"... And then the murders began."

[Yastreb]

"I am afraid, Watson that I shall have to go," said Holmes as we sat down together to our breakfast one morning. And then the murders began.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure Of Silver Blaze

There was a large audience assembled on the 14th of January, 1862, at the session of the Royal Geographical Society, No. 3 Waterloo Place, London. The president, Sir Francis M——, made an important communication to his colleagues, in an address that was frequently interrupted by applause. And then the murders began.
Jules Verne, Five Weeks In A Balloon

[thegreyarea]

The year 1866 was signalized by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and inexplicable phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. And then the murders began.

Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.


"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist - I really believe he is Antichrist - I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see I have frightened you - sit down and tell me all the news."

It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya Fedorovna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a man of high rank and importance, who was the first to arrive at her reception. And then the murders began.

Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

(I know, I know, this one is a bit longer than "the first sentence"...)

[Yastreb]

The brakes shrieked madly in protest as the three-tonner roared around the bend and slewed to a halt in a cloud of choking dust. From its rear men spewed out onto the road and flung themselves into the shallow ditches on either side. There they lay, watching and waiting... and then the murders began.
Charles Grant, Battle! Practical Wargaming

Flynn Patrick O'Flynn was as ivory poacher by profession, and modestly he admitted that he was the best on the east coast of Africa. And then the murders began.
Wilbur Smith, Shout At The Devil
 

[dmeck7755]

Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

(I know, I know, this one is a bit longer than "the first sentence"...)

Well it is War and Peace!! (longish is a prerequisite.)

[Yastreb]

Upon my return to the United States a few months ago, after the extraordinary series of adventure in the South Seas and elsewhere, of which an account is given in the following pages, accident threw me into the society of several gentlemen in Richmond, Va., who felt deep interest in all matters relating to the regions I had visited, and who were constantly urging it upon me, as a duty, to give my narrative to the public. And then the murders began.
Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym

What Macy hated about the man was the fact that he squeaked. Macy didn't know if it was the shoes, but he suspected the clothes. And then the murders began.
Alfred Bester, Of Time And Third Avenue

[naclenix]

I'll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination...And then the murders began.

-The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin

It does not work very well, but there are some murders! Ha ha ha... *sobbing*

[thegreyarea]

"Makakai, are you ready?"
Jacob ignored the tiny whirrings of motors and valves in his metal cocoon. He lay still. The water lapped gently against the bulbous nose of his mechanical whale, as he waited for an answer. And then the murders began.

David Brin, Sundiver

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

There had never been such traffic at Port Helenia's sleepy landing field-not in all the years Fiben Bolger had lived here. And then the murders began.

David Brin, The Uplift War

(the first three books from Brin's Uplift series. What a great ride! Read it if you have the chance. It sometimes starts slowly, and sometimes demands a lot from the reader (wrap the mind around so many species, technologies, politics, plotlines...) but it's full of wonders too. And murders!   )

(and welcome, @naclenix ! Great choice with Le Guin's masterpiece)

[Róisín]

Some very nice choices here! Seconding the advice to read both Le Guin’s and Brin’s masterpieces. Left Hand to get you thinking about our assumptions, and Uplift for the sheer scale and wonder, plus the hints strewn throughout of other and even stranger connected stories still to tell, and the sheer exuberant delight of the Fins.

‘Abbot Radulfus came to chapter, on this first day of December, with a preoccupied and frowning face, and made short work of the various trivialities brought up by his obedientiaries.’ And then the murders began……

The Raven in the Foregate, a Brother Cadfael mystery by Ellis Peters. Excellent detective procedurals set in a Mediæval monastery, the detective being the monastery herbalist who is an ex-crusader. Ellis Peters is the nom de plume of a real historian, Edith Pargeter, and they are good stories.

[RanVor]

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. And then the murders began.
William Gibson, Neuromancer

[Yastreb]

Let's work our way through a compilation of Robert E. Howard stories...

The sun was setting. A last crimson glory filled the land and lay like a crown of blood on the snow sprinkled peaks. And then the murders began.
Exile of Atlantis

The blare of the trumpets grew louder, like the soft booming of the evening tides against the silver beaches of Valusia. And then the murders began.
The Shadow Kingdom

[JoB]

"YEAR 2000 NOTICE

"Juniper Networks hardware and software products are Year 2000 compliant. Junos OS has no known time-related limitations through the year 2038. However, the NTP application is known to have some difficulty in the year 2036; then, the murders begin."

-- Junos® OS Chassis Cluster User Guide for SRX Series Devices, published 2022(!)-03-15

[Yastreb]

More Robert E. Howard...

There comes, even to kings, the time of great weariness. Then the told of the throne is brass, the silk of the palace becomes drab. And then the murders begin.
The Mirrors Of Tizun Thane

King Kull went with Tu, chief councillor of the throne, to see the talking cat of Delcardes, for though a cat may look at a king, it is not given every king to look at a cat like Delcardes'. And then the murders began.
The Cat And The Skull.

[dmeck7755]

Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith...and then the murders began.

(Stranger in a Strange Land--Robert A Heinlein)

(Once of the first Sci-Fi's I ever read)

Spoiler: show

There are always those who ask, what is it all about? For those who need to ask, for those who need points sharply made, who need to know "where it's at," this: ...and then the murders began.
(Repent Harlequin said the Tick Tock man Harlen Ellison.)
And it is a story not a book...
This was the first Sci-Fi I even read...

[Róisín]

Stranger in a Strange Land was a delight. Another novel to think about, and Mike made a good end.

[Yastreb]

One night, when the royal bed had been prepared for Ailill and Mebd in Cruachan Fort in Connacht, they engaged in pillow talk. And then the murders began.
Tain Bo Cuailnge

It was August 25th, 1939. An oppressively hot day was drawing to a close. And then the murders began.
Cajus Bekker, The Luftwaffe War Diaries