What Is The First Paragraph Of Your Current Read?

[Donna Moore]

On the excellent 4MA mailing list, one of the standard questions each month is "What is the first paragraph on Page X of the book you are reading?" I get loads of book recommendations that way, so I thought I would start a similar discussion here, as I am always looking for suggestions for books to read.

So what is the first paragraph or two of the book you are currently reading?

I've just started TO KISS OR KILL by Day Keene from 1951. Here's the first few paragraphs as they are short:

'You never can tell what a big tough Polish boy will do when he finds a nude blonde in his bathroom. Especially if he is a heavyweight fighter who was born back of the yards, is married to a million dollars, and has a psychiatric record.

He might do a number of things. He might tell her to get out. He might yell for his wife. He might blow what's left of his top. He might even do what Barney Mandell did, come to his addled senses.

It really happened, in Chicago. It happened to Barney Mandell on the afternoon on the day he was released from the asylum as cured, because he hadn't wrung a parrot's neck in two years.

Oh, yes. The nude blonde was dead.'


Isn't that marvellous? What a start. Tells you enough about Barney Mandell to make you want to know more.

[Donna Moore]

He is indeed a genius. He deserves to be much much better known too. There are some great last paragraphs, but most are only great because I've read the rest of the book, so it means that much more to me than to someone who hasn't read it. Plus loads of them would give away what had happened - and are of the "Reader I married him" type.

[Don Anderson]

Woodrell is indeed a genius. Whether it's his Ozark Noir novels or his earlier Rene Shade series. I also recommend WOE TO LIVE ON, for its stark and brutal portrayal of the Civil War along the Kansas-Missouri border, as seen through the eyes of a group of teenage Jayhawers/bushwackers.

[Eileen Hawkins]

You have to learn to cheat, and not type it yourself. Google Books, and Amazon usually have the first chapter on their sites, so you can just cut and paste. So does my library in their catalog. Cheat, Cheat.

[Karen from AustCrime]

'Seventy-four to Control.' The paramedic's voice was tight. Sophie Phillips leaned forward and turned up the volume of the ambulance radio. "Seventy-four, go ahead," Control said. "We've got two children code two, post house-fire. Request urgent back-up". Sophie grimaced. Two kids in cardiac arrest. Jesus.

Frantic by (Crimespace's own) Katherine Howell

[Cyndi Martin]

I've added a few of these to my list! What is that from, Douglas? I grabbed Diane Mott Davidson's The Cereal Murders on my way out of the house this morning. It's pretty light reading for my lunch break.

"I'd kill to get into Stanford."

A you've-got-to-be-kidding laugh snorted across one of the dining tables at the headmaster's house. "Start playing football," whispered another voice. "Then they'll kill to get you."

[Margot Renne Payne]

Everyone I know that has read this book has loved it! Laugh-out-loud loved it.

[Brian Thornton]

"All he had was her address. Rude des Pistoles, in the old neighborhood. It was years since he'd last been in Marseilles. But he didn't have a choice. Not now."

-from TOTAL CHAOS, by Jean-Claude Izzo, translated from the French by Howard Curtis.

Pretty good, so far. I assumed you wanted the paragraph of whatever fiction we're reading. I've got a ton of non-fiction on my desk, all open to different pages (research, research, research!) right now as well.

[Lesa Holstine]

Jenny Williams sucked in a lungful of smoke. Her eyes followed the woman down the front walk, but her thoughts were still on Tanner. His hands had been steady because he wasn't taking his medicine. Which was also why his eyes wouldn't meet hers. And the damned fool told her he had himself under control. Yeah, yeah. She'd heard that story for the past ten years.

-from Fire Prayer by Deborah Turrell Atkinson (Aug. 2007) I'm not quite halfway through the latest Storm Kayama mystery, set in Hawaii, but this one is the best yet.

[Margot Renne Payne]

IN THE SOUTHERNMOST TIP of the island kingdom of Antyre, a carriage set a rapid pace through the city streets of Murne. The horse-and-four racketed down the broken cobblestone street, shuddering and jolting on the uneven surface. Midmorning sunlight lanced off the blue-lacquered carriage, lighting it like a jewel in a tarnished crown. On either side, narrow houses listed and shed fragments of their facades, littering the streets below with rubble. Once this had been a prosperous merchant neighborhood, the most common thoroughfare between the palace and the sea--before a girl's prayer had been heard by Black-Winged Ani, that treacherous god of love and vengence.

From a first novel (fantasy) Maledicte, by Lane Robins. She is already working on the sequel. So far I am really enjoying her book--and always fun to discover a brand-new author!

[Lesa Holstine]

Here's the first paragraph of the book I'm starting next.

I have my arms around her, my chest pressed into her back, the tops of my thighs against her hamstrings, and I can feel a vibration from deep inside of her. Or maybe it is my own trembling. She has been quiet for what seems like an hour now, but time is hard to judge. There should be heat building from our shared body temepratures, so close together. But instead of a trickle of sweat between my shoulder blades there is a feeling of coldness on the back of my neck. It is a reaction that I recognize from too many police ops and I don't have to ask Sherry if she is feeling the same thing. Clinging together against the kitchen counter in this unfamiliar Everglades encampment, we are about as physically close as a man and woman can be but it has nothing to do with loe at the moment and everything to do with fear.

This is from Jonathon King's new book, Acts of Nature. I love King's descriptions, and can't wait to start his new book.

[Joy Calderwood]

IN THE SOUTHERNMOST TIP of the island kingdom of Antyre, etc.

Good grief. I trust the prose isn't so overloaded once the plot starts?

[Joy Calderwood]

THE REINCARNATIONIST, M.J. Rose

"Rome, Italy -- sixteen months ago

"Josh Ryder looked through the camera's viewfinder, focusing on the security guard arguing with a young mother whose hair was dyed so red it looked like she was on fire. The search of the woman's baby carriage was quickly becoming anything but routine, and Josh moved in closer for his next shot."

Very fast paced suspense takes us to another level of thrillers by adding intellectual and psychological exploration. On the second page we are dropped in a cold panic into 4th century Rome, then teeter vividly back and forth between times.

After dashing through the opening I paused for breath. I was amazed to discover I had already read 100 pages. I'm told THE REINCARNATIONIST is a major departure from the author's previous books, but haven't read any of the others -- yet.