Monday, January 12, 2015

"Another One Bites the Dust"

Chris Marie Green is the author of the urban fantasy Vampire Babylon series and the Jensen Murphy, Ghost for Hire series, which features a fun-loving spirit from the 80s.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her newest novel, Another One Bites the Dust, and reported the following:
Page 69 of Another One Bites the Dust:
From the outside, the house made me sigh.

A cottage twenty minutes and a world away from my death spot. It reclined on a small hill in a peaceful, swanky, more residential part of the Elfin Forest area, boasting a private driveway. Quaint primrose paths wound their lazy way toward a porch with an actual old-fashioned swing.

All fairy tales and Leave It To Beaver reruns, I thought as I listened to the faint murmur of a creek nearby. The rustle of leaves from the protective oaks that stood over the house only gave it more of a homey feel.

“Somebody has to live here,” I said. “This can’t be abandoned.”

Fake Dean strode right up to the entrance, reached into the porch lantern, took out a key, then unlocked the door and walked inside, just as if he were totally normal.

Not a ghost, I reminded myself. He could unlock doors, touch things.
Page 69 is the start of chapter 5 in this book, which is a sequel to the first installment in the Jensen Murphy, Ghost for Hire series (Only the Good Die Young). In this second outing, the heroine, a spirit from the 1980s, is looking for a new home to “haunt,” and another spirit, whom she calls “Fake Dean,” is helping her find it. The thing is, this other spirit isn’t a normal ghost at all—he’s mysterious and has powers beyond Jensen’s own abilities; he also comes to her in the form of her old boyfriend and refuses to show her his true face or tell her his real name. She’s not sure just what he is, but he’s always trying to lure her into his “star place,” a domain where he collects other ghosts. (If he weren’t so appealing, he’d be scary!)

As if finding a new home wasn’t time consuming enough, Jensen is also aiding a human in solving a possible future crime. You see, Jensen’s main focus in Boo World is to haunt confessions out of people who may or may not have committed a crime; however, in this book, she’s haunting a man who has the temperament to kill someone, and if she can prevent a murder, she’s damned well going to do it.

By the way, Jensen is rather sensitive about murders, seeing as she was a victim of one herself. As a matter of fact, she was hunted by a masked serial killer in Elfin Forest, and she’s also doing her best to find out who killed her. She has no idea who her assailant was, thanks to the killer’s mask as well as a mental block that hasn’t allowed her to remember many details from that dark night. Although she’s making progress with the help of a psychic medium, Jensen wonders if she’s always going to remain a victim herself, doomed to remain in limbo…
Visit Chris Marie Green's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Only the Good Die Young.

My Book, The Movie: Only the Good Die Young.

My Book, The Movie: Shadows Till Sunrise.

Writers Read: Chris Marie Green.

--Marshal Zeringue