First Lines Fridays 19th September 2025 | Jo Linsdell

First Lines Fridays 19th September 2025

        

First Lines Fridays


Books: First Lines Fridays 19th September 2025

Welcome to this week’s First Lines Fridays, where we celebrate the magic of a truly brilliant opening sentence. Whether it’s mysterious, poetic, or downright shocking, a great first line can stop you in your tracks—and tempt you to read just one more page (or ten).

Ready for this week’s mystery line? Let’s turn the page…

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I'm participating in First Lines Fridays as I think it's a great way to highlight more of the books that are on my bookshelves. 

What is First Lines Fridays?

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines? 

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page 
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first 
  • Finally… reveal the book!

My Pick For This Week


The first lines of the book:


THE FADED STREET LAMP ILLUMINATED the utter mess in perfect muddy detail. I could almost hear the imaginary reprimand. “Rainbow Bailey, I safely delivered your family home after another trip into farm country. The least you could do is give me a bath.” For over twelve years, she has met the challenge of transporting my family, never once stranding us on the side of the road. Bessie, our mid-sized Astro van, deserved loving attention with a good cleaning inside and out. Traveling with five children on a four-day weekend created plenty of clutter.



Do you know which book this is from? Scroll down to find out!


First Lines Fridays


And the book is...


An Education in Murder by Patty Joy



About the book


Book synopsis for An Education in Murder by Patty Joy

When a dead body shows up that wasn't on the lesson plan, a homeschooling mom is the prime suspect.

Rainbow Bailey is happy with her life, homeschooling her five children. Small town life suits her well and she spends contented days juggling her household, science projects, helping her husband, her friends, and planning what comes next.

What she didn’t plan on was murder.

Rainbow is shocked to discover a body in a dumpster. It not only ruins her mom’s night out, but turns her entire world upside down. Things get even bleaker for her when the struggling and frustrated police chief can’t find a better suspect than Rainbow.

Terrified by the prospect of a lifetime in prison for a crime she didn’t commit, it’s up to her and her children to find the true culprit before the killer strikes again.

Will Rainbow and her curious kids crack the case, or will Rainbow take the blame for this heinous crime?

If you like cozy mysteries with a small-town flair, realistic characters and a taste of murder, you’ll love Patty Joy’s Homeschool Cozy Mystery series. Grab your copy of An Education in Murder now!



Buy now



Where to find An Education in Murder by Patty Joy online: 

 



First Lines Fridays


Have you read this book?

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