"... And then the murders began."

[JoB]

Fifty years after the last delve of spade, in 1988, new digs were started in Troy. And then ... the murders began.
-- Birgit Brandau, Troia [sic!], Gustav Lübbe Verlag 1997.

JoB, I believe this is a work very well known by all of us, right?

Hey, I can't make all 'em riddles near impossible to solve, can I.

[dmeck7755]

It was a dark and stormy night...and then the murders began.--Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwar-Lytton

I never realized it was a real quote.  I always though of it in peanuts.
Then the murders began

[thegreyarea]

He came walking through the thunderstorm and you could tell he was a wizard, partly
because of the long cloak and careen staff but mainly because the raindrops were stopping
several feet from his head, and steaming... and then the murders began.

Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites (book 3 of the Discworld series)

[thegreyarea]

The first outbreak I saw was in a remote village that officially had no name... and then the murders began.

Max Brooks, World War Z

[thegreyarea]

When I was single, I was convinced my friends who took the plunge and had their first baby were victims of an alien abduction, because they would disappear from the planet and reappear a year later as unrecognizable strangers... and then the murders began.

Jim Gaffigan, Dad Is Fat

(I haven't read that one... yet, even if it looks funny. Anyway I bet that adding murders would make it even more interesting!)

[tehta]

"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her--and then the murders began."

Sounds vexing indeed, doesn't it?

[Yastreb]

The match scratched noisily across the rusted metal of the corrugated iron shed, fizzled, then burst into a sputtering pool of light, the harsh sound and sudden brilliance alike strangely alien in the stillness of the desert night. And then the murders began.
Alistair MacLean, The Guns of Navarone.

[thegreyarea]

It was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in the tips... and then the murders began.

Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

Sounds vexing indeed, doesn't it?

Quite vexing 

[Yastreb]

At dawn one still October day in the long ago of the world, across the hill of Alderley, a farmer from Moberley was riding to Macclesfield fair... and then the murders began.
Alan Garner, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

[RanVor]

Gordon Edgley's sudden death came as a shock to everyone - not least himself - and then the murders began.
Skulduggery Pleasant a.k.a. Scepter of the Ancients

Although technically, the murders began earlier.

[thegreyarea]

The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest... and then the murders began.

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

[midwestmutt]

I never realized it was a real quote.  I always though of it in peanuts.
Then the murders began

The complete 1st line is quite long in that 19th century style of writing.

[thegreyarea]

Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen... and then the murders began.

Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book One)

(haven't read that one too...)

[Yastreb]

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. And then the murders again.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford

That's the full famous sentence.

[thegreyarea]

The level was at his top lip now. Even with his head pressed hard back against the stones of the cell wall his nose was only just above the surface. He wasn't going to get his hands free in time; he was going to drown. And then the murders began.

Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas (Book I of The Culture series)

(another one that's quite accurate)

That's the full famous sentence.

Thanks Yastreb!