You've Got Five Pages, A Secret About a Secret by Peter Spiegelman, To Tell Me You're Good.

The first chapter can make or break a reader's engagement with a story. We as writers must craft brilliant opening pages in order to hook those picky readers, so let's study the stories of others to see how they do it! We return to cozy mysteries this week with A Secret About a Secret by Peter Spiegelman. The first chapter is only three pages long, and don't you worry: Spiegelman uses those three pages to his advantage. By using the first-person narrative, we meander through the protagonist's mind as his car travels through an isolated, bleak landscape. While some of these internal musings felt a bit long-winded, I did appreciate the little tastes of what we as readers are getting into: that this protagonist is some sort of investigator who is also occasionally sent to "punish," that he has "Masters" he must answer to, and that he is not so curious about his duties that he cares to learn more about where he's going for his latest assignment and why. The setting is beautifully described and is currently timeless in its way, but the back cover blurbs promise some futuristic details to come our way. By the end of three pages, we learn our protagonist's name--Myles--and that he's going to visit an isolated manor house where someone has died. Why or how? We don't know, but we as readers are eager to find out. What will you, fellow creative, learn in the first five pages? Let's find out!