Kell Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 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). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lau_Lou Posted March 14, 2017 Share Posted March 14, 2017 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 The original opening for The Three Railway Engines was far darker than Reverend W. Awdry's later version: Once upon a time there was a little engine named Edward. aNd tHeN tHE MurDErs sTartEd... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 '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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 '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 ^ The best one yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissy Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 ^ The best one yet! I second this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted March 16, 2017 Author Share Posted March 16, 2017 '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!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted March 16, 2017 Author Share Posted March 16, 2017 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 ^ The best one yet! I second this! This has to be the most perfect pairing ever!!! Lucky find Some very funny ones there too, Kell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 Can we revive this thread? I just literally laughed out loud at the Charlottes Web one . Halloween month seems like a good time to add some murder into our books too . '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!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted October 20, 2019 Share Posted October 20, 2019 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 How about... 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. And then the murders started...' The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayley Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 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 that’s such a good one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. And then the murders started... Mrs Dalloway, by Virginia Woolfe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissy Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive. And then the murders started. Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lau_Lou Posted October 29, 2019 Share Posted October 29, 2019 1 hour ago, Chrissy said: Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive. And then the murders started. Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling That is a good one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf. One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and-pop!- out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar. And then the murders started ... The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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