Great Beginnings

[NOIRTRASH]

She opened her eyes and gazed without understanding at the pendulum motion of the telephone receiver as it skimmed the floor, dangling from the end of the uncurled white rubberized cord. There was a hand holding the receiver, the fingers locked in a rigid grasp. It was a severed hand and a thick trail of blood followed the back and forth swaying motion, in a bright red pattern on her white ceramic tile kitchen floor. It was hers.

Uhnak, Dorothy. False Witness: A Novel (Kindle Locations 42-45). Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller. Kindle Edition.

 

[rawsilk]

‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. There was a padlock and a chain upon the gate. I called in my dream to the lodge-keeper, and had no answer, and peering closer through the rusted spokes of the gate I saw that the lodge was uninhabited.’

Daphne du Maurier "Rebecca"

 

[rawsilk]

'When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.'

Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

 

[rawsilk]

'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.'

A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens

 

[karaline]

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
—William Gibson | Neuromancer

and of course

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
—Jane Austen | Pride and Prejudice

 

[jomar]

We had an author's contest on grabbing the reader back in the day.