The Friday 56 (With Book Beginnings): Crooked by Austin Grossman

Welcome to The Friday 56, a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

These are the rules:

1. Grab a book, any book.

2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader.

3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

4. Post it.

5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post.

I'm also taking part in Book Beginnings, a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader.  The rules are pretty simple - you share the first sentence or so and your initial thoughts, impressions, or whatever else it inspires.  Don't forget to link up your post's url with Rose City Reader.

This week I'm spotlighting my next read, Crooked by Austin Grossman.  I've been hearing a good deal about this one lately and I've always enjoyed alternate history, especially if there is a paranormal twist.  I put myself on hold for it at the library last week and it already came in - lucky me!  I can officially saw that these snippets give me hope for this alternate history novel. 

Book Beginning:

June 1972

The oval office always smelled of cigarette smoke, of medical disinfectant and a faint undercurrent of sage.  I just hope no one ever puts the great seal under a black light.  Near the end, we had to steam-clean it after each new moon.

56:

"What happened there?  How did you know he was going to..." I made a gun out of one hand.  Thinking back, he'd reacted impossibly fast.