You've Got Five Pages, The Murder at World's End by Ross Montgomery, to Tell Me You're Good.

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!Could my prologue curse be broken at last! Here's another book that shows an author understands the power of a prologue done right.The prologue sets the time period of the story: 1910, the days of Halley's Comet's chaos among folks all over. The historical exposition is balanced well with what's going on with one Stephen Pike, a former convict ready to turn a new leaf--if only he could get a job so that turning could start. The prologue ends with May 18th: the day folks could take pictures of Halley's Comet because it was only 12 hours from Earth, and the day Pike receives a mysterious letter offering him a job at the grand estate World's End. The prologue is only two pages long, but it provides a solid foundation of the world's collective craziness alongside Stephen Pike's desperation.I always worry that Chapter 1 will pull a bait-and-switch on readers after such solid prologues. We've seen that happen here often enough. Thankfully, Montgomery continues the momentum in Chapter 1, picking right up where the prologue leaves off with one major change: we're experiencing the story through Stephen's point of view. There are slight changes in cadence and word choice, slight changes in grammar, and these little changes add up to a clear, working-class voice modern readers can follow easily. The first chapter focuses strictly on Stephen's interview with the head butler of Tithe Hall, who insists that "there's been some sort of mistake" and that Pike is not going to be hired.Now as readers, we know differently because there wouldn't be a story if Pike weren't hired. But that's not the point. This scene tactfully previews the kinds of situations ex-con Stephen will likely face when dealing with the "honest" working class in the Downstairs of Tithe Hall, not to mention the nobility class of the Upstairs. The scene is propelled along by dialogue with touches of Stephen's thoughts; the pacing isn't bogged down once, not even when Stephen's trying to figure out how he could possibly get back to London if the butler turns him out.I had never heard of Montgomery before this book, and it could be due to his writing children's books before entering the adult fiction market. He's clearly got a passion and flair for the mystery genre, and I'm excited to see how history and fiction come together in the chapters ahead.And what will we discover in the next story's five pages?We'll have to wait and see. xxxxRead on, share on, and write on, my friends!