MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE FIRST LINES FROM AUTHOR AND EDITOR JUDY PENZ SHELUK

A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the author of two mystery series: The Glass Dolphin Mysteries and the Marketville Mysteries. Her short crime fiction appears in several collections, including The Best Laid Plans, Heartbreaks & Half-truths, and Moonlight & Misadventure, which she also edited. Learn more about Judy and her books at her website. 

Moonlight & Misadventure: First Lines

There’s a famous line in the movie Jerry McGuire: “You had me at hello.” Opening lines are every bit as important in novels, and especially so with short fiction, where the author doesn’t have the luxury of allowing the reader to explore the story over several chapters. In the case of Moonlight & Misadventure: 20 Stories of Mystery & Suspense, I received 93 submissions representing 26 U.S. states, 4 Canadian provinces, as well as the U.K., the Netherlands, India, Austria, and New Zealand. Culling that down to what I considered the best 20 went far beyond the opening sentence...but a good one really helped. Here they are, in order of appearance:

 

‘Crown Jewel’— Joseph S. Walker

Given a choice, Keenan Beech wouldn’t have committed his first felony on the night of a full moon.

 

‘The Ballad of the Jerrell Twins’ — Clark Boyd

The second and final time the Jerrell twins met was at their father’s funeral.

 

‘Tammy Loves Derek’ — Bethany Maines

Tammy Lee Swanley climbed out of the dumpster and walked the three blocks through the salty slush of chemicals, dirt, and snow until she got to the corner across the street from the strip mall that housed Lombard’s Jewelry.

 

‘Moonset’ — Jeanne DuBois

Three train routes ran from Camden to Atlantic City in July, 1921.

 

‘Reunions’ — John Floyd

Larry Taylor woke up somewhere over the Oklahoma panhandle, dreaming of a woman’s voice.

 

‘A Currency of Wishes’ — Kate Fellowes

Josh O’Leary shook his head.

 

‘Cereus Thinking’ — Tracy Falenwolfe

It started with a Barbie doll.

 

‘Just Like Peg Entwistle’ — Robert Weibezahl 

Girl Leaps to Death from Sign—Los Angeles Times headline, September 19, 1932

 

‘Scavenger Hunt’ — Michael A. Clark

I killed the outboard motor as we approached the dark lagoon, moonlight shining over our ebbing wake.

 

‘My Night with The Duke of Edinburgh’ — Susan Daly

I shifted my body for the third time.

 

‘Dead on the Beach’ — KM Rockwood

Oliver was my big brother. He wasn’t supposed to die like that.

 

‘Madeline in the Moonlight’ — Susan Jane Wright

Something hit the floor and shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.

 

‘Not a Cruel Man’ — Buzz Dixon

Feeling good after he finished, he set the bloody sledgehammer down headfirst on the white shag carpet.

 

‘12 Miles to Taylorsville’ — C.W. Blackwell

The clatter of liquor bottles.

 

‘Chicken Coops and Bread Pudding’ — K.L. Abrahamson

Old Man Harper’s undulating fields were fallow with the fall’s last cut of hay, but around the edges the grass stood tall and brittle like the hair around an old man’s ears.

 

‘The Promotion’ — Billy Houston

Peter Hayes felt a swell of pride when he finished going through the last customer in the database—Mr. Anthony Yates, who signed up for his security system in 1983.

 

‘The Library Clue’ — Sharon Hart Addy

For hours, snow flew, fell, billowed, and blinded, covering everything with a distorting layer of white.

 

‘Ill Met By Moonlight, Proud Miss Dolmas’ — Elizabeth Elwood

In my forty years as an English and drama teacher, I have never had a problem with keeping high school principals in their place, but in that blissful unaware-of-what-was-to-come-September before the pandemic took over the world, one appeared who tested my patience to the limit.

 

‘The Moon God of Broadmoor’ — M.H. Callway

The life of a public health inspector is not easy.

 

‘Strawberry Moon’ — Judy Penz Sheluk

The U.S. border guard looked at me with barely concealed contempt.

 

So, there you have it. Twenty opening lines. Twenty different approaches. Do you have a favorite?

 

Moonlight & Misadventures: 20 Stories of Mystery and Suspense

A Superior Shores Anthology, Book 3

 

Whether it’s vintage Hollywood, the Florida everglades, the Atlantic City boardwalk, or a farmhouse in Western Canada, the twenty authors represented in this collection of mystery and suspense interpret the overarching theme of “moonlight and misadventure” in their own inimitable style where only one thing is assured: Waxing, waning, gibbous, or full, the moon is always there, illuminating things better left in the dark.

 

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