You've Got Five Pages, Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths, 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!  Well, my curse on this podcast strikes again. The prologue of Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths is quite well-crafted and compelling and leagues ahead of the first chapter, which is an exposition dump detailing a separate character's fast-track in her career with law enforcement. Now I can see that Griffiths herself is an avid mystery writer, winner of awards, etc., and the prologue shows me why. Writers would do well to study those first couple of pages to see how this first-person narrative shares a lot about the character without saying it directly. For instance, the first two lines read: "Is it possible to forget that you've committed a murder? Well, I'm here to tell you that it is." This isn't shocking necessarily, as the dust jacket alludes to the group of main characters committing murder during their school days. It's how the paragraph ends that gets me: "...everyone [during the murder mystery game] would get drunk and forget the clues. This rather irritated me. I like following rules." This speaks LOADS about the unique juxtaposition of character Cassie's traits and morals, not to mention the way her mind works. I was ready and willing to continue with Cassie, only the official first chapter just starts the story over again with a different character. Had Griffiths given us a bit more time with Cassie and smoothed that shift over to another character's pov--ending a chapter with Cassie realizing this new character would be in attendance at a party, for instance--I think readers would be more intrigued to learn about her "friend" even if it takes sifting through an exposition dump to do so. And what will you learn from these opening pages? Let's find out! Cheers!