BOOKCASE – Not One Of Us by Alis Hawkins

In this series, we invite our Crime Cymru authors to showcase an excerpt from one of their books. This week, Alis Hawkinsreveals theimportance of openingpages to her latest novel, Not One Of Us.

The opening page of a book is crucial. Along with the cover image and the blurb on the back, it’s the evidence people use to decide whether this book is for them when they’re standing in a bookshop browsing.

When you’re writing a series, the beginning of a book is even more important. An author needs to remind their faithful readers the stage they’ve reached in the ongoing lives of the series characters and, at the same time, give people who’ve never read any of their previous books a quick understanding of the relationships between the key players.

Meanwhile, the reader needs to be given an idea of where the book’s going to go –…