From Jane Austen onwards, authors have been using the first paragraph of their novels like fishing lures to hook their readers imaginations. A good book cover will always grab my attention but often, what makes me press the BUY NOW button is whether the opening paragraph makes me want to read more.

An opening paragraph that not only cries READ ME but also hints at the voice of the novel, makes me feel valued as a reader. The author has put in the effort to make me want to read the novel or to know at once that it’s not for me.

It’s a dull October day today. The sky is a wahedout grey and it’s raining just hard enough to make walkers miserable without providing any sense of drama. So I decided check out the first paragraphs the last fifteen books that I gave five stars to this year. A third of them had opening paragraphs that I think deserve applause.

Take a look at them and see what you think.

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This is a truly quirky first paragraph that sparks a lot of questions. Who or what is Almost Brilliant? Who is Almost Brilliant talking to and what is trying to eat them?

The paragraph told me two things: this was not going to be a conventional read and I wanted to know EVERYTHING.

I loved the novella that followed. It was odd, surprising and yet truthful in a timeless way.

My review is HERE

I already knew I liked Robert E. Dunn’s work when I picked up this book, but I was dubious about reading a book with a criminal as the hero. This paragraph was enough to pull me in. It said NOIR in flashing neon letters but it also suggested a sense of humour and a main character who enjoyed telling his own story.

‘Dead Man’s Badge‘ lived up to the promise of that first paragraph. It was an excellent, full-on, action-packed, Southern Noir thriller, soaked in violence and powered by vengeance. It’s vivid, fresh and engaging.

My review is HERE

This first paragraph worked for me because it was surprising. ‘Legends & Lattes’ was marketed as a cosy fantasy novel. An uplifting book about found family and the power of great coffee and good intentions. So this was a fairly gory start. Of course, within a paragraph or two, it was clear that Viv was walking away from this violent lifestyle. By then, the book had my full attention.

My review is HERE

‘The Sins Of Our Fathers‘ was the sixth and final book of the Rebecka Martinsson series, so I needed no persuading to buy it. Even so, this first paragraph made me smile in anticipation of a good story, well told. I knew that Åsa Larsson liked to take me inside the heads of people who would later, sometimes much later, become central to the story. I enjoyed her books as much for the time spent in various characters’ heads as for the mystery plot they were part of.

‘The Sins Of Our Fathers’ was an excellent conclusion to the Rebecka Martinsson series. It went well beyond the remit of a typical crime novel, tackling themes of the damage that anger, greed, and envy do, and the long shadows that they cast across generations. I’m sorry the series is over but glad that it had such a well-written conclusion.

My review is HERE

This is a superb example of what an opening paragraph can be. If this paragraph doesn’t hook you, then the rest of the book wouldn’t have been your kind of read anyway. I love the thinks-she’s-rational-but-sounds-insane flavour of the words. The only potentially misleading thing about the first paragraph is that it suggests the whole story will be told from the speaker’s point of view. Thankfully, it isn’t. It’s told from three points of view and each of them is evoked as powerfully as the first.

This was a dark story that kept getting darker and more twisted.

My review is HERE