Friday, June 25, 2010

Book Beginnings for June 25th

Time for this week's Book Beginnings on Friday.

I spent most of this week reading Set Sail for Murder by R. T. Jordan.  This is his fourth Polly Pepper mystery.  Polly is an aging living legend who is hanging on to her former glory as the star of an 80's TV musical variety show.  The first sentence is:

"If I see one more ESTATE FOR SALE sign planted on our street, I swear I'll develop hysterical blindness!" Polly Pepper complained from the back seat of her Rolls-Royce.

It's not a grabber opener, but it does set up Polly's over the top personality and the fact that the hard economic times have hit even Hollywood stars, so she must take the job of the cruise ship where the book is set.

Just last night, I started Run Afoul by Joan Druett.  This is a historical set aboard the US's Exploration Expedition that sailed almost around the world in the late 1830's.  It's a fun way to learn some history, especially if you like sailing (like I do).  The first sentence is:

As he slumped exhaustedly in the cutter that pulled from the brig Swallow to the expedition flagship Vincennes, Wiki Coffin wondered if he smelled as bad as Lieutenant Forsythe.

This is the third book in the series, so those names do mean something to us.  The sentence certainly did catch my attention and make me want to read more, although frankly, I wish the first chapter had done a bit of a better job reminding us how we left things in the last book.  It's been over a year since I read it, and I'm a bit fuzzy on the last chapter.

2 comments:

Stacy at The Novel Life said...

very cool beginnings

Rebecca Chapman said...

They are both pretty funny, especially the first one!