Welcome to Friday 56! Hosted by Freda’s Voice, you turn to page 56 or 56% in any book or reading device and pick a sentence that grabs you.

Danny climbs out of the cab and circles around to the back of the van. Inside sits the wooden box he built, the PVC pipe, a cloudy jug of water, an assortment of candy bars, a car battery, and a shovel. Danny reaches for the shovel and circles back to the front of the van, where the headlights illuminate a section of sandy ground”.

Murder Beyond the Grave by James Patterson and Andrew Bourelle, page 56

This book has 2 separate stories, the first called Murder Beyond the Grave. At page 56, Danny, a “reformed” drug dealer, can’t handle the straight life. Where once he had cash to burn, he now has piles of bills with no way to pay them. One day he drives past the house of a rich man with a Ferrari in the driveway and he hatches a plan to kidnap him for ransom money. The passage above is Danny setting up the place where he will bury the man alive in a makeshift wooden box until the ransom is paid. Given the title, I think I know what ends up happening. I cringe just thinking about being buried alive.

It was Bonnie’s parents who’d demanded a traditional service. They had never approved of Jim beyond his finances, especially not his mother-in-law, whose previously snide comments turned downright hostile after her daughter’s death.”

Murder Beyond the Grave (Murder in Paradise) by James Patterson and Christopher Charles, page 184

At page 56 of Murder in Paradise, the victim has already been killed, and we have a suspect, but the killer has not yet been arrested. The author seems sympathetic of the husband, but the above quote also seems to suggest that perhaps the husband isn’t just the grieving widower he is portraying. Could he be acting? Bonnie was cheating, after all. Maybe he suspected, or even knew of her infidelity? Bonnie’s lover had also been shot — he survived, but maybe that was an accident. Let’s see!