mystery

Oscar Wilde. The Canterville Ghost

First: When Mr. Hiram B. Otis, the American Minister, bought Canterville Chase, every one told him he was doing a very foolish thing, as there was no doubt at all that the place was haunted.

Last: Virginia blushed.

Dan Brown. The Da Vinci Code

First: Renowned curator Jacques Sauniure staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery.

Last: For a moment, he thought he heard a woman's voice... the wisdom of the ages... whispering up from the chasms of the earth.

John Fowles. The Collector

First: When she was home from her boarding-school I used to see her almost every day sometimes, because their house was right opposite the Town Hall Annexe.

Last: I only put the stove down there today because the room needs drying out anyway.

Mikhail Bulgakov. The Master and Margarita

First: At the hour of the hot spring sunset two citizens appeared at the Patriarch's Ponds.

Last: His needled memory grows quiet, and until the next full moon no one will trouble the professor—neither the noseless killer of Gestas, nor the cruel fifth procurator of Judea, the equestrian Pontius Pilate.

Iain Banks. The Wasp Factory

First: I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped.

Last: Poor Eric came home to see his brother, only to find (Zap! Pow! Dams burst! Bombs go off! Wasps fry: ttssss!) he's got a sister.

Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray

First: The studio was filled with the rich odor of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.

Last: It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.

Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

First: Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice 'without pictures or conversation?'

Last: Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood: and how she would gather about her other little children, and make THEIR eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.