Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
A Killing Kindness by Reginald Hill is one of the books I’m thinking I’ll read next. It’s the 6th Dalziel and Pascoe novel
… it was green, all green, all over me, choking, the water, then boiling at first, and roaring, and seething, till all settled down, cooling, clearing, and my sight up drifting with the last few bubbles, till through the glassy water I see the sky clearly, and the sun bright as a lemon, and birds with wings wide as a windmill’s sails slowly drifting round it, and over the bank’s rim small dark faces peering, timid as beasts at their watering, nostrils sniffing danger and shy eyes bright and wary, till a current turns me over, and I drift, and am still drifting …
What the hell’s going on here! Stop it! This is sick …
I wasn’t sure what was going on either …
Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice.
These are the rules:
- Grab a book, any book.
- Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
- Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
- Post it.
- Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.
Page 56: it’s becoming clearer now what was going on –
… all over me, choking, the water all boiling at first, and roaring, and seething …. Pascoe shook the medium’s taped words out of his mind and went on with his reading.
There was a degree of lividity down the left side which was unusual for a corpse taken from the water, but could be explained by the fact that the body seemed to have been wedged in the debris by the canal bank rather than rolling free in the current.
Blurb:
When Mary Dinwoodie is found choked in a ditch following a night out with her boyfriend, a mysterious caller phones the local paper with a quotation from Hamlet. The career of the Yorkshire Choker is underway.
If Superintendent Dalziel is unimpressed by the literary phone calls, he is downright angry when Sergeant Wield calls in a clairvoyant.
Linguists, psychiatrists, mediums – it’s all a load of nonsense as far as he is concerned, designed to make a fool of him.
And meanwhile the Choker strikes again – and again…
~~~
Have you read this book? What did you think?
The beginning is rather confusing, especially to one uninitiated in the work of Reginald Hill. Obviously, there must be an explanation, which surprisingly (or maybe not), presents itself on Page 56.
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I really do like the way this series developed over time, Margaret. That beginning does get the attention, etc., but it’s really the characters and their interactions that keep the book and series going. I hope you’re enjoying this one.
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The 56 is definitely more alluring than the beginning…. Happy weekend!
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I haven’t heard of this series. The author does grab your attention right off the bat. I’d love for you and your readers to check out mine . . . https://lisaksbookthoughts.blogspot.com/2020/01/its-cozy-food-friday-that-means-its_17.html
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Sounds like a good mystery. What does it have to do with Shakespeare, I wonder? My Friday quotes from NORMAL PEOPLE
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That is one really long, really packed sentence, for sure. Sounds like a fun mystery. Happy reading!
Here’s my Friday post.
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This sounds like a series I would enjoy! Thank you for sharing your snippets.
I’m sharing my Friday post here: Brooke Blogs
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I hope you enjoying it! Have a good rest of your weekend.
Lauren @ Always Me
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Well, it starts off exciting, if confusing! Thanks for sharing the opening scene on Book Beginnings.
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