Since opening pages, and especially opening sentences, are so important for every story, and since our genre has particular necessities to grab our particular readers, I thought it would be useful to share opening lines of some of our favorite mysteries/crime/thrillers. I think it might help us all to learn how pubbed writers do it. And it might turn us on to new authors.
I'll start. I just started reading Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. I'm on my second novel of the series. Really good stuff. Here's the opening paragraph from the first book in the series, "Killing FLoor":
"I was arrested in Eno's Diner. At twelve o'clock. I was eating eggs and drinking coffee. A late breakfast, not lunch. I was wet and tired after a long walk in heavy rain. All the way from the highway to the edge of town."
I love, love the first three sentences. First line has me asking, obviously, "why was he arrested?" The third line gives me a sense that this guy is funny, in a way; he's getting arrested but telling me what he ate for breakfast? The second line gives time of day, but is more for the rhythm of the paragraph. A nice short fragmented sentence. Child LOOOOOves the fragments. But he lets me know early on that this is how he writes. And for some reason, the directness, the no frills nature of fragments, makes the writing seem more hard-boiled. The rest of the paragraph didn't do much for me. Some of the rest of the opening chap was equally "skipable" but there were parts that the narrator--first person of MC--explains certain key info in such an authoritative way that made him very believable. And the restraint the MC shows endears me to him. A very cool cat... even if he can be a killing machine when he wants. Highly recomend this novel.
I really like the novel. Even though I enjoy fragments, Child kinda over-does it. And I think he may have at least one character "shrugging" on every page--very annoying. Other than that, the plot was spot on, even though you could figure out pieces of it before the main characters should have. The characters themselves were very enjoyable. The MC himself, Jack Reacher, very cool, very methodical, very believable. The kind of guy you wish you had as a friend.
Anyone else with comments on Child? Or better yet, what openings can you share that you think are kick-ass?
I'll start. I just started reading Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. I'm on my second novel of the series. Really good stuff. Here's the opening paragraph from the first book in the series, "Killing FLoor":
"I was arrested in Eno's Diner. At twelve o'clock. I was eating eggs and drinking coffee. A late breakfast, not lunch. I was wet and tired after a long walk in heavy rain. All the way from the highway to the edge of town."
I love, love the first three sentences. First line has me asking, obviously, "why was he arrested?" The third line gives me a sense that this guy is funny, in a way; he's getting arrested but telling me what he ate for breakfast? The second line gives time of day, but is more for the rhythm of the paragraph. A nice short fragmented sentence. Child LOOOOOves the fragments. But he lets me know early on that this is how he writes. And for some reason, the directness, the no frills nature of fragments, makes the writing seem more hard-boiled. The rest of the paragraph didn't do much for me. Some of the rest of the opening chap was equally "skipable" but there were parts that the narrator--first person of MC--explains certain key info in such an authoritative way that made him very believable. And the restraint the MC shows endears me to him. A very cool cat... even if he can be a killing machine when he wants. Highly recomend this novel.
I really like the novel. Even though I enjoy fragments, Child kinda over-does it. And I think he may have at least one character "shrugging" on every page--very annoying. Other than that, the plot was spot on, even though you could figure out pieces of it before the main characters should have. The characters themselves were very enjoyable. The MC himself, Jack Reacher, very cool, very methodical, very believable. The kind of guy you wish you had as a friend.
Anyone else with comments on Child? Or better yet, what openings can you share that you think are kick-ass?
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