Writing a Killer First Line - A Mystery Case Study
Decoding the art of first lines from bestselling Mystery novels
Hello and Welcome to The Writer Story!
Today we are continuing our First Lines series, with bestselling Mysteries of the recent times.
Here are the previous First Lines series posts for different genres. You can check them out if you like to explore other genres.
Writing a Killer First Line - A Contemporary Romance Case Study
Writing a Killer First Line - A Romantasy case study
Writing a Killer First Line - A Science Fiction Case Study
Writing a Killer First Line - A Fantasy Case Study
Writing a Killer First Line - A Thriller Case Study
Mystery novels have been around for a long while and quite popular with bestselling series encompassing many many books. A little google search tells me the first ever mystery novel was published in 1841 by Edgar Allan Poe - The Murders in the Rue Morgue, with Dupin as the first fictional detective. But it started gaining widespread popularity with Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple by Agatha Christie. Personally, I do love the BBC adaptation of Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Comment below if you loved it too.
Okay, let’s go to the first lines…
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman - Well, let’s start with Elizabeth, shall we?
The Maid by Nita Prose - I am your maid.
How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin - “Your fiture contains dry bones.”
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon - The body floats downstream.
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny - The Phone rang. Again.
Dirty Thirty by Janet Evanovich - I’m Stephanie Plum, Jersey girl.
Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson - Everyone in my family has killed someone.
The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza - The room was freezing.
Mother-Daughter Muder Night by Nina Simon - Beth knew she couldn’t leave for work until she dealt with the dead body on the beach.
The Dark Waves by Ann Cleeves - It’s November today, I hate november.
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto - Vera Wong Zhuzhu, age sixty, is a pig, but she really should have been born a rooster.
The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood - Mrs. Judith Potts was seventy-seven years old and entirely happy with her life.
Murder your Employer by Rupert Holmes - Although I don’t consider myself particularly vain (except perhaps for considering myself more often then I should), I was pleased to have convinced such anexpert murder, especially since I’d never previously considered committing one.
End of Story by A. J. Finn - “You like Mysteries?”
The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell - Betsy presses her cell phone to her ear, trying to hear.
Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies by Catherine Mack - Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano - “I can’t look,” I said, clapping a hand over my eyes.
Murder at King’s Crossing by Andrea Penrose - “Damnation!”
The Great Hippopotamus Hotel by Alexander McCall Smith - MMA Romotswe has always understood that people who are one thing may at the same time be another.
The Block Party by Jamie Day - Alexandra Fox meant to have only a couple of drinks at the block party.
These are just examples of First lines of some of the recent Mystery novels. And I find all these first lines do is to focus more on the character. Many mystery and thriller novels have some sort of overlap across both the genres…
Tell me, which first line above was most intriguing to you and why.
That’s all for today.
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Until next week,
~Toodle-oo~