Novelties

Five opening sentences from novels yet to be (or never to be) written:

1. Sarah was crying again, but something was peculiar about these tears: they moved in the reverse fashion, rising from her lap, gathering along her cheek, and inserting themselves into her eyes; everyone was taken aback, but this soon faded as each couple filed their way out of the house backwards and in reverse order of their arriving, and Samuel was left to wonder what on earth that gypsy had slipped into his drink at lunch.

2. The blood was draining quickly, but he had just enough time to drag his near corpse of a body from the dining room to the front door to write a message in his own blood, "Joseph Carpe" but his hand slipped for the last time and rendered the message unreadable.

**Has anyone written a novel where the murderer is known to the reader but not the victim? I'm sure its been done, but for some reason I can't think of by whom at the moment. I think that would be a fun one.**

3. It wouldn't be until years later, in a conversation with Jim Needham on the event, that Jonathan would truly realize the gravity of his mistake in asking Mother Martha if her nonexistent baby was to be a boy or a girl.

4. Charles had always been fond of children, but this was simply too much for even him to handle, he thought as he attempted to forcibly walk out of the walk-in pantry in which he was currently imprisoned.

5. Jack had never given the idea of a twin brother any thought, but now it dominated his mind as the only explanation for this imposter who stood before him in poor dress, and with unmistakably familiar features, who had apparently been responding to the name Jack for weeks, giving the real owner of that name quite a bad reputation for slovenliness.

This is what happens when my job requires me to fold brochures for several hours...