22 May 2023
It's never been more important to start your crime novel with high-stakes. Doesn't matter if it's life-or-death type peril, or if someone's marriage is about to go down the toilet. Maybe he's hanging from his fingernails from a cliff. Maybe she just arrived home from meeting up with her boyfriend, and hubby's sitting there in the dark kitchen waiting for her, his eyes full of dreadful knowing. Something has to be at badly at stake in your opening page, paragraph, line, because we're living in a time when readers don't have to tolerate anything less.
