This week the folks at Hoarding Books are celebrating the shortest month of the year by featuring short stories, novellas, children’s books, titles with small or short in them, etc. — basically all things little! I searched my shelves for just the right thing to share and came up with Favorite Father Brown Stories by G.K. Chesterton. This little book features 6 of Chesterton’s short stories starring Father Brown. Great for lovers of British mysteries!
Please leave a comment with your first line. For other small offerings, check out Hoarding Books!
My featured first line comes from the first story in this collection, The Blue Cross.
Critic, author, and debunker extraordinaire, G. K. Chesterton delighted in probing the ambiguities of Christian theology. A number of his most successful attempts at combining first-rate fiction with acute social observation appear in this original selection from his best detective stories featuring the priest-sleuth Father Brown.
A Chestertonian version of Sherlock Holmes, this little cleric from Essex — with “a face as round and dull as a Norfolk dumpling” and “eyes as empty as the North Sea” — appears in six suspenseful, well-plotted tales: “The Blue Cross,” “The Sins of Prince Saradine,” “The Sign of the Broken Sword,” “The Man in the Passage,” “The Perishing of the Pendragons,” and “The Salad of Colonel Cray.”
An essential item in any mystery collection, these delightful works offer a particular treat for lovers of vintage detective stories and will engage any reader.
(From Wikipedia) Gilbert Keith Chesterton, (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936), better known as G. K. Chesterton, was an English writer, poet, philosopher, dramatist, journalist, orator, lay theologian, biographer, and literary and art critic. Chesterton is often referred to as the “prince of paradox. Time magazine has observed of his writing style: “Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out.”
Chesterton is well known for his fictional priest-detective Father Brown and for his reasoned apologetics. Even some of those who disagree with him have recognised the wide appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an orthodox Christian, and came to identify this position more and more with Catholicism, eventually converting to Catholicism.
Happy Friday!
This week my FLF comes from Still Me by JoJo Moyes.
It was the moustache that reminded me I was no longer in England: a solid, grey millipede firmly obscuring the man’s upper lip; a Village People moustache, a cowboy moustache, the miniature head of a broom that meant business.
Have a great weekend and stay warm!
What a fun first line!
Great first line!
Here are the first couple lines from one I recently finished:
Her head throbbed and grogginess gripped her. She rocked as if on giant waves. (from Thread of Revenge by Elizabeth Goddard)
Those are great lines as well. Happy Friday!
In my blog today I am featuring one of my favorite author’s books.Helen MacInnes show how words will effect a perception of a person or event. I am reading THE AWKWARD SQUAD by Sophie Henaff. The FL is Paris, August 9, 2012 Anne Capestan was standing at her kitchen window waiting for dawn to arrive. She drained her mug in one gulp and set it down on the shiny green tablecloth. She had just drunk her last coffee as a police officer. Or had she? “
Intriguing! Thanks for sharing!
Happy Friday! My first line is from Kizzie’s Kisses by Zina Abbott:
“Kizzie Atwell felt her breathing become more labored.”
Makes you want to more, doesn’t it? Thanks for sharing.
Interesting first line! I’m sharing the first line from Karen Witemeyer’s novella The Love Knot from the Hearts Entwined collection on my blog, so here is the first line from her previous novella, Worth the Wait:
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Victoria Adams stared down at her exposed right leg as her friend Grace Mallory fit the Remington Model 95 over-under double-barreled derringer into the small holster affixed to her garter.
Ha! That’s a great first line!
I love the Father Brown series that comes on TV! And I always wondered if there were books–thanks for sharing! Happy Saturday!
Hope you enjoy the books!
Over on my blog, I’m sharing the first lines from the three novellas in A Night in Grosvenor Square. It’s a new Timeless Regency Collection. I’m 1/2 way done, and I’m loving it so much. Currently, I’m starting chapter 5 in the second story, so I’ll share that first line here:
“In spite of Anne’s attempts to distract herself from thoughts of Davis Whitledge, hours of repetitive work allowed her mind to drift.”
Davis must be quite the guy! 😉