"... And then the murders began."

[thegreyarea]

Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house. And then the murders began.

Neil Gaiman, Coraline

[Yastreb]

Howard Roark laughed. And then the murders began.
Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

Peter Duck was sitting on a bollard on the north quay of Lowestoft Inner Harbour, smoking his pipe in the midday sunshine and looking down at a little green two-masted schooner that was tied up there while making ready for sea. And then the murders began.
Arthur Ransome, Peter Duck

[Lee M]

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Tum caedes coepta est.

[Yastreb]

Edward Bulwer-Lytton's classic opening sentence has been done already, so I thought I'd try some examples from a collection of opening sentences from published works deemed... well, Bulwer-Lyttonish.

On a late winter evening in 1983, while driving through fog along the Maine coast, recollections of old campfires began to drift into the March mist, and I thought of the Abnaki Indians of the Algonquin tribe who dwelt near Bangor a thousand years ago. And then the murders began.
Norman Mailer, Harlot's Ghost

Eighteen years ago, on the night of her eighth birthday, in a seaside cottage on Key West, Chyna had squirmed under her bed to hide from Jim Woltz, her mother's friend. And then the murders began.
Dean Koontz, Intensity

From Phundahl at their western extremity, east to Toonol, the Great Toonolian Marshes stretch across the dying planet for eighteen hundred earth miles like some unclean, venomous, Gargantuan reptile - an oozy marshland through which wind narrow watercourses connecting occasional bodies of open water, little lakes, the largest of which covers but a few acres. And then the murders began.
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Synthetic Men of Mars

"Pass the word for Captain Aubrey, pass the word for Captain Aubrey," cried a sequence of voices, at first dim and muffled far aft on the flagship's maindeck, then growing louder and more distinct as the call wafted up to the quarterdeck and so along the gangway to the forecastle, where Captain Aubrey stood by the starboard thirty-two-pounder carronade, contemplating the Emperor of Morocco's purple galley as it lay off Jumper's Bastion with the vast grey and tawny Rock of Gibraltar soaring behind it, while Mr. Blake, once a puny member of his midshipman's berth but now a tall, stout lieutenant almost as massive as his former captain, explained the new carriage he had invented, a carriage that should enable carronades to fire twice as fast, with no fear of oversetting, twice as far, and with perfect accuracy, thus virtually putting an end to war. And then the murders began.
Patrick O'Brien, Master and Commander

[midwestmutt]

We are at rest five miles behind the front. Yesterday we were relieved, and now our bellies are full of beef and haricot beans. We are satisfied and at peace...and then the murders began.
Eric Maria Remarque, All Quiet On the Western Front

[dmeck7755]

The damn things weigh half a million pounds, fly a third of the way around the world, and they carry passengers in greater comfort and safety than any vehicle in the history of mankind... and then the murders began.

(Airframe - Michael Crichton)

[thegreyarea]

Dr. Black* — apparently the victim of foul play — is found dead in one of the rooms of his mansion. And then the murders began.

Anthony E. Pratt, Cluedo - Classic Detective Game (originally published by Waddingtons in Leeds, United Kingdom in 1949)

(* Mr. Boddy in North America, where the game goes by "Clue")
(Actually it's just one murder**, but repeated over and over again. Dr. Black must feel trapped in a groundhog day-style tale)
(unless players decide to "re-enact" the events after someone cheats...   )

[wavewright62]

Some things start before other things. And then the murders began.
--Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

[Yastreb]

I tried this with the opening lines of the first three of my Dragonhost stories.

He awoke with his face in gently running water.
Something was tearing at his ear, lifting his face clear of the bitterly cold water, but the pain was lost in a red haze of agony that engulfed every part of him. He slowly rolled over onto his back, biting back the screams that the pain was demanding.
And then the murders began.
Earthfire

Barely had they crossed the Granitsa River into Caillor than Yastreb felt the subtle change in the magic around him, and as they moved slowly along the track deeper into the forest beyond the river, the more certain he became. Gevarna, Rashka, and Caillor; three realms, and each one had magic all its own.
And then the murders began.
Stormblade

Looking at the red sands of the Rift, Yastreb reflected on the lands he had passed through since he had left Gevarna.
The further I go, the less welcoming.
The Fearnight, the Stonelands, and now here...
And then the murders began.
Dragonfall

[moredhel]

In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf. And then the murders began.

Eric Carle the very hungry catterpillar (but with the second sentence it could be the alien films too)

[thegreyarea]

Before she flew to the launch site, Helena Lyakhov always went through the same ritual. And then the murders began.

Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End.

(This book's recent adaptation for TV is proof, once again, that having a nice budget and a decent cast (Charles Dance is great at any role) is not enough to do justice to the source material)

[thegreyarea]

I was born in a time when the majority of young people had lost faith in God, for the same reason their elders had had it – without knowing why. And then the murders began.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

(IMHO this is a masterpiece. Here's a review on The Guardian, and since the book is already on Public Domain, it's possible to find it online for free without breaking any law. Here's one working link that didn't try to sell me anything   )

[dmeck7755]

The pale Albino prince lofted on high his great black sword, "This is Strombringer", he said "and it will suck your soul right out"...
And then the murders began.
(The Eldric Saga -Forward by Neil Gaiman)

It is the color of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders in milk-white...And then the murders began.
(Michael Moorcock  - Elric of Melniboné)

[Yastreb]

Attending a gala dinner to make the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea, President Donald J. Trump was in his element. And then the murders began.
Emma Shortis, Our Exceptional Friend

Choking, dense, impenetrable, the black smoke lay pall-like over the dying city. And then the murders began.
Alistair Maclean, South By Java Head

[thegreyarea]

These first couple are pretty situational, and are not as strict as some of the other rules, but can result in warnings if abused.
And then the murders began.

SSSS Forum, Forum Rules: General

(Of course a warning is just the first step, next comes the murders part!   )