Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #45

It's Friday . . . time to share excerpts from one of my current reads with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an ebook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring:

 

I just finished reading this new-to-me contemporary cozy mystery by Hannah Dennison, whose most recent novel is Murder at Honeychurch Hall.  A Vicky Hill Exclusive! is the rollicking start to a series set in a small English village, replete with an eccentric cast of characters and an endearing amateur sleuth. There are many laugh out loud moments, and I must now come up to speed by reading the other three books: Scoop!, Exposé!, and Thieves!

Beginning:  The brown envelope addressed to Annabel Lake sat on her empty chair.

Of course, it was marked confidential, but given that Annabel was home, suffering from a severe case of food poisoning, I thought it prudent to open it.  After all, it could be urgent and what was in a name, anyway?  Weren't we journalists all seeking truth and justice?

*********************

Page 56: "Oddly enough, I wasn't afraid of the dark.  I liked the stillness of night when I felt I was the only person awake in the whole world."

*********************  
 

From Goodreads:   Introducing Vicky Hill, a suffocatingly single reporter whose attempts at finding the right man and the scoop of a lifetime take a backseat to murder.

The debut of a brand new series set in the sleepy English town of Gipping-on-Plym features sweetly bumbling investigative journalist Vicky Hill, who will do anything to get that front-page story. But the unusual death of a local hedge-jumping enthusiast just may lead to Vicky's own deadly downfall.

Which book are you reading now?
 

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings #45 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without attribution.