Ten Best Hooks: Opening Lines
It’s the start of a New Year and time to make writing resolutions! New starts got me thinking about opening lines – writing a great hook, catching your reader in that opening line is a real skill and one essential to thriller writers. These are 10 opening lines that drew me right in – see what you think…
Legendary crime agent Darley Anderson once told me that the opening and closing lines of the first chapter of Lee Child’s The Killing Floor, showed you exactly how to hook your reader. Here are the opening lines:
“I was arrested in Eno’s diner. At twelve o’clock. I was eating eggs and drinking coffee…”and the closing paragraph:
“I thought: should I be worried? I was under arrest. In a town where I’d nver been before. Apparently for murder. But I knew two things. First, the couldn’t prove something had happened it it hadn’t happened. And second, I hadn’t killed anybody. Not in their town, and not for a long time anyway.”Intrigued?!
Here are some more:
“Even locked in the boot of a speeding car, all Stuart Ball could think about was how he was going to score his next fix.” Niamh O’Connor If I Never See You Again
“All day, I have been watching the girl.” Tess Gerritsen The Silent Girl
“Maybe if he had one more drink they’d leave him alone…” Stuart Neville The Twelve
“Edgy hands slid across the narrow belt, securing it in place on the tiny eight-year-old waist.” Alex Barclay Darkhouse
“The woman who was soon to die stepped cautiously out of the door and glanced around.” Liza Marklund The Bomber
“The morning of the day I lost her, my daughter asked me to scramble her some eggs.” Lynwood Barclay Fear the Worst
“The call came at midnight.” Michael Connolly The Overlook
“The man at the foot of my bed is too sharply dressed to be anything but a lawyer or a pimp.” Declan Burke Absolute Zero Cool
And finally this is a classic line from my favourite book of all time,
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” Daphne du Maurier Rebecca
Leave a Reply
About Sam Blake
Sam Blake is Vanessa O'Loughlin's alter ego. When she isn't reading or writing crime fiction, Vanessa runs the Irish writing resources website www.writing.ie and brings best selling authors to Inkwell Writers Workshops to guide and inspire aspiring writers. Vanessa is PRO for Irish PEN. As Sam Blake, Vanessa gets to do what she enjoys most - write! Find out more about Sam Blake...
