First Chapter: When Falcons Fall by C.S. Harris

Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter, First Paragraph every Tuesday. Share the first paragraph(s) of your current read or book interest, with information for readers.

When Falcons Fall: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery by C.S. Harris, published March 1, 2016 by NAL

Setting: 

Ayleswick-on-Teme, 1813. Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, has come to this seemingly peaceful Shropshire village to honor a slain friend and on a quest to learn more about his own ancestry. (publisher)

First paragraph,  first chapter: 

It was the fly that got to him. 

In the misty light of early morning, the dead woman looked as if she might be sleeping, her dusky lashes resting against cheeks of pale egg shell, her lips faintly parted. She lay at the edge of a clover-strewn meadow near the river, the back of her head nestled against a mossy log, her slim hands folded at the right waist of her fashionable dove gray mourning gown. 

Then the fly came crawling out of her mouth. 

Well, that opening chapter does come as a shock. Would this prevent you from reading on? Or does it provoke your interest in this mystery?

Sunday Salon: New Reads - Cambodia Noir and When Falcons Fall

 Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer.

Also visit Mailbox Monday, and It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date. 

The Mad Woman Upstairs, an adventure novel by Catherine Lowell, to be published March 1, 2016 by Touchstone.
"...the only remaining descendant of the Brontë family embarks on a modern-day literary scavenger hunt to find the family's long-rumored secret estate, using clues her eccentric father left behind." (publisher)

Cambodia Noir, thriller/adventure by Nicholas Seeley, to be released March 15, 2016 by Scribner.  
Phnom Penh, Cambodia: the end of the line. Lawless, drug-soaked, forgotten—it's where bad journalists go to die. For once-great war photographer Will Keller, that's kind of a mission statement: he spends his days floating from one score to the next, taking any job that pays; his nights are a haze of sex, drugs, booze, and brawling. But Will's spiral toward oblivion is interrupted by Kara Saito, a beautiful young woman who shows up and begs Will to help find her sister, June, who disappeared during a stint as an intern at the local paper (publisher)

When Falcons Fall, the 11th in the Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery series by C.S. Harris, to be released March 1, 2016 by NAL.
Ayleswick-on-Teme, 1813. Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, has come to this seemingly peaceful Shropshire village to honor a slain friend and on a quest to learn more about his own ancestry. But when the body of a lovely widow is found on the banks of the River Teme, a bottle of laudanum at her side, the village’s inexperienced new magistrate turns to St. Cyr for help. (publisher)

I've reviewed the 7th in the series, When Maidens Mourn, and look forward to this one. 

Private Citizens by Tony Tulathimutte, published February 9, 2016 by William Morrow
"... a sweeping comic portrait of privilege, ambition, and friendship in millennial San Francisco." (publisher)

Currently reading:

How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz, published May 2015 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Genre: women's fiction, contemporary fiction

I have recently finished and reviewed Lutz's most recent novel, a thriller, The Passenger, and am now reading another published last year, How To Start a Fire, a book about three college friends and their lives and relationships after.
I have the fifth in her private investigator Spellman series, Trail of the Spellmans on my TBR list. She is becoming one of my favorite authors.

What's on your reading list this week?