Warren Hammond's "Ex-KOP"

Warren Hammond's first novel, KOP, was published in 2007 and is now available in paperback.

He applied the "Page 99 Test" to his new novel, Ex-KOP, and reported the following:

It was more than a year ago that I did the page 99 test on my first book, KOP, and I found that page 99 wasn't very representative of the whole. So when I wrote my second book, Ex-KOP, I made sure to pack as much content as I could onto page 99 in anticipation of this this blog entry.

I'm teasing, of course.

Seriously, I was curious to see how the sequel would fare. I just read page 99 of Ex-KOP, and I think it did a little better. That page happens to present a good bit of sleuthing by the main characters, and since the book is truly a noir mystery, the content on page 99 nicely captures the mystery elements of the story.

But I wouldn't rate it as a complete success. Should somebody read nothing but page 99, they wouldn't have any idea that the story takes place in the far future on a failed colony world. And since the setting is such a big part of what makes these particular crime novels unique, I have a hard time saying that "the quality of the whole will be revealed."

Looks like we'll have to wait and see how next book in the KOP series does.

Read an excerpt from Ex-KOP, and learn more about the author and his work at Warren Hammond's website.

The Page 99 Test: KOP.

--Marshal Zeringue