Opening paragraphs for crime thrillers came up in conversation. I’ve never lined mine up in a row so I had a go. These are they:
THE WRECK OF THE MARGHERITA: “He’d been surprised at the sound his father’s skull made when he split it with the axe. He wasn’t sure what he expected, maybe something wet, squashy. There wasn’t much mess, at least not until he yanked out the blade.”
DEATH SQUAD: “EDDIE Shapiro was obsessed with Cindy-Sue. She indulged his fantasies. She took him to the heights. Eddie had been with more women than he could remember. But Cindy-Sue was the real love of his life.”
ROUGH DIAMOND: “Time to say goodbye to our passenger,” said De Ruyter. And Steele felt sick again. He unclipped his safety harness and pulled himself to his feet, bracing against the juddering of the aircraft in the rising air currents.”
ROCK HARD: “The heat was murder but that wasn’t the worst of it. There were the bodies. They’d seen them from the road, knew what had happened. They knew it was pointless but had to check, had to cover themselves.”
Rock Hard – my fourth Danny Lancaster crime thriller – continues to attract very positive reviews. Here’s one of the latest:
“Danny Lancaster’s latest appearance is more brutal and complex than his previous outings as he finds his loyalty tested to the limit when he heads to Gibraltar to help one of the comrades who saved his life in Afghanistan.
The soldier turned private eye is out of his comfort zone, away from his support network, and a pawn of forces with disparate agendas and more clouded morals than our straightforward, do-the-right-thing hero.
He’s got some serious love interest too, while he battles the baddies in fine style, his cunning, quick-thinking reactions helping him stay alive and – just about – on the case.
As the body count rises we also discover that sometimes one leg is better than two and, as the action builds to a pulsating climax away from the beautifully-recreated micro-world of the British Rock, author Bill Todd leaves us all wondering…”
Rock Hard is set in Gibraltar. The Rock is a bit like Marmite, you love it or you hate it. But if you fancy a taste you should catch Gibraltar: Britain In The Sun (Tuesdays, Channel 5, 8pm) – www.channel5.com/shows/gibraltar-britain-in-the-sun
I lost a life-long friend recently and wrote a few words. You can find them at www.billtodd.co.uk/rip-charlie-harris/
And anyone interested in exceptional young women or aeroplanes might like this. My cousin Barbara might have been the RAF’s first female pilot if it had not been for a tragic air crash – www.barbaragubbins.co.uk
www.facebook.com/DannyLancasterInvestigates
@williamjtodd