. She has a B.A. in Theatre Arts and is the current Vice-President on the board of the California Writers Club, Orange County branch. Since 2021, she has been volunteer judging the Scholastic Writing Awards.

Rhoads applied the Page 69 Test to Haggard House with the following results:

From page 69:

Chapter 15

The Narrative of Adam Bolton

“Come in,” Mrs. Haworth said, taking my arm and leading me into the warm house. The dim light in the hall momentarily blinded me.

“My horse,” said I.

As if invited, the bay’s muzzle came sniffing and snorting over my shoulder. Mrs. Haworth leapt back and then laughed. She took hold of the bridle and motioned me inside.

“I’ll stable your horse,” she said, moving to put on her boots.

“I can stable her,” said I, stubbornly holding my place. “You oughtn’t go out.”

“Very well,” she said, eyeing me curiously. “Follow the house that way.” She pointed toward the back. “You’ll find a rope that leads to the barn.”

I found and followed it. Once inside, I took a deep breath of air. It smelled familiarly of sweet hay blended with manure. The Shorthorn, being unexpectedly disturbed, lowed loudly, and the Haworth’s Morgan, several hands shorter than the bay, shoved her head over the stall door to see who had interrupted her dinner. It was a small barn, easily a quarter of the size of mine, but it was large enough to store the Haworth’s buggy and sleigh.

Since page 69 starts a new chapter, it’s on the shorter side, but the nice thing is that a new chapter is always a fresh start. I think a reader opening to this page would find it a good representation of certain aspects of the novel.

First off, you immediately get the sense that this chapter is building on action that takes place previously, which is something I really made an effort to do—continuously move the plot forward.

You also get a taste of the dialogue, which, as a reader, is one of my favorite elements of a book.

This section also reveals a bit about the protagonist Adam’s character with the description after his dialogue “stubbornly holding my place.” If that doesn’t show he’s a bit stubborn, I don’t know what would!

Interestingly enough, I think that one thing that isn’t showcased on this page is the sense of foreboding throughout the novel. Because the reader is introduced to an in-progress action/adventure scene, you don’t really get the sense that this is a dark work of fiction.

So, while I would say that page 69 is an accurate representation of writing style and pace, it’s probably not the best representation of the darker/suspenseful tone of the novel as a whole.

Visit Elisabeth Rhoads's website.

--Marshal Zeringue