A priest, a president, and a Boy Scout walk into a bar...Great First Lines

 Q: What’s your favorite first line of a book or story, and why? Then tell us your favorite first line from one of your books and stories, and why.

 

from Susan

 

This is a hard question to answer. There can never be one for all time. Reading as many books as I – and you – do every month, let alone every year, trying to remember which one struck you as the “best” is difficult enough. 

But then there’s the problem of what makes a “best.” After all an intriguing first line may lead you by false promise...