I love Ruth Rendell’s opening lines.
“Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.” —A Judgement in Stone
“The winter before he was sixteen, Pup sold his soul to the devil.” —The Killing Doll
“Once, when Benet was about fourteen, they had been on a train together, alone in the carriage, and Mopsa had tried to stab her with a carving knife.” —The Tree of Hands
“Scorpio is metaphysics, putrefaction and death, regeneration, passion, lust and violence, insight and profundity; inheritance, loss, occultism, astrology, borrowing and lending, others’ possessions. Scorpians are magicians, astrologers, alchemists, surgeons, bondsmen and undertakers. The gem for Scorpio is the snakestone, the plant the cactus, eagles and wolves and scorpions are its creatures, its body part the genitals, its weapon the Obligatory Pain, and its card in the Tarot is Death.” —The Lake of Darkness.
I know that’s a mouthful, but I remember reading that for the first time when I was sixteen, in November, no less, having gotten it off the shelf of the living room where I was babysitting. Brrr.
I also love the opening sentence (paragraph, in fact) of The Chocolate War: “They murdered him”. “He” was just taking a particularly hard tackle during football tryouts, but I can’t think of a better way to set the tone of the story.