Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #25

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from one of my current reads with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

This week's selection:

   

Beginning:  CHAPTER ONE

"Got a light?"  I asked the bulky man silhouetted against the gray night sky and the faint glimmer of the Serpentine.  His hand in his pocket, scritch of a match, then blue light fractured and illuminated blunt features, small dark eyes, a heavy brow ridge, and a certain brutality of expression that sent my heart pumping with the frisson of danger: better than I hoped.  "Thanks."  Darkness again.  I took a quick drag of the cigarette, risking my asthmatic lungs for courtesy.  "Nice night."

 

This book combines many of my favorite elements--historical fiction, mystery, imagined scenarios featuring a real, larger-than-life character, and London during World War II.  All of these factors make this an appealing story. 

 

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Page 56:  "Though a hopeful gambler, Arnold was old enough to know the odds--in wagers and in life."

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From barnesandnoble.com:  A killer takes refuge in the blacked-out streets of wartime London, upending the world of one of Britain’s greatest painters in this chilling and captivating reimagining of the life of Francis Bacon.

 

Francis Bacon walks the streets of World War II London, employed as a warden for the ARP to keep watch for activities that might tip off the Axis powers. Before the war, Bacon had traveled to Berlin and Paris picking up snatches of culture from a succession of middle-aged men charmed by his young face. Known for his flamboyant personal life and expensive taste, Bacon has returned home to live with his former nanny—who’s also his biggest collector—in a cramped bohemian apartment.

But one night, death intrudes on his after-hours paradise. When a young man is found dead in the park, his head smashed in, Bacon and the rest of London’s demimonde realize that they have much more to fear than the faraway scream of war.

Enjoy life with books . . .

 

Catherine

 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #25 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.