Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.
My opening this week comes from Dead Centre by Joan Lock which appealed to my love of history and crime fiction.
Blurb
1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee.
Trafalgar Square. London.
Unrest has been building for days, the unemployed gathering daily to protest and nightly to sleep.
The police are exhausted by extra duty; blamed for failing to do more to prevent the disorder, they grow increasingly bitter about the protesters’ accusations of brutality.
When a prominent member of one of the new socialist organisations is found dead at the foot of Nelson’s Column, it only adds more fuel to the protesters’ fire.
DI Best and Constable Roberts must juggle competing priorities as they search for the killer and attempt to manage the Trafalgar Square situation.
To make matters worse, Best catches a glimpse of Stark, a man guilty of murder in Whitechapel — the only witness to the crime is Florence Bagnall, Roberts’s fiancé.
As tensions rise and time begins to run out, Best realises that something terrible is about to happen…and that he may be powerless to stop it. NetGalley
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First Chapter ~ First Paragraph ~ Intro
Chapter 1
October, 1887.
How long with this go on? wondered Detective Inspector Ernest Best as he contemplated the extraordinary scene before him.
On the ground all across Trafalgar Square lay hundreds of sleeping people: men, women and children. Some were alone more were huddled together for warmth. The October nights were becoming sharper now.
The luckier ones, or those who had got there early enough, or were more sensible, had found refuge in the lee of the sunken square’s eastern parapet or the western walls of the fountain basins which sheltered them a little from the chill north-east wind.
Please note that these excerpts are taken from a proof copy
Do you want to know more?
If you have an opening to share, please leave your link in the comments box below
Oooh, I didn’t know there was unrest at Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee… sounds intriguing.
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I didn’t either and had to check it out – similarly to our present Queen’s Golden Jubilee there was high levels of unemployment and people demonstrating and rioting etc. Fascinating stuff!
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I’m already intrigued by the history element, Cleo. I really hope you enjoy this one!
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I do love my history Margot.
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I like it! I can’t recall reading any other crime novel written with this backdrop. Sounds like a good one.
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Thanks for visiting Margot – it is intriguing and I love the historical element.
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I’m not great with historical fiction so might wait for your review on this one…
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No worries, I’ll try and find something a bit more modern for next time 🙂
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OK, you got my attention! Looks good.
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An intriguing opening, definitely read on!
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Will do Cathy – thanks for stopping by 🙂
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This sounds good. Girl Who Reads
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Thanks for visiting Donna 🙂
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I like the opening very much. You may like Nicola Upson’s London Rain – historical fiction with a crime !
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Thank you – I have a copy of An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson – it’s in the massive TBR I must read it soon.
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My, that sounds interesting. I like historical fiction too. Another series, have you read them all?
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No I’ve started with this one and it seems to work well as a stand alone read.
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I love series mysteries and just recently discovered that I also enjoy the historical ones.
No mystery TT for me this week. It’s from The Elegance of the Hedgehog (L’elegance du herisson) by Muriel Barbery at http://wp.me/pZnGI-qP
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It is quite a hard balance to get right but good when it works. Thanks for visiting and leaving your link 🙂
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I am a big fan of crime fiction, and this excerpt whetted my appetite for more. Thanks for sharing…and for visiting my blog.
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It’s always good to share 🙂
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I really enjoy a good historical crime fiction novel! Add in the London setting and I’m even more interested! This sounds interesting, Cleo. I hope you are enjoying it. I will have to look for it.
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Hmm…interesting! It’s not the most exciting opening, but the summary sounds really good. I hope you enjoy this one!
-lauren
http://www.shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com
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Historical fiction and crime/mystery — sounds good to me! If I hadn’t read the blurb, I’d be wondering why all those people were sleeping in Trafalgar Square. Now I’m curious about what will happen to them.
Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment.
Sandy @ TEXAS TWANG
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Id want to know more certainly, not necessarily because of that first paragraph but I do like the historical context of this
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I feel the tension building, sounds good Cleo – enjoy.
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I’m reading a book about London fog and its effect on literature at the moment, and it mentions the unrest in London at that period, though not specifically at the Jubilee. I also wasn’t aware of it before. This one sounds interesting…
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I had no idea until I read this and the author does a great job of creating the scene
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