Sunday! When we do beginnings, taking a look at the start of a Peter Abrahams novel, including those written under the Spencer Quinn moniker™. I’m tempted to go with A Farewell to Arfs, the next Chet and Bernie novel (Aug. 6, pre-orderable) just so I can post that wonderful cover again, but it seems a little early for that. Since I’m about to start writing the next Mrs. Plansky adventure, let’s open the first, Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge (even though Mrs. P herself does not appear until chapter 2).

“Hello, it is I, your grandson, insert name here,” said Dinu.

“Correct,” said Professor Bogdan, language teacher at Liceu Teoretic. He leaned back in his chair and lit up a Chesterfield. “But too correct, you know?”

Too correct? Dinu did not know. In addition, he was asthmatic and the mere presence of a cigarette aroused a twitchy feeling in his lungs. No smoking in school, of course, but these private lessons, paid for by Uncle Dragomir, weren’t about school.