Head & Shoulders used to tell us that, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” That’s true for wearing dark shirts, and it’s especially true for books. Sometimes the characters will hook the reader, sometimes the premise, sometimes it’s just knowing the author—but nothing beats a great opening for getting a reader to commit.
It wasn’t that Mason was vain. It was just that if anyone was going to mess up her face, she wanted it to be her. She already had two piercings in one eyebrow, two in her nose and multiple holes in her ears, but the guy approaching her with a slender but very pointy ice pick seemed to think something more central was going to really pull her look together.
Not that aesthetics were his primary concern.
“I’m going to hurt you,” he said, his breath a little ragged. Mason had just punched him in the gut, and he’d taken it badly.
from Deadly Does It by Abbi Waxman
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