Welcome back, my fellow creatives!
Yup, I'm back to looking at the first five pages of various stories, for those five pages can make or break the engagement of a reader--or an agent. So, let's scope out the stories of others to see how they hook an audience!

First, I have to apologize for goofing any Scottish language in this book, as it’s set in Scotland. I avoided attempting the accent, at least. 😊

That said, The Author’s Guide to Murder is the work of three authors: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White. The story is about—you’ve guessed it—three authors who are working on a book together when a murder happens at the castle they’re visiting. There’s a blurb on the dust jacket calling this a Murder, She Wrote kind of story with a flair of literary satire, and it shows. The prologue sets the grisly, bizarre crime scene with lots of detail thanks to the point of view of the protagonist, the Detective Chief Inspector in charge of the case. Thankfully, the prologue does not mean we’re dealing with some bait’n’switch; rather, the next chapter uses a dialogue format to show the police interviewing one of the women collaborating on a book. If the other authors are anything like the quirky Mrs. Pringle, I think readers are in for a treat here.

And what will we discover in the following story's pages?
We'll have to wait and see. xxxx

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!