First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?
- Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
- Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
- Finally… reveal the book!
My parents are in the business of death; that is, they run a small undertaker’s practice in the village of Alderley where we live, half a day’s carriage ride from Bristol. My pa, a cabinet maker by trade, fashions simple caskets. Mama lays out the bodies. ‘The dead can’t hurt us’ is a much-used phrase of hers. On the whole, she is right.
Any ideas?
This one sounds perfect for spooky season!
Goodreads Synopsis:
When you’re dead, you’re dead. When you’re gone, you’re gone.
Unless, of course, you’re not.
And that’s where I come in.
The year is 1897, and Peggy Devona can speak with ghosts.
She hides her gift from those afraid of a girl with such powers, terrified of the secrets the dead could reveal through her. But when her best friend is accused of murdering her rich mistress, Peggy knows only she – a whisperling – can save her.
Peggy escapes to her uncle’s psychic emporium in the city, seeking out new ghosts to help her solve Sally’s case.
Yet time is running out, and each step towards uncovering the truth also brings Sally one step closer to the gallows. . .
What do you think? Is this one that grabs your interest?
Book Craic 
That’s a great opening!
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