What novels are these opening lines from? Take 2

1. There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood.

2. The last drops of the thundershower had hardly ceased falling when the Pedestrian stuffed his map into his pocket, settled his pack more comfortably on his tired shoulders, and stepped out from the shelter of a large chestnut-tree into the middle of the road.

3. In 1815 Monsieur Charles-Francois-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of Digne.

4. Headmaster Doosy felt extremely small in his chair.

5. "Too many!" James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.

6. In the ancient city of London, on a certain autumn day in the second quarter of the sixteenth century, a boy was born to a poor family of the name of Canty, who did not want him.

7. Sario Grijalva saw at once what had become of her; where she had gone, despite her physical presence.

8. Long and long ago, when Oberon was king of the fairies, there reigned over the fair country of Phantasmorania a monarch who had six beautiful daughters.

9. Dearest Kate, it is dreadfully flat here since you have been gone, and it only makes it worse to imagine all the things I shall be missing.

10. I always get the shakes before a drop.

11. It was five o'clock on a winter's morning in Syria.

12. A man with binoculars. That is how it began: with a man standing by the side of the road, on a crest overlooking a small Arizona town, on a winter night.

13. Little Peggy was very careful with the eggs.

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Judg said:

Ha! I have it! #12 is The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. Of course I'd seen it recently, it was one of the books I poked my nose into looking for first lines. Two steps away from the computer. I passed on it, not sure why. Maybe because I haven't read it in so many years.

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