First Lines Friday is a weekly feature hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

Here’s how it works!

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

The First Lines

“It started at one thirty on a cold Tuesday morning in January when Martin Turner, street performer and, in how own words, apprentice gigolo, tripped over a body in front of the West Portico of St. Paul’s at Covent Garden.

And the Book is!

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

This month I’m buddy reading Rivers of London with part of the TWR gang. As of writing this, I’ve only read the first three chapters, but I’m already in love with this series and I can’t wait to read all of the books.

Goodreads Synopsis: Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.