Opening Lines

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Wickeds, do your best with an opening line for this wintry scene from Edith’s friend Howard W. Phillips. Friends, please add yours in the comments!

Julie: Blasted climate change. There wasn’t enough ice to keep the body hidden. She needed to come up with another plan.

Liz: The dog pulled me down the hill, past the broken tree limbs, all the way to the creek. And then I saw the hat floating on top of the water.

Sherry: I stared down at the reflections. That’s when I realized there was a body in the trees.

Barb: Margaret stopped and listened, her heart racing, her muscles tensed to fight or flee. Walking alone through the silent, wintry landscape by her cabin always brought her a peace she knew nowhere else. But today she wasn’t alone.

Jessie: She couldn’t understand why he had suggested a walk along the river. It wasn’t as though she was an outdoorsy sort and it semed to her that the sloped land above the river was too icy to be entirely safe.

Edith/Maddie: Josie cursed the early winter thaw. She’d expected Bill’s body to be gone by now, or at least more decomposed. She was going to have to clear town sooner than she’d wanted to.

Readers: Add your opening line!

Published by Edith Maxwell

Agatha Award -winning author Edith Maxwell writes the historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries (Beyond the Page) and short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Dot and Amelia Mysteries, the Country Store Mysteries series, the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, and the Cece Barton Mysteries (all from Kensington Publishing). She lives north of Boston in an antique house with her beau and cat Martin, where she writes, gardens, cooks, and wastes time on Facebook.

40 Thoughts

  1. Opening line: “Most of the authors who saw this picture clearly have murder in mind…”

    Not that I wouldn’t read a book with any of those first lines but I really loved Julie and Edith’s a lot and thought to myself, “Who’s “she”?” and “Who’s Josie and why did she kill Bill?”

  2. Wow…that must be why you all are writers. I’d read those books!
    Me… not do much, Ehehehe.

  3. The woods were silent, still. Not even a bird twittered overhead. Then she saw it. A flash of red between the trees. He was getting closer.

  4. There’s something about snow and the woods that makes me remember that day.

    2. Oh, Dru! Now you need to hurry up and write the rest of that novel. I really want to read it.

  6. Following the snowy river felt safe. We’d see tracks in the snow if anyone else was there.

  7. Just off the edge of the bank in the icy water, could that be a pair of maryjane shoes with white socks…and legs?

    Thanks Wickeds for the chance to stretch our minds!

  8. The woman stopped by the stream to catch her breath and check her watch. She had been snowshoeing for a solid hour but would not stop until she reached her destination. The unfrozen stream was a minor setback as she’d have to cross it to continue on her journey.

  9. As Angela was crossing the creek, she realized to her horror that the stone she was stepping on wasn’t a stone at all.

  10. Sweat glimmered on my brow. Next year, I promised myself, I’m getting a bigger snowmobile. I tugged hard and pulled Bob’s deadweight to the creek bed. Tonight’s promised snow would cover the tracks. With a shove of my foot, I pushed him in. Another one bites the dust.

  11. The winter woods looked serene but there was a menacing presence hidden under the creek’s icy depths.

  12. I really love silent, solitary canoe rides in the winter. What a peaceful way to spend the day. Then the canoe hit something that definitely was not a branch.

  13. The snow created a kind of cushion around the whole area. It was beautiful. The snow an ice hanging on the trees . The pristine look of a virgin snowfall undisturbed. The lake looked like a giant mirror reflecting the beauty all around it. Wait! What was that dark spot, a blemish on the face of nature. She strode closer to the mirror that was the lake. Only to see a face looking back at her, but it wasn’t hers. There was a body, under the ice, a face frozen with terror!

  14. He always said I had a cold heart. Somehow, the fact that I was leaving his body in this cold wintry landscape seemed fitting.

  16. Harsh against the white-barked trees,
    slashes of red, slivers of bone,
    Not birds, nor flowers, nor bees,
    Just a body laid across stone.

  17. So hard to comprehend how such a so called human being can be so cold and dump a body here like as if it was a piece of trash, only a very cold hearted and sick person could do this.

  18. Sarah was enjoying a quiet walk through the snow down to the creek, far away from all the craziness, when her cell phone started vibrating.

  19. Six months ago, they had picnicked here, then lay side by side on the blanket, fingers entwined, stealing kisses and naming the clouds. Finally, Jack sat up. “I’ve got to go, Soph. They’ll be waiting. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He helped her pack up, then gathered her close for one last kiss. She watched him splash across the brook… and never saw him again.

  20. They’d discussed it, many times. Last night they took a vote. At dawn, the trees began advancing.

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