`Enduring Love' by Ian McEwan and `Knowledge of Angels' by Jill Patton Walsh are two very different novels, concerning very different subject matters, yet both have managed to master capturing the reader's avid attention and imagination in their enthralling openings. One about a catastrophe involving a hot air balloon, another set on a distant Mediterranean island, both novels have the essential components to a compelling introduction. They not only provide the reader with an insight into the novel, but when written in an original and intriguing style, as both these novels have been, the reader becomes drawn in, causing them to read on.

The first line of the two introductions are both equally fascinating. `Enduring Love' begins with suspense, as the first line, "The beginning was simple to mark", causes the reader to question the beginning of what, exactly? The fact that it is a short, sharp sentence...