First Paragraph/Teaser Tuesday: A Knife in the Fog by Bradley Harper

Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posted the first paragraph of a book she is reading or planning to read. In 2018, Vicki from I'd Rather Be at the Beach is taking over this meme.

Here's mine:

January 1st, 1924, Windlesham

The small cardboard box arrived from Florence last month and sat unopened on my desk until today. Knowing this contains my last communication from one with whom I faced great danger, and who earned my enduring affection, I have been reluctant to confront this final farewell. Foolish of me perhaps, but I can pretend she is still alive as long as the box remains closed. It is as though by opening it now I'm sonsigning her to her grave, though it has already been occupied these past several months.

 

Link up here. It is very easy to play along:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

Here's mine:

Perhaps I should have been ashamed at being rescued by a woman, but at the moment my only emotion was gratitude. I comforted myself with one thought as we made our way back to Whitechapel Road: Miss Harkness was definitely not boring. Once I was safely aboard, she bowed slightly, maintaining her masculine facade, and slipped back into the dark, noisome warren of the East End as though she had never been.

This week I am featuring A Knife in the Fog by Bradley Harper. This is the debut book in a new historical mystery series starring Arthur Conan Doyle. Here is the description from Amazon:

Physician Arthur Conan Doyle takes a break from his practice to assist London police in tracking down Jack the Ripper in this debut novel and series starter.

September 1888. A twenty-nine-year-old Arthur Conan Doyle practices medicine by day and writes at night. His first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, although gaining critical and popular success, has only netted him twenty-five pounds. Embittered by the experience, he vows never to write another "crime story." Then a messenger arrives with a mysterious summons from former Prime Minister William Gladstone, asking him to come to London immediately.

Once there, he is offered one month's employment to assist the Metropolitan Police as a "consultant" in their hunt for the serial killer soon to be known as Jack the Ripper. Doyle agrees on the stipulation his old professor of surgery, Professor Joseph Bell--Doyle's inspiration for Sherlock Holmes--agrees to work with him. Bell agrees, and soon the two are joined by Miss Margaret Harkness, an author residing in the East End who knows how to use a Derringer and serves as their guide and companion.

Pursuing leads through the dank alleys and courtyards of Whitechapel, they come upon the body of a savagely murdered fifth victim. Soon it becomes clear that the hunters have become the hunted when a knife-wielding figure approaches.