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"... And then, the murders started."


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The opening lines of every novel set the scene and the tone of the entire story. Change the second line, and you change that story...

 

The premise is simple: You post the opening sentence from any novel, then replace the second sentence (whatever it was) with "And then the murders began."

Don't forget to mention the novel and author, in case anyone else wants to try reading it!

 

I'll kick things off with a few:

 

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier:

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. And then the murders started...

 

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen:

No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine. And then the murders started...

 

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath:

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York. And then the murders started...

 

1984 by George Orwell:

It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. And then the murders started...

 

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. And then the murders started...

 

Give it a try! :)

 

 

 

 

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I love the idea of this game!

 

Jodi Picoult - Harvesting the Heart

Nicholas won't let me into my own house, but I have been watching my family from a distance. And then the murders started...

 

Peter F. Hamilton - The Night's Dawn 1: The Reality Dysfunction

Space outside the attack cruiser Beezling tore open in five places. And then the murders started...

 

Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time 1: The Eye of the World

The palace still shook occasionally as the earth rumbled in memory, groaned as if it would deny what had happened. And then the murders started...

 

Diane Chamberlain - The Midwife's Confession

She sat on the top step of the front porch of her Sunset Park bungalow, leaning against the post, her eyes on the full moon. And then the murders started...

 

Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn 1: The Final Empire

Sometimes I worry that I'm not the hero everyone thinks I am. And then the murders started...

 

Stephen King - IT

The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years - if it ever did end - began so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain. And then the murders started...

(HA! This one could totally be true lol. I just picked the book I'm currently reading + 5 of my favourite books).

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Great idea, Kell :)

 

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

 

1801 - I have just returned from a visit from my landlord. And then the murders started...

 

 

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

 

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do. And then the murders started...

 

 

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence

 

Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. And then the murders started...

 

 

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

 

Marley was dead to begin with. And then the murders started...

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'Where's Papa going with that axe?' said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. And then, the murders started ...

Charlottes Web by E.B White

 

 

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.  And then, the murders started ...

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

 

For the better part of my childhood, my professional aspirations were simple–I wanted to be an intergalactic princess.  And then, the murders started ...

Seven Up by Janet Evanovich

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'Where's Papa going with that axe?' said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast. And then, the murders started ...

Charlottes Web by E.B White

This has to be the most perfect pairing ever!!!

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A few more to make you giggle. ;)

 

Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. And then the murders started... - Animal Farm by George Orwell.

 

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the riverbank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book', thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversation?' And then the murders started... - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.

 

It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. And then the murders started... - The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler.

 

Dr. Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or got any worse. And then the murders started... - Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres.

 

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. And then the murders started...  - Emma by Jane Austen.

 

When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears, his eyes were reduced to chinks, and diverging wrinkles appeared round them, extending upon his countenance like the rays in a rudimentary sketch of the rising sun. And then the murders started... - Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.

 

Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death. And then the murders started... - The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

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  • 2 years later...

Can we revive this thread? I just literally laughed out loud at the Charlottes Web one :giggle2:. Halloween month seems like a good time to add some murder into our books too :D.

 

'No one who had ever seen Catherine Moreland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine. And then the murders started...'

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

 

(I think that one actually works quite well!)

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I think I have a better Austin...

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. And then the murders started...

 

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austin.

 

Also...

 

Call me Ishmael. And then the murders started...

 

Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

 

And I thought knocking off hats was the danger here... 

 

 

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11 hours ago, Raven said:

I think I have a better Austin...

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. And then the murders started...

 

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austin.

 

 

Ha! You're right, that is a better one! Have to watch out for those potential wives :giggle2:

 

How about...

 

'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. And then the murders started...'

The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien

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The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another, his mother called him “WILD THING!” and Max said “I'LL EAT YOU UP" and he was sent to bed without eating anything. And then the murders started ...

 

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

 

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On 21/10/2019 at 2:06 AM, poppy said:

The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another, his mother called him “WILD THING!” and Max said “I'LL EAT YOU UP" and he was sent to bed without eating anything. And then the murders started ...

 

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

 

:eek: that’s such a good one! :giggle2:

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