First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #71 and Teaser Tuesdays

          
It's Tuesday . . . time to share book excerpts with: 

• First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

• Teaser Tuesdays hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, where bloggers post two (2) random “teaser” sentences--no spoilers allowed--from their current reads to try to entice others to seek out these books.

Today I'm featuring the opening paragraph and a teaser from She's Leaving Home, a debut police procedural by William Shaw, which I just finished reading.

 

1968

ONE

"Why didn't you go when I told you, before we left the house?"  The question is aimed at a small, short-trousered boy, moving angrily down the pavement.  Nanny, hair wild in the October wind, drives the huge Silver Cross pram with her right hand and drags the little boy along the pavement with the left.  Baby has abandoned Nee-Noo, her felt elephant, and is grizzling under the yellow blanket.  They had gone to the park.  None of the other nannies had been there.  It was too cold, but the children's mother insisted they go for a walk every morning before their elevenses.  Mother believed in fresh air and exercise, though she herself preferred to stay home, sucking Park Drives and talking for hours and hours on the phone like it doesn't cost anything and playing patience.

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Teaser:  "You're such a moron sometimes, Paddy bloody Breen.  You don't have the foggiest, do you?" ~ p. 370

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 
The setting is St. John's Wood, near to Abbey Road, the Beatles' recording studio.  The cultural scene of 1960s London and the changing moral and political climate is deftly incorporated into this murder mystery.

What are you reading now or planning to read soon?

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #71 and Teaser Tuesdays was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.