Great Last Lines

[John McFetridge]

Usually we talk bout great opening lines to books, but I came across this list of American Book Reviews, "100 Best Last Lines From Novels."

http://americanbookreview.org/PDF/100_Best_Last_Lines_from_Novels.pdf

What do you think is the best last line in crime fiction?

[I. J. Parker]

I haven't kept track, but I know that I spend considerable time on last lines, and none at all on first ones.

[Dana King]

"It was easy."

(From I,THE JURY.)

[John McFetridge]

Good one.

[Edward G. Talbot]

Y'know, I don't really like most of those last lines in that list. A lot of times it does take the context of the whole book to appreciate them, though. I like the ones from A Tale of Two Cities and Animal Farm.

Hard to point to one than jumps out me - my favorite crime author, lee Child, doesn't generally have great last lines. I suppose I could point to "The Spy Who Loved Me", which is really hard boiled crime fiction, not a spy thriller like the rest of the Bond books. The last paragraph is:

"A secret agent? I didn't care what he did. a number? I had already forgotten it. I knew exactly who he was and what he was. And everything, every smallest detail, would be written on my heart forever."

Hands-down, my favorite last line of a book ever is from the Green Mile by Stephen King - "We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long."

For my first novel, I came up with a last line that I think is really good. For the second one about to head out to submission, the last line is good in context and it hints at a sequel, but it's not quite the same.

[Mike Dennis]

"Yes--let's get stinko." Mildred Pierce by James M Cain, 1941