27 - A book Where Someone Dies in the First Chapter

[Celine]

I just started The Maid for prompt 29 and it qualifies here too in my opinion

[Aquaria]

The problem with this for a mega-mystery fan like me is *which book* to pick. I'd guess that about 1/3 of the books I'll read this year will have a corpse show up early in the book, and a frightful number of those will have the choir invisible singing in the first chapter.

Well, no matter. I settled on the aptly named 'Whose Body' by Dorothy Sayers.

[Britany]

Finished After Annie by Anna Quindlen

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sherri]

I read Babel

[Robin H-R]

I read:
The Pryce of Conceit: An Historical Ghost Cozy Mystery by Kari Bovee

First in a series. Very good.

[JessicaMHR]

I just finished Evvie Drake Starts Over and was trying to find a place for it when I realized 'Duh, her husband dies in the beginning.'

[Kristie]

Butcher and Blackbird!!

[Ron]

Anyone know of any nonfiction books that could fit this prompt?

[Heather L]

Ron wrote: "Anyone know of any nonfiction books that could fit this prompt?"

I don’t read much nonfiction or true crime, but In Cold Blood by Capote fits. It’s divided into four parts rather than regular chapters, and mentions the murders in the first couple pages.

[Robin H-R]

Ron wrote: "Anyone know of any nonfiction books that could fit this prompt?"

I just finished Three Sisters in Black: The Bizarre True Case of the Bathtub Tragedy which would fit the prompt.

[Ron]

Thanks.

[Joanna]

Angie wrote: "Is there an implication that the character is alive at the start of the book but then dies in the first chapter? Or is it simply that someone's death is mentioned in the first chapter and the narra..."

I think a death mention would count if the implication is they died relatively recently. For instance, I'm planning to use Monstrilio for this prompt, and it opens with a mother mourning the death of her son, which happened just before the start of the book. Maybe minutes, maybe hours, but definitely that same day.

[LeahS]

I read See What I Have Done.

I didn't enjoy this book - not the fault of the author, as it was well-written. It just became depressing to read about such a dysfunctional family, and actually rather creepy. However, there was no sensational treatment of the Borden murders, and the multiple viewpoints were interesting.

Lizzie Borden's sister, Emma, is 41 at the time of the murders, and at the time of Lizzie's trial would have been 42 - she gets such a brief mention at the trial that I thought it would be a bit of a stretch to use it for that prompt, but you could do.

[Nadine in NY]

LeahS wrote: "I read See What I Have Done.

I didn't enjoy this book - not the fault of the author, as it was well-written. It just became depressing to read about such a dysfunctional family, a..."




omg that book. The mutton. The pears. The mutton again. I wouldn't even say it was well-written, you're being kind.

[Jerri O'Reilly]

I read Yellowface by R.F Kuang for this prompt

[Frogli]

I accidentally read a Booker Winner, I don't know who I am anymore! But anyway, it definitely qualifies for this prompt lol

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

[Khalena Tate]

I read Yellowface for this one!

[Kristen]

Most cozy mysteries fit this category. Small town mysteries love killing people

[Nadine in NY]

Frogli wrote: "I accidentally read a Booker Winner, I don't know who I am anymore! "



LOL I'm not sure if I've ever liked a Booker winner! I've started to actually avoid them now, and when Seven Moons won, I immediately thought "guess I'm not reading that one after all!!" (It's not true, I HAVE liked SOME Booker winners. But I still see the prize as off-putting.)

[LeahS]

Usually when I see the words Booker Winner on a cover, I think 'oh dear'.* However, I've read some good books that have been long- or short -listed, but for some inexplicable reason haven't actually won.

*Exempting Wolf Hall / Bring Up the Bodies from that.

[Frogli]

Nadine in NY wrote: "Frogli wrote: "I accidentally read a Booker Winner, I don't know who I am anymore! "

LOL I'm not sure if I've ever liked a Booker winner! I've started to actually avoid them now, and when Seven ..."

Pretty much same, I sort of go, oh Booker winner that's nice and go read the latest fantasy I'm interested in or whatever but actually I seem to have read and enjoyed more than I thought. Mainly Hilary Mantel's fault but I also enjoyed Seven Moons and if you count the international booker, The Vegetarian as well.

The Testaments though was just unnecessary, I had forgotten it won.

[Anna]

I read Poor Deer intending to use it for "magical realism" but eventually slotted it in here.

It's an absolute stunner of a book, and that first chapter is one I'm going to think about for a long, long time.

[Lucy]

Stealing Infinity by Alyson Noel

This is a YA book with time jumping and someone dies in the prologue.

[Jennifer W]

I read Burntown for this one. Kinda weird, but it was twisty murder mystery fun.

[Lucie]

The Maid has a character die in Chapter One

[Dubhease]

Shockingly, even though I'm reading a mystery a month, it took fantasy to have a character die in the first chapter.

The Darkest Road

[Milena]

Dubhease wrote: "Shockingly, even though I'm reading a mystery a month, it took fantasy to have a character die in the first chapter.

The Darkest Road"

I read a lot of mysteries, and have still not accidentally found one where someone dies in the first chapter.

[Nadine in NY]

I've been surprised by how few books have someone die in the first chapter!!! I'm reading a murder mystery right now (Kill Her Twice by Stacy Lee) and even though you KNOW going in that the sisters are going to find a dead actress, they don't find her until chapter three or four.

[Virginia]

For the non-fiction readers, I just read “I Promised it Won’t Always Hurt Like This”; I think it counts depending on your interpretation. Here’s the opening: “I couldn’t tell you what month it was, but there were daffodils, so it must have been spring. A few weeks after Alex died, I suppose. Two months at most.”

[Joanna G]

I've had a couple foolers, too - books that start with a body being found, but then they aren't actually dead. Won't say which for spoiler reasons, but it's a little extra layer of challenge!

[Dubhease]

Milena wrote: "I read a lot of mysteries, and have still not accidentally found one where someone dies in the first chapter."

Most want to introduce you to the character so that when they find a body or see someone get murdered in chapter 2-4, you care more about how this impacts them.

Or they set up all the characters together or that island/isolated house/snowed in hotel, so that when the murders start happening, you know who everyone is.

[Sim1]

Motherthing!

[Paula]

The River We Remember

[K.L.]

One of the Agatha Raisin mysteries, Busy Body, has a character who dies in the first chapter.

[Deb]

I'm re-reading Goblet of Fire for the prompt published 24 years ago and realized there is a few deaths in the first chapter. You could use it for this prompt.

[Denise]

I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

[Jennifer W]

Denise wrote: "I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie"

I just started this and was coming to post that it would work! :)

[Jennifer W]

A couple of others that I've started recently that work:

American Girl
The Frozen River
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism

[Anshita]

I am reading Butter by Asako Yuzuki. The blurb reads "Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer", Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan." The first chapter mentions accounts of the three victims of the killer.
Maybe this is a bit of a stretch as they are not the focal point of the novel, but I really wanted to read this book and I'm reading it for this prompt.

[Michele]

In Boundary Crossed by Melissa F. Olson, the main character actually dies for the third time.

[tif]

If you don't mind YA and are after an entertaining, quick read then When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey is a great book that fits this prompt in a very amusing (though not for the victim) way

[Laura Ruth]

Was going to readWhile Justice Sleeps, a mystery by Stacey Abrams (yes, THAT Stacey Abrams). But wound up reading Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen, a dark comedy about a female serial killer:

http://www.lauraruthloomis.com/whats-...