Six top Regency-era historical mysteries with headstrong heroines

Celeste Connally is an Agatha Award nominee and a former freelance writer and editor whose novels include historical mysteries set in Regency-era England and genealogy-themed cozy mysteries set in modern-day Austin, Texas. Whether the mystery is set in past or present, she delights in giving her books a good dose of romance and a few research facts she hopes you’ll find as interesting as she does. Passionate about history and slightly obsessed with period dramas, what Connally loves most is reading and writing about women who don’t always do as they are told.

[The Page 69 Test: Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord]

Connally's new novel is All's Fair in Love and Treachery.

At The Nerd Daily the author tagged six Regency-era historical mysteries with obstinate, headstrong heroines. One title on the list:

The Body in the Garden, by Katharine Schellman – (book one in the Lily Adler Mysteries)

Widower Lily Adler has just returned to London after her mourning period, relishing in her independence. But while attending her friend Lady Walter’s ball, she overhears a man attempting blackmail just before he ends up dead. With the assistance of a handsome navy captain, Lily must navigate the often-vicious social season in order to uncover the truth.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Jennifer K. Morita

From my Q&A with Jennifer K. Morita, author of Ghosts of Waikiki: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Two lessons I learned early on in my publication journey:

You can judge a book by its cover, and

A rose by any other name, does not smell as sweet.

In other words, the title and cover of your book matter a lot, particularly for debut authors such as myself, who have to hook new readers with two or three words that convey the book’s plot, theme, and vibe.

And I thought Tweets were bad.

Ghosts of Waikīkī is a tongue-and-cheek reference to Maya Wong, an out-of-work newspaper reporter who reluctantly returns home to Hawaiʻi to take a ghostwriting gig for a rich, controversial developer whose family paved over much of O‘ahu. Although she was born and raised on the islands (not Native Hawaiian), Maya has been away for a long time. When a man dies under suspicious circumstances her first day on the job, she searches for the truth about...[read on]

Visit Jennifer K. Morita's website.

Q&A with Jennifer K. Morita.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles that feature powerful, dangerous gardens

Chelsea Iversen has been reading and writing stories since before she knew what verbs were. She loves tea and trees and travel and reads her runes at every full moon. Iversen lives in Colorado with her husband, son, and Pepper the dog.

Her new novel is The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt.

At CrimeReads Iversen tagged five "titles that feature powerful, dangerous gardens" for those who "love a little poisonous or unpredictable flora." One title on the list:

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

In this gothic thriller, a nanny struggles to forge a bond with the children in her care, all while inside a highly surveilled estate. The estate is home to a poison garden that, though it’s locked, the children know how to access anyway. The poison garden isn’t the central tenet of this story, but it certainly plays a role in the plot and adds to the creeping sense of foreboding that makes this book rich with suspense.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Turn of the Key is among Lisa Zhuang's ten spookiest haunted house novels and Jason Rekulak's six creepy novels involving childcare.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Volha Charnysh's "Uprooted"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Uprooted: How post-WWII Population Transfers Remade Europe by Volha Charnysh.

About the book, from the publisher:

Each year, millions of people are uprooted from their homes by wars, repression, natural disasters, and climate change. In Uprooted, Volha Charnysh presents a fresh perspective on the developmental consequences of mass displacement, arguing that accommodating the displaced population can strengthen receiving states and benefit local economies. Drawing on extensive research on post-WWII Poland and West Germany, Charnysh shows that the rupture of social ties and increased cultural diversity in affected communities not only decreased social cohesion, but also shored up the demand for state-provided resources, which facilitated the accumulation of state capacity. Over time, areas that received a larger and more diverse influx of migrants achieved higher levels of entrepreneurship, education, and income. With its rich insights and compelling evidence, Uprooted challenges common assumptions about the costs of forced displacement and cultural diversity and proposes a novel mechanism linking wars to state-building.

Visit Volha Charnysh's website.

The Page 99 Test: Uprooted.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Jen Marie Wiggins

From my Q&A with Jen Marie Wiggins, author of The Good Bride: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The Good Bride plays into the story on several levels. Ruth has been talked into this large wedding as a means of promoting her beloved coastal summer town which was decimated by a hurricane. She is also a people pleaser and concerned with doing the right thing in the impossible situations she’s placed in by her family.

What’s in a name?

I gave my main character the name of Ruth because it means loyal which is a trait that defines her on many levels. At the beginning of The Good Bride, she struggles with...[read on]

Visit Jen Marie Wiggins's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Good Bride.

Q&A with Jen Marie Wiggins.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine books that undercut Florida stereotypes

John Brandon has been awarded the Grisham Fellowship at Ole Miss, the Tickner Fellowship at Gilman School in Baltimore, and has received a Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellowship. He was a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Award. His short fiction has appeared in ESPN The Magazine, Oxford American, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Mississippi Review, Subtropics, Chattahoochee Review, Hotel Amerika, and many other publications, and he has written about college football for GQ online and Grantland. He was born in Florida and now resides in Minnesota, where he teaches at Hamline University in St. Paul.

Brandon's new book is Penalties of June.

At Electric Lit he tagged nine books that give "a dizzying tour of divergent Florida experiences and styles whose kinship, if they share any, is tied up in heat and crime and displacement and unpredictability." One title on the list:

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Based on the true horror story of the Dozier School for Boys in the Florida panhandle, this is simply one of the best books I’ve read. An instant classic. It succeeds on every level a novel might—complex, compelling characters; vivid, charged setting; heart-wrenching plot; narrative inventiveness—and at the same time illuminates real historical events. For my money, it easily outshines Whitehead’s other Pulitzer-winning novel, The Underground Railroad. Elwood Curtis, the protagonist of The Nickel Boys, is one of the best drawn and most genuinely sympathetic main characters you’ll come across—the devastation you’ll feel at his (and all the boys at Nickel Academy) treatment is only magnified by the fact that the real place only closed down in 2011.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Nickel Boys is among Rebecca Bernard’s seven top complex portraits of criminality in literature and Zak Salih's eight books about childhood friendships throughout the years.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Kate MacIntosh's "The Champagne Letters"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: The Champagne Letters: A Novel by Kate MacIntosh.

About the book, from the publisher:

Perfect for fans of bubbly wine and Kristin Harmel, this historical fiction novel follows Mme. Clicquot as she builds her legacy, and the modern divorcée who looks to her letters for inspiration.

Reims, France, 1805: Barbe-Nicole Clicquot has just lost her beloved husband but is determined to pursue their dream of creating the premier champagne house in France, now named for her new identity as a widow: Veuve Clicquot. With the Russians poised to invade, competitors fighting for her customers, and the Napoleonic court politics complicating matters she must set herself apart quickly and permanently if she, and her business, are to survive.

In present day Chicago, broken from her divorce, Natalie Taylor runs away to Paris. In a book stall by the Seine, Natalie finds a collection of the Widow Clicquot’s published letters and uses them as inspiration to step out of her comfort zone and create a new, empowered life for herself. But when her Parisian escape takes a shocking and unexpected turn, she’s forced to make a choice. Should she accept her losses and return home, or fight for the future she’s only dreamed about? What would the widow do?

Visit Kate MacIntosh's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Champagne Letters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: James M. Brophy's "Print Markets and Political Dissent"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Print Markets and Political Dissent in Central Europe: Publishers in Central Europe, 1800-1870 by James M. Brophy.

About the book, from the publisher:

Moving book history in a new direction, this study examines publishers as brokers of Central Europe's political public sphere. They created international print markets, translated new texts, launched new journals, supported outspoken authors, and experimented with popular formats. Most of all, they contested censorship with finesse and resolve, thereby undermining the aim of Prussia and Austria to criminalize democratic thought. By packaging dissent through popular media, publishers cultivated broad readerships, promoted political literacy, and refashioned citizenship ideals. As political actors, intellectual midwives, and cultural mediators, publishers speak to a broad range of scholarly interests. Their outsize personalities, their entrepreneurial zeal, and their publishing achievements portray how print markets shaped the political world.

The narrow perimeters of political communication in the late-absolutist states of Prussia and Austria curtailed the open market of ideas. The publishing industry contested this information order, working both within and outside legal parameters to create a modern public sphere. Their expansion of print markets, their cat-and-mouse game with censors, and their ingenuity in packaging political commentary sheds light on the production and reception of dissent. Against the backdrop of censorship and police surveillance, the successes and failures of these citizens of print tell us much about nineteenth-century civil society and Central Europe's tortuous pathway to political modernization.

Cutting across a range of disciplines, this study will engage social and political historians as well as scholars of publishing, literary criticism, cultural studies, translation, and the public sphere. The history of Central Europe's print markets between Napoleon and the era of unification doubles as a political tale. It sheds important new light on political communication and how publishers exposed German-language readers to the Age of Democratic Revolution.

Learn more about Print Markets and Political Dissent in Central Europe at the Oxford University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Print Markets and Political Dissent in Central Europe.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top Appalachian books

At People magazine senior books editor Lizz Schumer tagged ten great Appalachian books, including:

The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia by Emma Copley Eisenberg

One June 1980 night in Pocahontas County, W.V., two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered while hitchhiking to a festival called the Rainbow Gathering. For over a decade following, no one was prosecuted for the crime — although the suspicion that was cast on local residents wormed its way into the community.

This captivating, complicated narrative looks at how the case turned neighbors against each other in an investigation whose long fingers reach generations.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Third Rainbow Girl is among Kendra Winchester's fifteen top books about Appalachia and James Polchin's seven top queer true crime books.

The Page 99 Test: The Third Rainbow Girl.

--Marshal Zeringue

Catriona McPherson's "Scotzilla," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Scotzilla by Catriona McPherson.

The entry begins:

This was supposed to be a trilogy, about Scot-out-of-water Lexy Campbell and the happy band of weirdoes and misfits that become her new friends when she’s forced to move into the Last Ditch Motel, in fictional Cuento, California.

But Scotzilla – Lexy’s wedding – is book seven, so already you can see why I think maybe if the Coen brothers felt like revisiting the cheerful chaos of Raisin’ Arizona they’d make a great film of my book. (They could start with the first one, Scot Free, and I think it would be called Nothing Goes Boom. The later books’ plots would be in the HBO spin-off series.)

This is fun!

Okay, Lexy is Scottish and I want to be able to watch my own adapted book so the woman who plays her needs to be Scottish too (and not a plucky New Yorker with a good line in “Celtic vibe”). Fern Brady is not actually an actor – she’s a comedian – but hey, it’s a comedy and she’d be perfect. She is quick, witty and deadpan but never cruel. That’s my comedy home: more Schitt’s Creek than The Office (UK – I’ve never seen the US one. It might be as kind as Ted Lasso for all I know.)

Lexy’s newest BFF, Todd (Téodor) Kroger né Mendez, could be played by...[read on]

Visit Catriona McPherson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Go to My Grave.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2018).

My Book, The Movie: The Turning Tide.

The Page 69 Test: The Turning Tide.

My Book, The Movie: A Gingerbread House.

The Page 69 Test: Hop Scot.

The Page 69 Test: Deep Beneath Us.

Q&A with Catriona McPherson.

The Page 69 Test: The Witching Hour.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (September 2024).

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson.

The Page 69 Test: Scotzilla.

My Book, The Movie: Scotzilla.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Katryn Bury

From my Q&A with Katryn Bury, author of We Are Not Alone:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

This is such an interesting question, because what changed between my proposed title (Alone in the Universe) and the published title (We Are Not Alone) was as simple as the stakes. My original title told the reader a lot about how my main character, Sam Kepler Greyson, feels when the story starts. My editor thought—and now I agree—that we should tweak the title to indicate a spark of hope between how Sam feels at the beginning and the end. We’re introduced to Sam just after his best friend, Oscar, has died from cancer—but also after he goes into remission. Because he thinks that no other kid can possibly understand how he feels, he does feel very alone in the universe. But, upon finding Cat, he realizes that there may be others like him, who come to this feeling for their own reasons—and are also looking for...[read on]

Visit Katryn Bury's website.

Q&A with Katryn Bury.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five novels that use hurricanes to heighten the drama

Bonnie Kistler is the author of The Cage and Her, Too. A former Philadelphia trial lawyer, she was born in Pennsylvania and educated at Bryn Mawr College and the University of the Pennsylvania Law School. She and her husband now live in southwest Florida and the mountains of western North Carolina.

Kistler's new novel is Shell Games.

[Q&A with Bonnie Kistler; The Page 69 Test: The Cage; The Page 69 Test: Her, Too; Writers Read: Bonnie Kistler (July 2023); My Book, The Movie: Shell Games]

At The Nerd Daily Kistler tagged five novels, both classic and contemporary, that have deployed hurricanes to heighten the drama. One title on the list:

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Similar themes can be found in Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward, which depicts a Black family in Mississippi bracing themselves for Hurricane Katrina and later struggling through its aftermath. The novel shows the both the destructive force of the storm and the trauma suffered by its victims. It also shows the role climate change plays in causing such devastation.

Read about another novel on the list.

Salvage the Bones is among Kai Harris's six top portrayals of Black girlhood in fiction, Christine Hume's ten top feminist retellings of mythology, Michelle Sacks's five books with complex and credible child narrators, Amy Brady's seven books that provocatively tackle climate change, Jodi Picoult's six recommended books, Peggy Frew's ten top books about "bad" mothers, and Jenny Shanks's five least supervised children in literature. 

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Eva Payne's "Empire of Purity"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Empire of Purity: The History of Americans' Global War on Prostitution by Eva Payne.

About the book, from the publisher:

How the US crusade against prostitution became a tool of empire

Between the 1870s and 1930s, American social reformers, working closely with the US government, transformed sexual vice into an international political and humanitarian concern. As these activists worked to eradicate prostitution and trafficking, they promoted sexual self-control for both men and women as a cornerstone of civilization and a basis of American exceptionalism. Empire of Purity traces the history of these efforts, showing how the policing and penalization of sexuality was used to justify American interventions around the world.

Eva Payne describes how American reformers successfully pushed for international anti-trafficking agreements that mirrored US laws, calling for states to criminalize prostitution and restrict migration, and harming the very women they claimed to protect. She argues that Americans’ ambitions to reshape global sexual morality and law advanced an ideology of racial hierarchy that viewed women of color, immigrants, and sexual minorities as dangerous vectors of disease. Payne tells the stories of the sex workers themselves, revealing how these women’s experiences defy the dichotomies that have shaped American cultural and legal conceptions of prostitution and trafficking, such as choice and coercion, free and unfree labor, and white sexual innocence and the assumed depravity of nonwhites.

Drawing on archives in Europe, the United States, and Latin America, Empire of Purity ties the war on sexual vice to American imperial ambitions and a politicization of sexuality that continues to govern both domestic and international policy today.

Visit Eva Payne's website.

The Page 99 Test: Empire of Purity.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Katie Tallo's "Buried Road"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Buried Road: A Novel by Katie Tallo.

About the book, from the publisher:

When the love of her life disappeared on a camping trip, Gus Monet was devastated. Her daughter was only nine at the time, but young Bly still remembers the heartbreak vividly. Howard had been like a father to her. He was a journalist working on a story that took a dark and dangerous turn. The last time they saw him, he was going to meet a source he believed could blow the story wide open.

Three years later, shocked to see Howard’s obituary in the paper, Gus and Bly are drawn back to Prince Edward County where he was last seen and where the camper Howard was driving has been found. Sneaking into the camper, mother and daughter find what investigators missed. Hidden behind a secret panel are Howard’s notebook, cell phone, and a video message recorded right before he vanished, evidence that turns the cold case red hot. Searching for answers, Gus and Bly vow to follow the story Howard was pursuing and to expose whoever went to deadly lengths to stop him from revealing the truth.

Told in the compelling, thoughtful voice of young Bly, this edge-of-your-seat thriller ratchets up the tension, culminating in a heart-pounding, soul crushing, shocking finale. Infused with vivid summer imagery, set among eerie abandoned places, and steeped with sinister small-town secrets, Buried Road is the story of a young girl and a mother whose reckless resolve leads them ever closer to lethal danger—but ultimately might be what ensures their survival.

Visit Katie Tallo's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dark August.

Q&A with Katie Tallo.

Writers Read: Katie Tallo (June 2022).

The Page 69 Test: Buried Road.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten popular literary antiheroes

Adam Hamdy is a bestselling British author and screenwriter who works with studios and production companies on both sides of the Atlantic. He’s currently adapting his novel Black 13 for Ringside Studios, and is developing his original screenplay, The Fear in Their Eyes with December Films.

Hamdy's new novel is Deadbeat.

At CrimeReads the author tagged ten of the most popular literary antiheroes. One entry on the list:

Tyler Durden – Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Tyler Durden is charismatic, anarchistic, and ruthlessly destructive. His philosophy of dismantling consumerist culture appeals to a visceral yearning for freedom, one that has arguably all but been destroyed by the victory of capitalist consumerism over all competing ideologies, but his methods—cult-like manipulation and terrorism—are repugnant. It is natural to recoil from his violence, but his philosophy provokes admiration and is still lionised by certain online communities. The final judgment on Tyler as a protagonist is perhaps best delivered within the book itself as a twist that both shocks the reader and leaves them with a sense of loss.

Read about another entry on the list.

Fight Club is among Benjamin Buchholz's five top novels with devilishly unreliable narrators, Camilla Bruce's ten best books about imaginary friends, Catherine Steadman's six favorite books that feature unreliable narrators, Sarah Pinborough's top ten unreliable narrators, Richard Kadrey's top five books about awful, awful people, Chris Moss's top 19 books on how to be a man, E. Lockhart's seven favorite suspense novels, Joel Cunningham's top five books short enough to polish off in an afternoon, but deep enough to keep you thinking long into the night, Kathryn Williams's eight craziest unreliable narrators in fiction, Jessica Soffer's ten best book endings, Sebastian Beaumont's top ten books about psychological journeys, and Pauline Melville's top ten revolutionary tales.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Nicholas R. Jones's "Cervantine Blackness"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Cervantine Blackness by Nicholas R. Jones.

About the book, from the publisher:

There is no shortage of Black characters in Miguel de Cervantes’s works, yet there has been a profound silence about the Spanish author’s compelling literary construction and cultural codification of Black Africans and sub-Saharan Africa. In Cervantine Blackness, Nicholas R. Jones reconsiders in what sense Black subjects possess an inherent value within Cervantes’s cultural purview and literary corpus.

In this unflinching critique, Jones charts important new methodological and theoretical terrain, problematizing the ways emphasis on agency has stifled and truncated the study of Black Africans and their descendants in early modern Spanish cultural and literary production. Through the lens of what he calls “Cervantine Blackness,” Jones challenges the reader to think about the blind faith that has been lent to the idea of agency―and its analogues “presence” and “resistance”―as a primary motivation for examining the lives of Black people during this period. Offering a well-crafted and sharp critique, through a systematic deconstruction of deeply rooted prejudices, Jones establishes a solid foundation for the development of a new genre of literary and cultural criticism.

A searing work of literary criticism and political debate, Cervantine Blackness speaks to specialists and nonspecialists alike―anyone with a serious interest in Cervantes’s work who takes seriously a critical reckoning with the cultural, historical, and literary legacies of agency, antiblackness, and refusal within the Iberian Peninsula and the global reaches of its empire.

Learn more about Cervantine Blackness at the Penn State University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Cervantine Blackness.

--Marshal Zeringue

What is Tracy Clark reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Tracy Clark, author of Echo (Detective Harriet Foster).

The entry begins:

I’m always reading something. I read when I should be writing my own stuff (don’t tell my editor). My latest deadline looms. I am reading Barbara Nickless’ The Drowning Game. It’s wonderful.

I won’t give it away because in this one, discovery is the fun part. Fundamentally, it’s about two sisters, Nadia and Cass Brenner. When Cass falls from the 40th floor of a Singapore hotel, ruled suicide, Nadia isn’t having it, and...[read on]

About Echo, from the publisher:

From the award-winning author of Hide and Fall comes the third book in the Detective Harriet Foster thriller series, a taut tale of renegade justice with a heart-stopping finale.

Hardwicke House, home to Belverton College’s exclusive Minotaur Society, is no stranger to tragedy. And when a body turns up in the field next to the mansion, the scene looks chillingly familiar.

Chicago PD sends hard-nosed Detective Harriet “Harri” Foster to investigate. The victim is Brice Collier, a wealthy Belverton student, whose billionaire father, Sebastian, owns Hardwicke and ranks as a major school benefactor. Sebastian also has ties to the mansion’s notorious past, when thirty years ago, hazing led to a student’s death in the very same field.

Could the deaths be connected? With no suspects or leads, Harri and her partner, Detective Vera Li, will have to dig deep to find answers. No charges were ever filed in the first case, and this time, Harri’s determined the killer must pay. But still grieving her former partner’s death, Harri must also contend with a shadowy figure called the voice―and their dangerous game of cat and mouse could threaten everything.

Visit Tracy Clark's website.

Q&A with Tracy Clark.

My Book, The Movie: What You Don’t See.

Writers Read: Tracy Clark (July 2021).

The Page 69 Test: Runner.

The Page 69 Test: Hide.

The Page 69 Test: Fall.

Writers Read: Tracy Clark (December 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Echo.

Writers Read: Tracy Clark.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Robin Morris

From my Q&A with Robin Morris, author of The Days Between: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The title is dropped at the end of chapter five when the main character, Andrew, decides to find out what happened in the days between the last time he saw his one who got away, Kathryn, and their chance encounter in chapter one.

If Andrew handn't gotten curious about those days between, he would not have unraveled his "perfect" life.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

Considering I had the...[read on]

Visit Robin Morris's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Days Between.

Q&A with Robin Morris.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Guardian" — the best crime and thrillers of 2024

One title on the Guardian's list of the best crime and thrillers of 2024:

IS Berry is a former CIA agent, and her remarkably assured first novel, The Peacock and the Sparrow, has a palpable authenticity. Set in Bahrain during the first Arab spring, where ageing, cynical CIA spy Shane Collins’s private life is as complicated as his work, this captivatingly twisty tale has shades of both John le Carré and Graham Greene.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Peacock and the Sparrow is among David McCloskey's top five spy novels.

Q&A with I.S. Berry.

The Page 69 Test: The Peacock and the Sparrow.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Amogh Sharma's "The Backstage of Democracy"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: The Backstage of Democracy: India's Election Campaigns and the People Who Manage Them by Amogh Sharma.

About the book, from the publisher:

Over the last decade, election campaigns in India have undergone a dramatic shift. Political parties increasingly rely on political consulting firms, social media volunteers, pollsters, data-driven insights, and hashtag wars to mobilize voters. What is driving these changes in the landscape of electioneering? The Backstage of Democracy takes readers to the hidden arena of strategizing and deliberations that takes place between politicians and a new cabal of political professionals as they organize election campaigns in India. The book argues that this change is not reducible to a story of technological innovations alone. Rather, it is indicative of a new political culture where ideas of political expertise, the distribution of power within parties, and citizens' attitudes towards political participation have undergone a profound change. Marshalling an eclectic range of data sources, the book breaks new ground on how we understand the workings of India's electoral and party politics.

Learn more about The Backstage of Democracy at the Cambridge University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: The Backstage of Democracy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Tracy Clark's "Echo"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Echo (Detective Harriet Foster) by Tracy Clark.

About the book, from the publisher:

From the award-winning author of Hide and Fall comes the third book in the Detective Harriet Foster thriller series, a taut tale of renegade justice with a heart-stopping finale.

Hardwicke House, home to Belverton College’s exclusive Minotaur Society, is no stranger to tragedy. And when a body turns up in the field next to the mansion, the scene looks chillingly familiar.

Chicago PD sends hard-nosed Detective Harriet “Harri” Foster to investigate. The victim is Brice Collier, a wealthy Belverton student, whose billionaire father, Sebastian, owns Hardwicke and ranks as a major school benefactor. Sebastian also has ties to the mansion’s notorious past, when thirty years ago, hazing led to a student’s death in the very same field.

Could the deaths be connected? With no suspects or leads, Harri and her partner, Detective Vera Li, will have to dig deep to find answers. No charges were ever filed in the first case, and this time, Harri’s determined the killer must pay. But still grieving her former partner’s death, Harri must also contend with a shadowy figure called the voice―and their dangerous game of cat and mouse could threaten everything.

Visit Tracy Clark's website.

Q&A with Tracy Clark.

My Book, The Movie: What You Don’t See.

Writers Read: Tracy Clark (July 2021).

The Page 69 Test: Runner.

The Page 69 Test: Hide.

The Page 69 Test: Fall.

Writers Read: Tracy Clark (December 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Echo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Top ten post-divorce romance books

Nora Dahlia is a style writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Elle, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, among others. She is also a branded content expert, book doctor, ghostwriter, collaborator, and writing coach.

She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, two kids, and enormous cat, Waldo.

Pick-Up is her first romance novel.

At People magazine Dahlia tagged ten top post-divorce romance books. One title on the list:

Divorce Towers by Ellen Meister

Single and jobless, Addison Torres jumps at the chance to escape New York for a concierge job in sunny California. But, like a modern-day Melrose Place, Beekman Towers (a.k.a. “Divorce Towers”) is a Beverly Hills high-rise packed to the brim with drama and singles. In no time, Addison’s new vow of celibacy (and to swear off love) falls to the wayside, changing her life as she knows it.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Page 69 Test: Divorce Towers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Merten Reglitz's "Free Internet Access as a Human Right"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Free Internet Access as a Human Right by Merten Reglitz.

About the book, from the publisher:

Merten Reglitz proposes a new human right that ensures Internet access for those who cannot afford it and protects that right from arbitrary interferences by those that would exploit it for harm. The first part of the book justifies the claim for this new right by showing how Internet access is vital for the enjoyment of human rights around the globe. In the second part, Reglitz specifies the content of this right, assessing today's standard threats to Internet access. He recommends a minimum international standard of connectivity and explains how states have misused the Internet. He documents how private companies already manipulate both internet access and content to maximise profit, and how lack of rights enforcement allows people to harm others online. The book establishes that a new human right to free internet access is essential to secure its role for the benefit and progress, not detriment, of humanity.

Learn more about Free Internet Access as a Human Right at the Cambridge University Press website.

The Page 99 Test: Free Internet Access as a Human Right.

--Marshal Zeringue

Yvonne Battle-Felton's "Curdle Creek," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Curdle Creek: A Novel by Yvonne Battle-Felton.

About the book, from the publisher:

Curdle Creek, the film, would be set in a rural town with grand houses on one side and smaller houses on the other. One of the houses would be a big pink and white Victorian house similar to the one I grew up in. The rest would look bespoke with handcrafted embellishments, a lion or two on a stoop. The town would be clean swept and nearly festive. It would look like a self-sustaining town with local shops all along Main Street, a bustling Town Hall, a farm or two, one stop light, and an abundance of bells. On the surface, Curdle Creek could be any rural town.

Osirus would be played by Denzel Washington and have more lines in the movie than he does in the book. Angela Bassett would play Constance or Mother Opal. Both are powerful characters and because she is Angela Bassett...[read on]

Visit Yvonne Battle-Felton's website.

The Page 69 Test: Curdle Creek.

My Book, The Movie: Curdle Creek.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books that feature surfing

Sara Ackerman is the Hawai'i born, bestselling author of historical & romance novels set in the islands.

Her books have been labeled “unforgettable” by Apple Books, “empowering & deliciously visceral” by Book Riot, and New York Times bestselling authors Kate Quinn and Madeline Martin have praised Ackerman’s novels as “fresh and delightful” and “brilliantly written.” Amazon chose Radar Girls as a best book of the month, and ALA Booklist gave The Codebreaker’s Secret a starred review.

Ackerman's new novel is The Maui Effect.

At The Nerd Daily she tagged "seven books that feature surfing, four fiction and three non-fiction." One title on the list:

California Golden by Melanie Benjamin

Combine vibrant 60s surf culture with sisterhood and family dynamics to weave a rich and heartbreaking tale. Definitely more character driven, it’s a poignant story of women breaking the mold and navigating life one surfboard at a time. Love the California vibes.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Richard Munson's "Ingenious"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Ingenious: A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist by Richard Munson.

About the book, from the publisher:

The dramatic story of an ingenious man who explained nature and created a country.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the preeminent scientists of his time. Driven by curiosity, he conducted cutting-edge research on electricity, heat, ocean currents, weather patterns, chemical bonds, and plants. But today, Franklin is remembered more for his political prowess and diplomatic achievements than his scientific creativity.

In this incisive and rich account of Benjamin Franklin’s life and career, Richard Munson recovers this vital part of Franklin’s story, reveals his modern relevance, and offers a compelling portrait of a shrewd experimenter, clever innovator, and visionary physicist whose fame opened doors to negotiate French support and funding for American independence.

Munson’s riveting narrative explores how science underpins Franklin’s entire story―from tradesman to inventor to nation-founder―and argues that Franklin’s political life cannot be understood without giving proper credit to his scientific accomplishments.

Visit Richard Munson's website.

The Page 99 Test: Ingenious.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Catriona McPherson's "Scotzilla"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Scotzilla by Catriona McPherson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Lexy's wedding becomes a crime scene when a murderer dares to strike on her big day in this superbly plotted and wickedly funny cozy.

Lexy Campbell is getting married! But in the six months of planning it took to arrive at the big day, she has become . . . a challenge. Friendships are strained to breaking point, Lexy's parents are tiptoeing around her, and even Taylor, her intended, must be having second thoughts. Turns out it's moot. Before the happy couple can exchange vows, Sister Sunshine, the wedding celebrant, is discovered dead behind the cake, strangled with the fairy lights.

Lexy's dream wedding is now not just a nightmare: it's a crime scene. She vows not to get drawn into the case, but the rest of the Last Ditch crew are investigating a bizarre series of goings-on in Cuento's cemetery, and every clue about the graveyard pranks seems to link them back to Lexy's wedding day. Will the Ditchers solve the case? Will Sister Sunshine's killer be found? Will Lexy ever get her happy ever after? Not even Bridezilla deserves this...

Fans of Janet Evanovitch and Sarah Strohmeyer will fall head over heels for this addictive mystery that's full of twists and laugh out loud humour.

Visit Catriona McPherson's website.

The Page 69 Test: Go to My Grave.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (November 2018).

My Book, The Movie: The Turning Tide.

The Page 69 Test: The Turning Tide.

My Book, The Movie: A Gingerbread House.

The Page 69 Test: Hop Scot.

The Page 69 Test: Deep Beneath Us.

Q&A with Catriona McPherson.

The Page 69 Test: The Witching Hour.

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson (September 2024).

Writers Read: Catriona McPherson.

The Page 69 Test: Scotzilla.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eight novels about women keeping secrets

Midge Raymond is the author of the novels Floreana and My Last Continent, the short-story collection Forgetting English, and, with coauthor John Yunker, the mystery novel Devils Island. Her writing has appeared in TriQuarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, the Los Angeles Times magazine, Chicago Tribune, Poets & Writers, and many other publications. Raymond has taught at Boston University, Boston’s Grub Street Writers, Seattle’s Hugo House, and San Diego Writers, Ink. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she is co-founder of the boutique publisher Ashland Creek Press.

[The Page 69 Test: My Last Continent; Writers Read: Midge Raymond (June 2016)]

At CrimeReads Raymond tagged eight books "about women with secrets and how they hide them (from the world and within themselves) and how their secrets are devastatingly revealed to the other characters and to the reader." One title on the list:

Find Me by Alafair Burke

Find Me is about a woman with secrets even she cannot uncover; Hope Miller knows only that she was found in New Jersey, having been thrown from a vehicle, with no idea of who she is or where she came from. She has started a new life, but then she disappears again—and it is up to her best friend and a homicide detective to find out why.

Read about another title on the list.

Find Me is among Bradeigh Godfrey's eight thrillers featuring characters with memory disorders.

--Marshal Zeringue

Q&A with Lilli Sutton

From my Q&A with Lilli Sutton, author of Running Out of Air: A Novel:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

There’s something about evoking the air (or lack of air) and books about mountaineering—Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer and Breathless by Amy McCulloch, among others. The world’s tallest mountains call to mind a lack of oxygen, and I think that’s a large part of our fascination with them, and the people who chose to climb to heights where there literally isn’t enough oxygen to maintain physical functioning. They don’t call it the death zone for nothing.

Running Out of Air wasn’t the original title, though—it alluded to the John Muir quote “The mountains are calling and I must go.” My publisher pushed for a title change to highlight the thriller elements of the novel, and I’m happy with where we landed. It nestles the book among the other stories, fiction and nonfiction, of the high mountains. And of course, literally running out of air is an unpleasant and dangerous experience—which hints at...[read on]

Visit Lilli Sutton's website.

Q&A with Lilli Sutton.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 99: Clare Mulley's "Agent Zo"

Featured at the Page 99 Test: Agent Zo: The Untold Story of a Fearless World War II Resistance Fighter by Clare Mulley.

About the book, from the publisher:

The incredible and inspiring story of Elzbieta Zawacka, the World War II female resistance fighter known as Agent Zo.

During World War II, Elzbieta Zawacka—the WWII female resistance fighter known as Agent Zo—was the only woman to reach London as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command. In Britain, she became the only woman to join the Polish elite Special Forces, known as the "Silent Unseen.” She was secretly trained in the British countryside, and then she was the only female member of these forces to be parachuted back behind enemy lines to Nazi-occupied Poland. There, while being hunted by the Gestapo (who arrested her entire family), she took a leading role in the Warsaw Uprising and the liberation of Poland.

After the war, she was discharged as one of the most highly decorated women in Polish history. Yet the Soviet-backed post-war Communist regime not only imprisoned (and tortured) her, but also ensured that her remarkable story remained hidden for over forty years.

Now, through new archival research and exclusive interviews with people who knew and fought alongside Agent Zo, Clare Mulley brings this forgotten heroine back to brilliant life—while transforming how we value the history of women resistance fighters during World War II.

Visit Clare Mulley's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Women Who Flew For Hitler.

The Page 99 Test: The Women Who Flew For Hitler.

My Book, The Movie: Agent Zo.

The Page 99 Test: Agent Zo.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ten top fantasy & romantasy books to help grapple with complex social issues

Penn Cole is an international bestselling author of magical worlds, feisty women, and angsty romance. Her debut series, The Kindred’s Curse Saga, has been sold in over a dozen languages to date. Before pursuing her lifelong dream of publishing, Cole had a prior career as an artist and attorney. Although she’s a Texas girl born and bred, she currently lives in France with her husband where she can usually be found eating far too many pastries and trolling her readers on Discord.

At People magazine the author tagged ten books "to inspire readers to return to their lives with a more inclusive mindset and a more courageous heart." One title on the list:

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

This standalone, character-driven steampunk fantasy features a nonbinary protagonist with a relatable problem: They don’t want to fight or get involved in the politics of their world, they just want to stay home and paint. This story brings so many unique characteristics, including an art-based magic system, mechanical dragons (not to mention a quasi-animal sidekick you’ll fall in love with), a colonial setting inspired by Japan-occupied Korea and a world that normalizes queer love and genderfluid characters.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pg. 69: Sharon Short's "Trouble Island"

Featured at the Page 69 Test: Trouble Island: A Novel by Sharon Short.

About the book, from the publisher:

A gripping new novel inspired by a real place and events from the author’s family, Trouble Island is the standalone suspense debut from historical mystery writer Sharon Short.

Many miles from anywhere in the middle of Lake Erie, Trouble Island serves as a stop-off for gangsters as they run between America and Canada. The remote isle is also the permanent home to two women: Aurelia Escalante, who serves as a maid to Rosita, lady of the mansion and wife to the notorious prohibition gangster, Eddie McGee. In the freezing winter of 1932, the women anticipate the arrival of Eddie and his strange coterie: his right-hand man, a doctor, a cousin, a famous actor, and a rival gangster who Rosita believes murdered their only son.

Aurelia wants nothing more than to escape Trouble Island, but she is hiding a secret of her own. She is in fact not a maid, but a gangster’s wife in hiding, as she runs from the murder she committed five years ago. Her friend Rosita took her in under this guise, but it has become clear that Rosita wants to keep Aurelia right where she is.

Shortly after the group of criminals, celebrities, and scoundrels arrive, Rosita suddenly disappears. Aurelia plans her getaway, going to the shore to retrieve her box of hidden treasures, but instead finds Rosita’s body in the water. Someone has made sure Aurelia was the one to find her. An ice storm makes unexpected landfall, cutting Trouble Island off from both mainlands, and with more than one murderer among them.

Both a gripping locked room mystery, and a transporting, evocative portrait of a woman in crisis, Trouble Island marks the enthralling standalone suspense debut from Sharon Short, promising to be her breakout novel, inspired by a real island in Lake Erie, and true events from her own rich family history.

Learn more about the book and author at Sharon Short's website.

The Page 69 Test: My One Square Inch of Alaska.

The Page 69 Test: Trouble Island.

--Marshal Zeringue