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!
I place my thumb and forefinger on the icy flesh,
spreading it taut above the breastbone
as Uncle showed me.
Getting the preliminary incision correct
was imperative.
Clearly I was having a hard time finding appropriate gifs for this one, so here’s some tumblr pics. Enjoy.
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco!
Presented by James Patterson’s new children’s imprint, this deliciously creepy horror novel has a storyline inspired by the Ripper murders and an unexpected, blood-chilling conclusion…
Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.
Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.
The story’s shocking twists and turns, augmented with real, sinister period photos, will make this dazzling, #1 New York Times bestselling debut from author Kerri Maniscalco impossible to forget.
I may actually want to reread this one so I can finally read the rest of the series since Capturing the Devil came out this year. I let my coworker read the first three (she still has the third one) and I’m going to let her borrow the last one when she’s done, and she said it’s been pretty good so far. I guess I gotta find out for myself.
Again, I’m sorry for the lack of gifs, but I decided against choosing autopsy gifs because those were pretty gory and I didn’t want anyone being triggered by this post. I hope that’s okay.
Sometimes Leelynn Reads 
Such a good opening! I love this book!
(www.evelynreads.com)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yessssss! I want to reread it
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love that cover! Not sure about the content, though. Jack the Ripper has never been a favorite of mine (though I do have a friend who is rather more obsessed…)
Also, personally I don’t mind fewer gifs. Sometimes I find they distract from the post. And in this case, I definitely appreciate it! I thin you made a good choice to not include gory gifs. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I feel like this book didn’t romanticize Jack the Ripper at all, so I think that’s why I liked it better. It was more about Audrey trying to use her skills to figure out who it was, and how to stop him from hurting other women. And just honing her autopsy skills as well in a world that doesn’t think women should do those kinds of things, you know?
I totally understand that. I feel like I’m a huge gif lover for certain posts, and others I totally forget or something and it’s just big blocks of text and I feel terrible that it’s so much to read.
Oh thank you! I would never put gory gifs on here because even I wouldn’t be able to handle it! I wouldn’t want someone to feel uncomfortable seeing it.
LikeLike