Hard-boiled First Lines, Addendum
“It was the sort of day that didn’t give a damn.” Eleven words. This first line of Tatiana, 2013 by Martin Cruz Smith immediately sets a mood and tone that makes me want to settle in for a good long…
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Reading
Hard-boiled First Lines
Dashiell Hammett along with Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain are considered founders of hard-boiled detective fiction. It is no surprise that many of their novels became popular movies, often quoted, that continue to delight us. What sets these writers…
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First Lines, Books
Selecting a book is a sort of alchemy. First, something compels me to pick it up. That may be a great title, a strange title, a compelling title, an enigmatic title, a just plain weird title. It could be an…
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