“Tonight, I will be murdered.”
This is the opening line of the novel. It is what is known in the trade as a hook opening in that it is the kind of line that will immediately hook most people into reading what comes next. The speaker is not identified and there is no context upon which to establish any information for certain since it is the first line. It is that presence of mystery and possibilities which serves to make it an effective opening. Such a line could intimate that the speaker has already been murdered and the story is being narrated by a corpse or even, perhaps, a ghost. Likewise, this opening assertion could wind up being the introduction to a drama queen who makes a big deal over everything, or it could even wind up being lines spoken by the delusionally paranoid narrator. The possibilities of such an opening line are spread wide and it is only by continuing to read that all but one of these possibilities can be eliminated. The fact that reading on will present the reader with two very likely possible characters making this assertion only adds to the effectiveness.
“This did not need to end in his murder. That’s entirely on him.
And Millie? Well, she is an unfortunate casualty. But she’s not quite as sweet as you might think. If she spends her life behind bars, it’s for the greater good.
But even after you hear my side of the story, you might still think I’m a terrible person. You might think that Douglas didn’t deserve to die. You might think that I am the one who deserves to go to prison for the rest of my life.”
This passage prefaces a headline for the succeeding chapter: “How to Get Away With Murdering Your Husband – A Guide by Wendy Garrick.” Based on her own words, Wendy is not exactly a victim in the same way as Kitty Genovese. Her story is a mixture of legend and facts, however. The novel is a murder mystery at heart and the victim is Wendy’s husband, Douglas. The point of examining this passage is to underline that this a story in which the roles of victim and villain are not as starkly defined as usual in such fiction. And this mirrors reality, of course. Victimization often results in violence in which the aggressor winds up being the victim and the original victim winds up going to jail. Wendy’s portrait of Millie as being a darker character than many people assume also underlines this thematic element of the story. The real question, of course, is what exactly makes one a terrible person. The backstories of certain characters suggest that it is not as simple as having done terrible things since sometimes good people are forced by circumstances to do terrible things.
