A killing beginning doesn’t guarantee I will love the book. But it is a start.

Here are two of my favorite beginnings.

“King Constantine IX of Regia had been killed three times and was bored with it. He wanted a bath.” From Lloyd Alexander’s The Beggar Queen.

“When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.” From S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders.

Care to share your favorites?

"When I was nine years old, I hid under a table and heard my sister kill a king." - Frances Mary Hendry, Quest for a Maid.

Hahaha... when you said "a killing beginning," I thought you meant a book that started with someone dying. ;)

So, of course I thought of Samurai Shortstop - which has, literally, a killing beginning!

"Toyo watched carefully as his uncle prepared to kill himself." Samurai Shortstop.

Yes, I guess that qualifies as a "killing beginning" all right.

wow, just from reading these first lines, I really want to read Quest for a Maid and The Beggar Queen!

I just finished reading Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, and it's got a pretty good opening:

"So, there I was, tied to an alter made from outdated encyclopedias, about to get sacrificed to the dark powers by a cult of evil Librarians."

(I LOVED the book, by the way!!;>)

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." ~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit. It will forever hold a special place in my heart. =)

"I discovered windows one afternoon and after that, nothing was ever the same." Anne Spollen, from Shape of Water

I just finished that book, and I can't get that first line out of my head.

Lindsay --

That book sounds really interesting! I've added it to my to-read list, but I would've never found it if you hadn't brought it up.

Thanks so much!

"When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day. It will say LEO GURSKY IS SURVIVED BY AN APARTMENT FULL OF SHIT."
-The History of Love, Nicole Krauss

Best. First line. Ever.
Also, one of my favorite books ever.

Again- totally adding that book, Grace. It sounds great!

"Ash fell from the sky." It's the first line of Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. (I'm not including the epithet at before the chapter starts.) Both the prologue and Chapter One start with this line. It sucked me in right away.

'It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.'
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Great beginnings all above!

Although when I started this thread I didn't mean the "killing beginning" literary. I have since become aware that many books start with a killing and, the truth is, it hooks me every time.

Here are two more.

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

"It was just past midday, not long before the third summons to prayer, that Ammar ibn Khairan passed through the Gate of the Bells and entered the palace of Al-Fontina in Silvenes to kill the last of the khalifs of Al-Rassan."
The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay