Thursday, August 1, 2013

Book Beginnings and Friday 56 for August 2nd

It's Friday!  Time again for Book Beginnings and Friday 56 for the week.

I've got a double header for you today.  Up first is The Hen of the Baskervilles by Donna Andrews.  It starts like this:

I woke up to find three sheep staring pensively down at me.

Jumping to page 56, we find:

"Finally," she said, as if she'd summoned me hours ago.  "I need to talk to someone about getting my music back."
"I can check with our lost and found," I said, pretending to misunderstand her.  "Are we talking sheet music of CDs or..."
"I haven't lost my CDs," she said.  "But that woman made me stop playing them!"
She was pointing to Mother.

Intrigued?  Well, you can learn more about the book by reading my review.

My other book this week is Father Knows Death, the third Stay at Home Dad Mystery by Jeffrey Allen.  It's first sentence goes like this:

George Spellman's lifeless face gazed at me amid the packages of frozen bratwursts.

And on page 56:

On cue, a caravan of golf carts buzzed up the dirt trail, headed in our direction, with Mama Biggs leading the charge.

I'm about 100 pages in and enjoying this one so far.

But here's the funny thing - both books involve the characters solving a murder at a fair.  I didn't plan it that way, but that's how it happened.  Funny, isn't it?

14 comments:

  1. Both of these have great beginnings! The first one made me giggle. Why are sheep staring at him/her?

    My Friday Memes

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    1. Yes, my beginnings for the week are great. And Donna Andrews writes a comedic mystery series, so her beginnings always make me laugh.

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  2. I am intruiged by 'The Hen of the Baskervilles', but if I woke up with sheep staring at me I'd probably have a heart attack! The opening of 'Father Knows Death' is quite shocking, but in a good way!
    Thanks for sharing, I hope you have a good weekend!
    My Friday Post
    Juli @ Universe in Words

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    1. It's a sign of how crazy the book is that Meg, the narrator in "Hen" takes it all in stride. The opening of the other certainly did catch my attention as well.

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  3. Wow, love those excerpts! Just enough "funny" mixed in with the dire circumstances.

    Here's
    MY FRIDAY MEMES POST

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    1. And they certainly catch your interest. Or at least they did mine.

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  4. I'd wake up in a fit of fearful laughter if 3 sheep stared me down.

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    1. It's a sign of how wacky Meg's life is that she didn't.

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  5. Two very good beginnings! Thanks for sharing them on Book Beginnings on Fridays.

    I am now following you on twitter. I already had you in my Google+ circles.

    Rose City Reader

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    1. I realized after I left that post that you did. But thanks for adding me on Twitter. I followed you back.

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  6. Both are good beginnings, but the first one really grabs me. It paints quite a picture.

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    1. I pay attention to first lines these days, and I knew that one was a winner.

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  7. They both sound good. THANKS for sharing.

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My Book Beginnings

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