"... And then the murders began."

[Róisín]

It is a brilliant book!

[Jitter]

‘We should start back,’ Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them. And then the murders began.

Oh boy, they sure did! (A Game of Thrones by GRR Martin)

Left hand of darkness is absolutely brilliant K it’s been far too long since I read it, though.

[Yastreb]

For years I had wondered what the last day would be like. And then the murders began.
Peter Wright: Spycatcher, the Candid Biography of a Secret Intelligence Officer

(It works with non-fiction too!)

[thegreyarea]

The Hegemony Consul sat on the balcony of his ebony spaceship and played Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp Minor on an ancient but well-maintained Steinway while great, green, saurian things surged and bellowed in the swamps below. And then the murders began.

Dan Simmons, Hyperion

(what a great first sentence for an equally great book!)

[thegreyarea]

The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it "the Riddle House," even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived there. And then the murders began.

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

(to be precise the murders had already began many years before that...)

[Yastreb]

On the 24th of February, 1815, the Marseilles port lookouts signalled that the three-master Pharaoh was coming up the harbour. And then the murders began.
Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

[Yastreb]

Geoffrey Peace was dead. And then the murders began.
Geoffrey Jenkins, Hunter Killer

The morning was white: cloudy without being dark, but bright without being warm. And then the murders began.
Dan Crawford, Rouse A Sleeping Cat

[thegreyarea]

Fins had been making wisecracks about human beings for thousands of years. They had always found men terribly funny. The fact that humanity had meddled with their genes and taught them engineering hadn't done much to change their attitude. And then the murders began.

David Brin, Startide Rising

(a whole lot of murders in this one...)
(nice choices, Yastreb)

[wavewright62]

Non-fiction, eh?

Do you want to keep your assets? And then the murders began.
--Ross Holmes, Successful Trust Management

Middle-class England in the 1870s was probably the most inhibiting and philistine environment a great artist could be born into, and then the murders began.
--Brigid Brophy, Beardsley and His World

The tiny wheat kernel, no more than a quarter of an inch long, is one of the most important seeds on earth. And then the murders began.
--Bernard Clayton Jr, The Complete Book of Breads  (from the wheat's POV, oh heck yeah, a cookbook is a horror story)

Greek and Roman mythology is quite generally supposed to show us the way the human race thought and felt untold ages ago, and then the murders began.
--Edith Hamilton, Mythology  (She's not wrong)

[Yastreb]

More non-fiction? Certainly!

In February 1936 there was a general election in Spain. And then the murders began.
Jason Gurney, Crusade in Spain

The General Secretary of the Party set a task; there must be a sharp rise in agricultural output. And then the murders began.
Victor Suvorov, The Liberators

[thegreyarea]

Unce, long ago in a land far away, there lived four little characters who ran through a maze looking for cheese to nourish them and make them happy. And them the murders began.

Spencer Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese?

(getting on the non-fiction wagon! )

[Yastreb]

One of each...

Out of the winter bleakness of a Prussian night, a diesel locomotive loomed large in the camcorder lens. And then the murders began.
Tony Geraghty, Brixmis

The African moon was setting behind my left shoulder as I throttled the Cessna back and we sank slowly, and I hoped quietly, towards the ground. And then the murders began.
Adam Diment, The Dolly Dolly Spy

[thegreyarea]

The global economy enters 2022 in a weaker position than previously expected... and then the murders began.

IMF, World Economic Outlook 2022

(sadly true, this one)

[thegreyarea]

Postman Pat
Postman Pat
Postman Pat and his black and white cat

Early in the morning
Just as day is dawning
He picks up all the postbags in his van

And then the murders began!

Spoiler: show

Postman Pat
Postman Pat
Postman Pat and his black and white cat

All the birds are singing
And the day is just beginning
Pat feels he's a really happy man

And then the murders began!

Everybody knows his bright red van
All his friends will smile as he waves to greet them
Maybe you can never be sure there'll be knock
Ring
Letters through your door (heh heh)

Postman Pat
Postman Pat
Postman Pat and his black and white cat
All the birds are singing
And the day is just beginning
Pat feels he's a really happy man
Pat feels he's a really happy man
Pat feels he's a really happy man

And then the murders began!

Ken Barrie, Postman Pat Theme

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postman_Pat)
source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/postmanpatlyrics.html

(This one is meant to lighten the mood after that depressing IMF report )

[Yastreb]

Forty minutes out of London, passing through the rolling green fields and cherry orchards of Kent, the morning train of the South-Eastern Railway attained its maximum speed of fifty-four miles an hour. And then the murders began.
Michael Crichton, The Great Train Robbery

A crisp, early autumn mist slowly melted towards the stillness of a mild Chilean day. And then the murders began.
Wensley Clarkson, The Valkyrie Operation