And it got me thinking about main character introductions that give us an immediate insight into character.
Here are 17 of my personal favorites, and today's challenge is to a) name the narrator being introduced and b) extra credit for the author or the book title. [NO FAIR USING GOOGLE!!]
1
My name is [NAME]. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the deathcup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.
2
My name is [NAME]. I'm a private investigator, licensed by the state of California. I'm thirty-two years old, twice divorced, no kids. The day before yesterday I killed someone and the fact weighs heavily on my mind.
3
There are some men who enter a woman’s life and screw it up forever. Morelli did this to me—not forever, but periodically.
4
I could smell him--or rather the booze on his breath--before he even opened dthe door. But my sense of smell is pretty good, probably better than yours. The key scratched against the lock and finally found the slot. The door opened and in, with a little stumble, came Bernie Little, founder and part owner (his ex-wife walked off with the rest) of the Little Detective Agency. I'd seen him look worse, but not often.
5
I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him. In my defense I must say it was an engrossing book, and it was very rare to come across another person in that particular part of the world in that war year of 1915. In my seven weeks of peripatetic reading amongst the sheep (which tended to move out of my way) and the gorse bushes (to which I had painfully developed an instinctive awareness) I had never before stepped on a person.
6.
I thought: should I be worried? I was under arrest. In a town where I’d never been before. Apparently for murder. But I knew two things. First, they couldn’t prove something had happened if it hadn’t happened. And second, I hadn’t killed anybody. Not in their town, and not for a long time, anyway.
7.
[NAME] could hear the helicopter up there, somewhere, above the darkness, circling up in the light. Why didn’t it land? Why didn’t it bring help? Harry was moving through a smoky, dark tunnel and his batteries were dying. The beam of the flashlight grew weaker every yard he covered. He needed help. He needed to move faster. He needed to reach the end of the tunnel before the light was gone and he was alone in the black.
8.
It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.
9.
I am well aware that my name is ridiculous. It was not ridiculous before I took this job four years ago. I’m a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, and my name is [FIRST NAME]. [FIRST NAME - LAST NAME]. A joke. Before I took the job, [FIRST NAME] was just a name, given to me by my estranged mother, who left me so long ago that I have no memory of her, just a few photos and the stories Gran has told me. Gran said my mother thought [FIRST NAME] was a cute name for a girl, that it conjured apple cheeks and pigtails, neither of which I have, as it turns out. I’ve got simple, dark hair that I maintain in a sharp, neat bob. I part my hair in the middle—¬the exact middle. I comb it flat and straight. I like things simple and neat.
10.
My name is [NAME]. I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057. Eight years ago, when I first met Siobhan, she showed me this picture
[sad face]
and I knew that it meant 'sad,' which is what I felt when I found the dead dog.
Then she showed me this picture
[smiley face]
and I knew that it meant 'happy', like when I'm reading about the Apollo space missions, or when I am still awake at 3 am or 4 am in the morning and I can walk up and down the street and pretend that I am the only person in the whole world.
11
[NAME] wore a black brocade dress, very much pinched in around the waist. Mechlin lace was arranged in a cascade down the front of the bodice. She had on black lace mittens, and a black lace cap surmounted the piled-up masses of her snowy hair. She was knitting, something white and fleecy. Her pale blue eyes, benignant and kindly, surveyed her nephew and her nephew’s guests with gentle pleasure.
12.
As the last of the coffee burbled and sputtered into the pot, I hurried out onto the dock to retrieve Connie’s copy of the Key West Citizen. I smoothed the paper on the café table in the kitchen and sat down for breakfast. Evinrude splayed out on the chair next to me, grooming his gray stripes into their morning order. I took a sip of coffee and almost spit it out when I saw Kristen’s head shot looming from the box on the front page reserved for the crime report.
13.
[NAME]'s holiday began well. As he turned the car into the lane, a shaft of sun broke through the clouds and lit a patch of rolling Yorkshire moor as if someone had thrown the switch on a celestial spotlight.
Drystone walls ran like pale runes across the brilliant green of pasture, where luminous sheep nibbled, unconcerned with their importance in the composition. The scene seemed set off in time as well as space, and gave him the sensation of viewing a living tapestry, a world remote and utterly unattainable. The clouds shifted again, the vision fading as swiftly as it had come, and he felt an odd shiver of loss at its passing.
14.
There are two disadvantages to being a minor royal. First, one is expected to behave as befits a member of the ruling family, without being given the means to do so. One is expected to kiss babies, open fetes, put in appearances at Balmoral (suitable kilted) and carry trains at weddings. Ordinary means of employment are frowned upon.”
15.
"It was one hell of a night to throw away a baby. The cold pinched at NAME’s nose and made him jam his hands deep into his coat pockets, grateful that the Washington County Hospital had a police parking spot just a few yards from the ER doors. A flare of red startled him, and he watched as an ambulance backed out of its bay silently, lights flashing. The driver leaned out of his window, craning to see his way between cement rails.
16.
[NAME] had thrown up after the verdict.
She’d twisted her damp hair away from her face, avoided the mirror, and contemplated how long she could hide in the Suffolk County Courthouse ladies’ room. Forever would be good. Instead, she’d gritted out a smile for the scrum of cameras as Channel 11’s defense attorney promised her television colleagues an immediate appeal of the jury’s decision. The two then marched down the granite steps of the courthouse, the lawyer’s pin-striped arm protectively across Jane’s shoulder, as if a million-dollar damage verdict were the honorable cost of doing journalism business.
17.
"Oh, I just love that Maxim de Winter," Violet La Rue said, her knitting needles clicking together as if to emphasize her words. "He gives me the shivers." "Him?"
Nancy Peyton asked. "He's not nearly as scary as Mrs. Danvers."
[NAME] glanced up from her knitting at the two ladies sitting across the circle from her. It was crafternoon Thursday, where membes of the crafternoon club gathered at the Briar Creek Library to do a craft--currently they were knitting--and discuss the assigned book of the week.
Gentle reminder: NO FAIR USING GOOGLE.
I thought: should I be worried? I was under arrest. In a town where I’d never been before. Apparently for murder. But I knew two things. First, they couldn’t prove something had happened if it hadn’t happened. And second, I hadn’t killed anybody. Not in their town, and not for a long time, anyway.
7.
[NAME] could hear the helicopter up there, somewhere, above the darkness, circling up in the light. Why didn’t it land? Why didn’t it bring help? Harry was moving through a smoky, dark tunnel and his batteries were dying. The beam of the flashlight grew weaker every yard he covered. He needed help. He needed to move faster. He needed to reach the end of the tunnel before the light was gone and he was alone in the black.
8.
It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.
9.
I am well aware that my name is ridiculous. It was not ridiculous before I took this job four years ago. I’m a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, and my name is [FIRST NAME]. [FIRST NAME - LAST NAME]. A joke. Before I took the job, [FIRST NAME] was just a name, given to me by my estranged mother, who left me so long ago that I have no memory of her, just a few photos and the stories Gran has told me. Gran said my mother thought [FIRST NAME] was a cute name for a girl, that it conjured apple cheeks and pigtails, neither of which I have, as it turns out. I’ve got simple, dark hair that I maintain in a sharp, neat bob. I part my hair in the middle—¬the exact middle. I comb it flat and straight. I like things simple and neat.
10.
My name is [NAME]. I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057. Eight years ago, when I first met Siobhan, she showed me this picture
[sad face]
and I knew that it meant 'sad,' which is what I felt when I found the dead dog.
Then she showed me this picture
[smiley face]
and I knew that it meant 'happy', like when I'm reading about the Apollo space missions, or when I am still awake at 3 am or 4 am in the morning and I can walk up and down the street and pretend that I am the only person in the whole world.
11
[NAME] wore a black brocade dress, very much pinched in around the waist. Mechlin lace was arranged in a cascade down the front of the bodice. She had on black lace mittens, and a black lace cap surmounted the piled-up masses of her snowy hair. She was knitting, something white and fleecy. Her pale blue eyes, benignant and kindly, surveyed her nephew and her nephew’s guests with gentle pleasure.
12.
As the last of the coffee burbled and sputtered into the pot, I hurried out onto the dock to retrieve Connie’s copy of the Key West Citizen. I smoothed the paper on the café table in the kitchen and sat down for breakfast. Evinrude splayed out on the chair next to me, grooming his gray stripes into their morning order. I took a sip of coffee and almost spit it out when I saw Kristen’s head shot looming from the box on the front page reserved for the crime report.
13.
[NAME]'s holiday began well. As he turned the car into the lane, a shaft of sun broke through the clouds and lit a patch of rolling Yorkshire moor as if someone had thrown the switch on a celestial spotlight.
Drystone walls ran like pale runes across the brilliant green of pasture, where luminous sheep nibbled, unconcerned with their importance in the composition. The scene seemed set off in time as well as space, and gave him the sensation of viewing a living tapestry, a world remote and utterly unattainable. The clouds shifted again, the vision fading as swiftly as it had come, and he felt an odd shiver of loss at its passing.
14.
There are two disadvantages to being a minor royal. First, one is expected to behave as befits a member of the ruling family, without being given the means to do so. One is expected to kiss babies, open fetes, put in appearances at Balmoral (suitable kilted) and carry trains at weddings. Ordinary means of employment are frowned upon.”
15.
"It was one hell of a night to throw away a baby. The cold pinched at NAME’s nose and made him jam his hands deep into his coat pockets, grateful that the Washington County Hospital had a police parking spot just a few yards from the ER doors. A flare of red startled him, and he watched as an ambulance backed out of its bay silently, lights flashing. The driver leaned out of his window, craning to see his way between cement rails.
16.
[NAME] had thrown up after the verdict.
She’d twisted her damp hair away from her face, avoided the mirror, and contemplated how long she could hide in the Suffolk County Courthouse ladies’ room. Forever would be good. Instead, she’d gritted out a smile for the scrum of cameras as Channel 11’s defense attorney promised her television colleagues an immediate appeal of the jury’s decision. The two then marched down the granite steps of the courthouse, the lawyer’s pin-striped arm protectively across Jane’s shoulder, as if a million-dollar damage verdict were the honorable cost of doing journalism business.
17.
"Oh, I just love that Maxim de Winter," Violet La Rue said, her knitting needles clicking together as if to emphasize her words. "He gives me the shivers." "Him?"
Nancy Peyton asked. "He's not nearly as scary as Mrs. Danvers."
[NAME] glanced up from her knitting at the two ladies sitting across the circle from her. It was crafternoon Thursday, where membes of the crafternoon club gathered at the Briar Creek Library to do a craft--currently they were knitting--and discuss the assigned book of the week.
Gentle reminder: NO FAIR USING GOOGLE.
Post your guesses. And we welcome your comments.
If you have a favorite paragraph or two from a crime novel that introduces a main character, post it in the comments so the rest of us can guess who it is and what book it's from.
If you have a favorite paragraph or two from a crime novel that introduces a main character, post it in the comments so the rest of us can guess who it is and what book it's from.
Answers will be posted in tomorrow's blog.
