First Lines Friday

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Welcome to First Lines Friday, originally hosted by Reading is my Superpower.

Instead of judging a book by its cover, here are the first few lines which I hope will make you want to read this book.

These lines are from the library book I am currently reading.

<i> Dominic – Sunday afternoon

He has no idea how long he has been sitting there. There’s no clock in the room, just a table, three chairs and a single narrow window set high into the wall – too high to offer anything but a glimpse of the blank grey sky outside. It could have been twenty minutes since the police ushered him in and asked him to ‘wait here, please’; it could have been far longer. Dominic knows in moments of heightened stress that seconds can feel like minutes and minutes like hours, though the vending machine cup of tea that someone brought him cooled ages ago. He also knows that every time he thinks about what might be happening outside this room, he feels a painful constriction in his chest, a tight band pressing vice-like against his lungs, making breathing hard.

He would be more help out there. Not shut away in a hospital consulting room, sitting in his damp clothing, waiting to answer questions – questions he’s certain he won’t have the answers to. But the two detectives had been insistent – he was to assist with their enquiries. Almost, he thinks, as if they suspect him of something.</i>

So, what do you think?

Do you like what you’ve just read?

Does it make you want to read more?

These are the opening lines of <i>The Search Party</i> by Hannah Richell.

When I first saw this cover, it instantly gave me vibes of <i>The Birds</i>, Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s short story by the same name.

Five old friends reunite for an idyllic glamping holiday on the rugged Cornwall coast, but tensions rise when a storm leaves them stranded and someone goes missing.

Max and Annie Kingsley have left the London rat race with their twelve-year-old son to set up a glamping site in the wilds of Cornwall. Eager for a dry run ahead of their opening, they invite three old university friends and their families for a long-needed reunion and a relaxing weekend.  

But the festivities soon go awry as tensions arise between the children (and subsequently their parents), explosive secrets come to light, and a sudden storm moves in, cutting them off from help as one in the group disappears. 

Moving between a police investigation, a hospital room and the catastrophic weekend, The Search Party is a propulsive destination thriller about the tenuous bonds of friendship and the lengths parents will go to protect their children.