First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intro

Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the sea posts the opening paragraph (maybe two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening paragraph (s). Feel free to grab the banner and play along.   I like this meme and decided to play along with her this week.



Hardcover, 416 pages
Published September 20th 2011 by Crown (first published January 1st 2011)
ISBN:0307452891 (ISBN13: 9780307452894)
edition language:English

These two paragraphs are from the preface to Death in the City of Light by David King.

"A thick black smoke streamed into Jacques and Andrée Marcais's fifth-floor apartment at 22 rue Le Sueur in the heart of Paris's fashionable 16th arrondissement. The smoke had begun five days before, but now, in the unusually warm weather, it was getting worse, seeping through closed windows and soiling the furniture. In the air was a nauseating smell described variously as burnt caramel, burnt rubber, or a burnt roast of poor quality. The source of the disturbance, it seemed, was a building across the street. "Do something," Andrée Marcais told her husband, when he returned home just before six o'clock that evening, and she sent him over to investigate.

Neither Jacques nor his wife knew who, if anyone, lived in the neighboring, two-and-a-half storey townhouse at 21 rue Le Sueur. A man was sometimes seen riding there on a green bicycle, towing a cart whose contents were concealed under a heavy canvass. On rare occasions, he appeared to receive visitors, who arrived almost invariable at night curiously lugging a couple of heavy suitcases. "

What do you think? Would you keep reading or say "meh" and toss it aside? My first thoughts were what is in the suitcases and what is hidden under the canvass? Nosy, aren't I? I'd just have to keep reading to find out more.