Instant Hook

As a rule, I don't read espionage thrillers and murder mysteries. I don't know why, but I lack the patience to sift through the bits and pieces of clues. Typically I start at the beginning, jump around the middle and then skim the end. If the conclusion works without being silly, I might finish the other miscellaneous parts.

William Boyd has come out with a new spy drama, Restless, which was reviewed in the NYT and coupled with a teaser of a first chapter. The plot sounds intriguing enough, with Britain spying on the US and engaging in various skullduggeries to lure America into the war against Nazi Germany. If only for the historical backdrop, I might pick this one up when it's available at the local library, but I can't say if I'd read it with any intensity. Could be more akin to my reading of The DaVinci Code, which took all of a single evening. Skimming over detritus saves time, and if an author loads up the pages with dreck, well, I just pick out the juicy bits and leave the scraps behind.

What I found most fascinating about the opening chapter was the hook. It's there, blazing away within the opening lines. In fact, the hook goes after the reader who has picked up the novel at the shop and looks over the first page before deciding to purchase or discard. There's a suggestion of hooking in the beginning paragraph, in which the narrator recalls her mother's words. No, not backstory. Just a very brief set-up for the hook.

It's at the end of the second paragraph -- right there, ready to grab the reader before they close the book and put it back on the shelf. As the narrator speaks of fear and her mother's concern that someone would come to kill her, Mr. Boyd socks you with the hook. It's a very short sentence, giving it more power after a string of longer, more complex prose. "And she had good reason." he writes, closing out the paragraph.

Of course you'd want to read more. The sentence creates tension, it suggests something is coming. The question is, can I do as much in the opening of my WIP? Maybe this is the hardest part of writing a novel.