We’ve all heard, “First impressions are lasting impressions.” A writer works hard to create a good first impression when you, the reader, crack open her book. Below are beginning sentences from each of my cozies, which, hopefully, create a good first impression.
Moonlight Can Be Murder: My car’s headlights cut a yellow swath through the swirling snow. Heavy, gray clouds, trees crowding either side of the driveway, and the lateness of the December day made it impossible to see more than a few yards ahead, but at last I glimpsed the dark shape of Javin Granger’s Victorian house through the winter twilight.
The Cemetery Club: When I awoke to sunshine, blue skies, and the fragrance of freshly-perked coffee that morning, I had no inkling that a few hours later, the sun would be blotted out by menacing clouds or that my mother and I would stumble upon a dead body on a brush pile in Goshen Cemetery.
Grave Shift: The letter came on a warm morning in November. Several weeks later, I asked my mother if she had a premonition, a tingling in her fingers before she read it. She said no, not even a chill down her spine. However, sometimes it’s the everyday events that hold the potential for disaster. Who would have thought that the contents of an innocent-looking envelope could turn our lives upside down?
Best Left Buried: “What on earth were you talking about, Cub?” I asked the big, red-faced man who jumped off the seat of his dirt mover. “What did you mean, ‘there’s something in the well’?”
Grave Heritage: I awoke sitting straight up in bed, my heart doing double time. Was it rain pounding against my bedroom windows or the wind roaring around the house that had awakened me? Jethro, his feline apprehension alerted by my sudden movement, jumped off my bed and darted from the room.
By the Fright of the Silvery Moon: The nightmare jarred me awake. I sat up in bed, my heart hammering against my chest. Something had been chasing me through the dark rooms of Granger Mansion.
Moonstruck and Murderous: Hanging up the phone, I looked down at my dog, Ulysses. “That was altogether unexpected. Who’d ever have thought I’d get a call from the Grand Dame of Ednalee, Oklahoma?”
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