"Pariah"

Dave Zeltserman's first novel, Fast Lane, received widespread praise, with Ken Bruen calling it "the most entertaining debut since Jim Thompson." Zeltserman's second crime novel, Bad Thoughts, was published in 2007 and praised as a "compellingly clever wheels-within-wheels thriller" (Booklist). His Small Crimes made NPR's list of the top 5 crime and mystery novels of 2008; Maureen Corrigan called it "a thing of sordid beauty."

Zeltserman applied the Page 69 Test to his latest novel, Pariah, and reported the following:

Once part of the holy triumvirate ruling the South Boston mob, Kyle Nevin is set up by his boss, Red Mahoney, which leads him to a court case and a stretch in the slammer. Newly released, and reduced to sleeping on his brother's couch, Kyle's hungry--for revenge, status and easy money.

On page 69 Kyle is sitting in a diner having breakfast with his brother, Danny:

The waitress came back carrying a pot of coffee. As she poured me a cup, she kept peering at me through her painted-on lone ranger mask. “How do I know you?” she finally asked.

Danny had been fidgeting while she poured the coffee. I knew he was anxious to get more details about the job I had in mind. Pushing a hand through his hair and at the same time showing a smart-alecky grin, he told her, “’Cause he’s a celebrity. Don’cha read the papers? That’s my brother. Big bad Kyle Nevin.”

A glint of life broke the sullen dullness masking her eyes as she placed the name. “You’re that gangster?” she asked.

While this page isn't representative of how violent and explosive and subversive Pariah is, it does show Kyle subtly working on corrupting Danny as he tries to lead his younger brother from the straight life that he has fallen into and is happy in, and into joining him on a horrific crime. It also shows glimpses of the dynamics between the two brothers. But the book takes several hard left turns and goes into areas which the reader would probably have no idea about from this page. And from this page the reader wouldn't have any idea what a destructive force of nature Kyle Nevin ends up being.

Listen to Dave Zeltserman read from Pariah or read an excerpt. Learn more about the author and his work at Dave Zeltserman's website and blog.

Read the Washington Post review of Pariah.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Last Will of Moira Leahy"

Therese Walsh is a cofounder of the blog WriterUnboxed.com. She lives in upstate New York, with her husband, two children, a cat, and a bouncy Jack Russell named Kismet.

She applied the Page 69 Test to The Last Will of Moira Leahy, her first novel, and reported the following:

Deep down, though she’d loathe admitting it—especially to herself—Maeve Leahy misses her old life. She misses her identical twin, she misses her music, she misses her former dreams of travel and fame. She lives a busy and isolated life now as a workaholic professor, but every once in a while something tweaks at her memories and she just can’t help her response. We see this on page 69, as she first interacts with some of her students in the hall of the foreign languages department, and then is made to notice pictures of exotic locales by her father there.

“Hello,” I called back. Jordan Somers and—wouldn’t you know—Ned Baker stood beside a list of final grades. Jordan should be pleased with his standing, though Ned, the troublemaker, might not be. Still, he didn’t look upset; he smiled at my dad and me.

“Going away for break, Doc?” Ned asked, glancing with fleeting interest at the keris in my father’s hand.

“Not me. You?”

“Going to Cancun.” He howled the last like wolf-song, his cheeks flushed and hair a curtain over his eyes. Ian came strongly to mind.

“And you, Jordan?” I said. “Big plans?”

“Cancun, too. We’re going to”—he paused, looked meaningfully at Ned—“practice our Spanish.” They laughed, smacked hands and headed down the hall. “See ya!”

“Have fun,” I said as we passed one another.

“Seem like nice boys,” my father said.

“Do they? I think their practice starts and ends with Dos Equis, but maybe I’m wrong.”

“Hmm?”

“It’s a beer, Dad.”

“Right, right. I think I’ve heard of it,” he said. Dad was a Moosehead man, through and through.

I stalled to paw through my bag. I refused to believe I’d left my keys in the car, that I was that far gone.

“Nice posters,” he said. “Sure sets the atmosphere.”

I continued rummaging blindly as I looked up at the artwork and photos in the hall. A woman pinned clothes on a line from a high window; boys stood barelegged in a fountain; a mandolin player’s likeness covered brick somewhere in Vieux Lille. Sometimes these scenes made me itch with longing for all my old dreams, but only one piece bothered me consistently: a sepia print of a woman cowered over a desk as owls and bats swooped low behind her. The desk bore the words El sueño de la razón produce monstrous (The sleep of reason brings forth monsters). I’d removed the picture once, but Will Holmes, the chair of my department and a closet philosopher, insisted it remain. I’d stood my ground. “The woman seems tortured.”

“It’s a masterpiece,” he’d said. “And that’s not a woman.”

I stared at what looked to me like a skirt and bare woman’s legs as he speculated…

(p. 70)

...over the work's meaning. "What if dreams and reason aren't so different and monsters ride the line between the worlds?"

It might've made for fascinating debate, but I'd never be in the mood to discuss dream monsters or the line between the worlds. It still looked like a woman to me.

The Last Will of Moira Leahy is a cross-genre novel—women’s fiction with elements of psychological suspense, mystery, family saga, romance and mythical realism. It would be difficult to find a single page that captures the full flavor of the story, but page 69 isn’t bad. The brief interaction between Maeve and her students later links in with the mystery plot; and her disturbed reflection on El sueño de la razón produce monstrous gives us a glimpse of this woman’s underground, her subconscious.

Now if you’d asked me about page 165…

Read an excerpt from The Last Will of Moira Leahy, and learn more about the book and author at Therese Walsh's website and blog.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Stuff to Spy For"

Don Bruns is a musician, songwriter, advertising executive, and award-winning novelist. His "Stuff" series includes Stuff to Die For and Stuff Dreams Are Made Of.

He applied the Page 69 Test to the latest book in the series, Stuff to Spy For, and reported the following:

I just read page 69, from Stuff to Spy For. It's a defining page. Skip and James (24 year old lifelong friends) are talking about going into the spy business. Skip is a little less than enthusiastic, but on page 69 they are discussing a financially lucrative offer, and Skip remembers his love for the Hardy Boys, James Bond, and all the spy gadgets. It won't take another page for Skip to say yes. A terrible decision, but funny none the less.

"Spy stuff, Skip. And we can use the truck. People will think it's a service truck, but we can stock it with the spy stuff."

"You're crazy. Do you remember the Bond movie where Q was showing Bond some missiles that shot from the headlights on his car?"

"Come on man. You're talking to the king of movie quotes. Q looks at Bond and says, 'Need I remind you, 007, you're licensed to kill, not break traffic laws.'" His British accent was almost perfect."

"I'm telling you, James, this is not a good idea."

Would I buy the book based on page 69? Would I read on? I would.

Learn more about the book and author at Don Bruns' website.

The Page 99 Test: Stuff to Die For.

My Book, The Movie: Stuff Dreams Are Made Of.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Wyatt’s Revenge"

A board-certified trial lawyer, H. Terrell Griffin practiced law in Orlando for thirty-eight years. He is the author of Murder Key, Longboat Blues, Blood Island, and the newly released Wyatt’s Revenge.

He applied the Page 69 Test to Wyatt’s Revenge and reported the following:

Wyatt’s Revenge is the story of a good man, a retired trial lawyer named Matt Royal, who lives on an island off the Southwest coast of Florida. When his best friend, history professor Laurence Wyatt is murdered, Royal sets out to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice, one way or the other. Can a man deeply invested in the law and the legal system find it in himself to wreak his own vengeance when the system to which he has devoted his life fails?

Page 69 is part of a conversation between the protagonist Royal and another history professor named Austin Dwyer. This is the beginning of the unraveling of the mystery of the death of Wyatt. Royal becomes aware that the murder may have its roots in an obscene political movement that was destroyed sixty years before. The question then is simply, why?

The trail leads Matt Royal and his buddies Jock Algren and Logan Hamilton to Germany where they find themselves hunted by shadowy figures who have sprung from the past, from a time when Europe was dominated by Nazis. As the tension builds and the mystery unfolds, the characters begin to see the outline of a conspiracy stretching back to World War II.

It becomes clear that the cabal that ordered Wyatt’s murder has much larger aims and political ambitions. The action shifts back to Florida and then to the Northeast as Matt Royal follows the evidence and wrestles with the moral dilemmas he faces as he tries to take Wyatt’s revenge on the murderers and bring the aging masterminds to justice.

Read more about the book and author at H. Terrell Griffin's website.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Owl Killers"

Karen Maitland has spent much of her life traveling, spending her early childhood in the sunshine of Malta and later journeying to the ice and snow of the Arctic and Greenland.

Her first novel, The White Room, a modern thriller about terrorism, is based on her experiences as a student in Belfast during "The Troubles." Her acclaimed Company of Liars was shortlisted for a Sue Feder Memorial Award for best historical mystery of 2008, one of the Macavity Awards.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new historical mystery, The Owl Killers, and reported the following:

England 1321, and the isolated village of Ulewic is ruled by the Owl Masters, members of an sinister ancient cult, who have created a world of fear and blackmail, in which neighbours betray neighbours and sin is punished with murder. When a group of religious women arrive determined to set up a beguinage, a “city of women”, on the edge of the village, the Owl Masters try to terrify the women into leaving. But both the village and the beguinage are harbouring secrets which could utterly destroy them.

Page 69 of The Owl Killers happens to be a Chapter Title Page and not a page of the actual story. But strangely it does reflect a key theme in the novel – the battle between Christian and pagan. In Medieval times they didn’t use numbers for dates, instead they named the days. So part of the chapter title on p.69 reads:

“May – Rood Day or Crossmas… also known as Avoiding Day, a day of ill fortune, a time to avoid getting married, travelling or counting money, because the evil spirits are determined to cause mischief.”

But you might say that no page in this book would be representative of the novel, because the story is narrated in five different voices by five of the key characters: Father Ulfrid the village priest, Pisspuddle a little village girl, and three of the beguines – the elderly Servant Martha, the tormented Beatrice and the teenage Agatha. As each of them struggle with their own separate problems, none of the five narrators realise that their lives are about to collide in a battle for life or death.

On the page before p. 69, Agatha, outcast daughter of the Lord of the Manor, has been taken into the beguinage following a terrible attack in the forest after she’d witness one of the horrifying rites of the Owl Masters.

Catherine came closer and glanced at me shyly. “I heard some of the beguines talking about the fire in the forest, about the… Owl Masters. Who are they?”

“No one knows who they are; that’s the point. Why else would they wear masks?” I shuddered, desperately trying not to see those feathered masks circling the fire.

“But why owls?”

“I don’t know! I suppose because owls bring ill-fortune and death to any house they alight on. And that’s what the Owl Masters do.”

“Pega says owls eat the souls of dead babies if they die unbaptised,” Catherine whispered…

…In the deep forest, beyond the safety of the courtyard walls, it would already be dark. The trees would be closing together, their branches blotting out the sky, like the walls of a cave. There was no escape, no way out of that living prison. No way of running from the brambles that dug their claws into my skirts, or the roots that wrapped themselves around my ankles, chaining me down in the suffocating reek of rotting leaves. And somewhere in the forest that creature would be watching for me to step outside the beguinage gate. I felt the rush of air from its wings on my face, the cold talons gripping my skin. The demon was waiting somewhere out there in darkness, waiting for me to come again.

Read an excerpt from The Owl Killers, and learn more about the author and her work at Karen Maitland's website.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Shroud"

Junius Podrug was selected by the Harold Robbins Estate to carry on the ideas, uncompleted works, and tradition of Harold Robbins because he was both a friend of Robbins' and a writer whose books Robbins admired. He is the author of Harold Robbins' The Betrayers and The Decievers.

Podrug applied the Page 69 Test to their latest novel, The Shroud, and reported the following:

Curator for a museum owned by a billionaire, Maddy Dupre paid fifty million dollars for an artifact that turned out to have been looted from the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad. Getting it back to where it belongs costs her high paying job, a 5th Avenue penthouse, and black American Express card. That story was told in The Looters and The Shroud picks up with the once “A List” Maddy living in a roach infested Lower East Side walkup, fighting off bill collectors and a landlord who wants to collect his rent in bed.

An offer too good to be true comes along when Maddy gets a call from an art dealer who was supposed to be dead—and she hoped was burning in hell. He tells her to forget the past, “Mistakes were made and we suffered for it.”

“We suffered? You mean I suffered, you son of a bitch. You’re still alive. Obviously you haven’t suffered enough.”

The offer is $20,000 cash just to fly to Dubai, the Persian Gulf sheikhdom that’s called Las Vegas on steroids. Money she needs like air to breathe. And her love for antiquities is stirred when the voice from the grave gives her a hint about what’s at stake: “It’s a couple thousand years old and was buried with Christ.”

Page 69 features a man and a woman in Dubai who are trying to get to the “dead” man. They know that Maddy’s being set up to front for him—and they are willing to let her take a bullet for him if it’ll get her out of the way.

Maddy discovers that the icon she’s been hired to track was bloodied by centuries of intrigue, war, and murder—not unlike what she goes through as she traces its history from Mesopotamia, Istanbul, Venice, and beyond. The title of the book only tells part of the story about the identity of the icon. While the plot is fiction, the history of the relic is extensively researched.

As a person who has been broke and has had the devil whisper in my ear, the two things I love most about Maddy are that she’s desperate enough to make a deal with the devil ... and clever enough to find a way to do the right thing when everything goes to hell.

Read more about The Shroud at Junius Podrug's website.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Long Division"

Derek Nikitas teaches creative writing at Eastern Kentucky University. Pyres, his first novel, was an Edgar nominee.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Long Division, and reported the following:

The Long Division is an ensemble piece with five protagonists. Their stories converge, as the climax approaches, in increasingly more gut-wrenching ways. There's the Atlanta housecleaner who hits the road with stolen cash (an homage to Psycho's Marion Crane). The mentally tortured college student trying to escape his own accidental crime. The sheriff's deputy desperate to redeem himself and save his reputation. And then there's the sheriff's inhibited, introspective daughter, Erika. It's her viewpoint we get on page 69.

Her father is driving her home in his cruiser. There's some ironic conversation about how safe their town of Weymouth, NY is supposed to be. She doesn’t know there's been a double murder, but dad does, and he's not telling. There's discussion of a planned, bittersweet family trip to Costa Rica, an escape from the wintery darkness that is Western New York in February. The trip is also to be a last hurrah for Erika's mother. She's dying of cancer.

Page 69 is an introspective respite in the midst of all the craziness. It reinforces the doomed, noir-tinged, tone of the book--especially considering the fortuitous mention of the title. The Long Division is a reference to one character's obsession with what mathematics can say about our existence. It's a throwback to the old Chandler euphemism-for-death titles, like The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. It describes the families in the book, who have long been broken apart and are now hurtling back together. And, as on Page 69, it describes cancer as a metaphor for the malignancy of fate:

The malignant tumor was in the core of her mother's brain, spanning both hemispheres. It was butterfly shaped and when the wings spread themselves wide enough, like emerging from a chrysalis, Mom would die. The radiation held the wingspread back only temporarily. Invisible waves like raygun blasts through the cancer-cell helixes, but that cellular split was relentless long division. Just after Christmas, Mom's doctors had explained that she would die before her August wedding anniversary, probably months sooner. They advised her to quit her paralegal job, reconnect with her family, go on dream vacations--and all of it quickly.

Read an excerpt from The Long Division, and learn more about the book and author at the official Derek Nikitas website and blog.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Finding Grace"

Donna VanLiere is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Christmas Hope series and Angels of Morgan Hill.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Finding Grace: A True Story About Losing Your Way In Life...And Finding It Again, and reported the following:

Page 69 is the beginning of chapter five in Finding Grace so the words don’t even begin until more than halfway down, leaving only one-and-a-half paragraphs! There is a quote from Simone Weil, a French philosopher and activist, which actually is a good representation of the book. It says, “Each thing that takes place, whether it be fortunate, unfortunate, or unimportant from our particular point of view, is a caress of God’s.” I go on to write, “That caress is grace at the end of our rope.”

I wrote Finding Grace after many years of speaking in front of conferences, organizations etc. I began sharing an experience from my childhood where I was molested by a neighbor before I even entered kindergarten. Men and women would approach me afterward with tears on their faces because it was a pain they had never been able to share. Many people encouraged me to write my story but if I wrote a book about my experience I wanted it to be relatable to the reader. I never wanted the reader to put the book down and say, “That book was about molestation,” or “That book was about adoption.” I wanted them to say, “That book was my life but only with different names!” Thankfully, men and women are saying just that!

Finding Grace has a double meaning: how I discovered the transforming power of grace as an adult and adopting our first daughter Grace from China in 2002. It was a long journey to get to that point in my life (to a state of grace and halfway around the world in China) but one that is relatable to so many lives—maybe even yours!

I am honored that so many book clubs have chosen Finding Grace as their club’s selection and continue to be humbled by their response. I hope you’ll enjoy it and pass it on to others.

Read an excerpt from Finding Grace, and learn more about the book and author at Donna VanLiere's website.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Hell's Kitchen Homicide"

Writer/producer Charles Kipps has won an Emmy, a Peabody, and an Edgar Award.

Kipps’ television credits include Exiled: A Law & Order Movie (NBC), Little Bill (Nickelodeon), Fatherhood (Nickelodeon), The Cosby Mysteries (NBC), Columbo (ABC), and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC). His film credits include Fat Albert, a feature film for Twentieth Century Fox co-written with Bill Cosby.

He is the author of two non-fiction books, Out of Focus and Cop Without A Badge.

Kipps applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Hell’s Kitchen Homicide, and reported the following:

In Hell’s Kitchen Homicide, NYPD Detective Conor Bard investigates the murder of a Mafia lawyer. Along the way Conor meets an exotic, young Albanian woman named Monica. On Page 69, Conor learns about Monica’s life in Albania.

A waiter arrived with menus. Monica scanned the page for a moment.

“Zuppa di porri,” Monica said. “Leek soup.”

“You like leeks?” Conor wanted to know.

“I like to eat them,” Monica replied. “But I didn’t like them so much when my mother baked them and then squeezed the liquid into my ear.”

Conor frowned. “Your ear?”

“That was the treatment for an earache in Albania. Squeezed leeks.”

“Did it work?” Conor asked.

“Yes.”

“Great. I’ll keep that in mind if I ever have an earache and can’t find a drugstore.”

Monica laughed. Conor was beginning to like the sound.

Page 69 represents a turning point in Hell’s Kitchen Homicide as Conor finds himself drawn in by the lovely Monica, who ultimately becomes a major character in the book.

Read an excerpt from Hell’s Kitchen Homicide, and learn more about the book and author at Charles Kipps's website.

Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Christmas Secret"

Donna VanLiere is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Finding Grace, The Christmas Hope series, and Angels of Morgan Hill.

She applied the Page 69 Test to The Christmas Secret, her latest novel, and reported the following:

The Christmas Secret has just been released and it’s the fifth novel in The Christmas Hope series. I write each of the novels to be stand-alone books so there’s no pressure for the reader to read the first four books in order to understand the fifth! The Christmas Secret is about a young, single mother named Christine who works hard as a waitress to provide for her two children, Zach and Haley. When she helps an elderly woman in distress, Christine gets to work late (again) and is promptly fired. Marshall Wilson, the owner of Wilson’s Department Store is determined to find the young woman who saved the life of Judy, his most trusted employee and sets Jason, his out-of-work grandson out on that mission. It’s the last thing Jason wants but maybe just what he needs.

Two scenes play out on page 69. The top part of the page begins with Marshall Wilson, who is setting Jason out to help find the mysterious woman who saved Judy’s life. The bottom of the page features Christine and her two children who need to get to the bank to deposit Christine’s check before she starts bouncing checks. This page is indicative of her life and the cycle of survival she finds herself in time and again and offers a great glimpse into the plot of The Christmas Secret. Christine selflessly helped an older woman who needed someone and because of that act there are people who want to find her and thank her. There are enormous roadblocks in Christine’s path but it’s right there under that boulder in the road that Christine discovers one of life’s greatest gifts. I hope you enjoy her journey!

Read more about the book and author at Donna VanLiere's website.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Breaking the Bank"

Yona Zeldis McDonough is the author of the novels The Four Temperaments, In Dahlia's Wake, and Breaking the Bank.

She is also the editor of the essay collections The Barbie Chronicles: A Living Doll Turns Forty and All the Available Light: A Marilyn Monroe Reader. Her short fiction, articles, and essays have been published in anthologies as well as in numerous national magazines, and newspapers.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Breaking the Bank and reported the following:

Page 69 of Breaking the Bank is not necessarily the first page I would suggest to readers, but it is not a bad place to begin either. Mia Saul, the book’s protagonist, has gone out to a bar where her best friend is working. Her ex-husband has come into town and taken their daughter out for the evening; she is feeling lonely and bereft. She drinks a bit too much, and ends up sobbing in the ladies’ room while her friend tries to comfort her. This scene shows the reader a lot about who Mia is, and does a good job of articulating the grief she feels over her husband’s abandonment, her fierce attachment to her daughter, and her tendency to act impulsively and even rashly, especially when upset. All of these traits are important and are further developed as the book unfolds. And all of them have a big impact on what actually happens to Mia in the course of this novel. “Character determines,” plot is an old adage frequently trotted out in fiction writing classes, but I believe it to be true. If the character is fully conceived and well written, her actions will, in a sense determine themselves; she’ll take on a life of her own. That is what I tried to do with Mia, and I hope I have succeeded.

Read an excerpt from Breaking the Bank, and learn more about the author and her work at Yona Zeldis McDonough's website and blog.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ciao Bella"

Gina Buonaguro was born in New Jersey and now resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Janice Kirk was born and lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The authors of The Sidewalk Artist, they are now working on their third novel together.

They applied the Page 69 Test to their new novel, Ciao Bella, and reported the following:

Page 69 of Ciao Bella is actually quite representative of the novel as a whole. For Graziella, the daughter of a Canadian botanist, the quiet, cultured life she lived in Venice with her musician husband, Ugo, was everything she could’ve desired. But when Italy allied with Nazi Germany in 1940, her world changed forever. Ugo, trading his violin for a gun, joined the Resistance, while Graziella, now an “enemy alien,” was forced to seek refuge at his family’s farm in the nearby Euganean Hills. Having inherited her father’s gift for plants, she became both midwife and nursemaid to Ugo’s family. Her time in the Hills was not a happy one, not only because of the fear of bombing raids and Nazi reprisals but also because Ugo’s father and sisters were openly hostile to his choice of a foreigner as a wife. “Just until the war is over,” Ugo had promised, but it has been months since the Germans retreated, and no one has seen him since.

Just as she despairs she will be trapped forever with Ugo’s ungrateful family, along comes Frank, an American soldier waiting for the ship that will take him back home. As the summer unfolds, Frank begins to fill the void Ugo has left behind and Graziella slowly starts to embraces this unexpected chance at being happy again.

Booklist says this about the novel: “A compelling combination of romance, adventure, and serious thought, this slim novel is sure to appeal to many audiences.” And page 69 itself is exactly all that. It shows the developing attraction between Graziella and Frank but also Graziella’s conflict: How can she be attracted to Frank when she so longs for her husband’s return? It also shows Frank’s own complicated feelings as he decides just what and how much to tell Graziella about his time during the war – a struggle that intensifies as the novel progresses. As Frank relates his horrific story, the reader learns these are experiences not easily forgotten but that will continue to haunt both Graziella and Frank and influence everything they do from now on. For overall, Ciao Bella explores the possibilities of love and redemption in the wake of war, showing that some of the hardest decisions come only after the fighting has stopped.

Here is page 69:

“I’m sorry. You don’t have to tell me. It’s none of my business.”

“No, it’s okay,” he said, his eyes following her retreating hand as if he already missed it there on his own. She thought about putting it back, maybe even holding it, but he began again, and she felt the opportunity had passed. “We were up in the mountains near Cassino not long before the Allies broke through the line and marched to Rome.” He spoke softly, and she had to strain to hear his voice over the pounding rain. “All that lay between my regiment and the Germans was this little river. We’d spent a couple of days firing back and forth whenever we saw anything moving. It was spring, but it was still damned cold. Sorry, really cold. Anyway, we weren’t accomplishing much as we waited for this brigade of Brits to catch up with us. Then the real push was to happen. Cross the river and drive the Germans back. Keep pushing them north.”

More thunder rattled the house, and they listened for sounds from Giovanni’s room, but only his snoring was audible.

Frank took a sip of wine before resuming, the herbs in front of him forgotten. “Nobody was looking forward to this. In the hills, we were pretty safe, but once we were in that river, we were just sitting ducks. That’s why we did it at night. They had this plan. Send forty or so guys to sneak across the river and take the Germans out in their sleeping bags. It sounded like a stupid idea even then. They should have sent in planes.

“I wasn’t long in that river before I knew I was right. My feet sunk in the mud, and the water came up to my chest. I could barely move. By the time we reached the middle, the water was up around our necks. It felt like ice. Somewhere close to me a soldier began to cry, saying he couldn’t swim. Everyone was going shhh! shhh! and it all sounded louder than bombs dropping….”

Learn more about the book and authors on their website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue