Now, that's an opening

I wrote yesterday that the opening chapter of David Whish-Wilson's novel Line of Sight reminded me of Leonard Sciascia. Here's the passage from Sciascia I had in mind, the opening of Equal Danger:

“District Attorney Varga was conducting the prosecution in the Reis trial, which had been going on for almost a month and would have dragged on for at least two more, when, one mild May night, after ten and not later than twelve, according to various testimony and to the autopsy, they killed him.”

Read that sentence slowly and think how how Sciascia has laid out the story it tells. Then read the sentence that follows immediately, in the same paragraph:

“The testimony, in point of fact, did not strictly coincide with with results of the autopsy…”

Not a bad way to start a crime story, I'd say.

© Peter Rozovsky 2012