"And then the murders began"

[Tusky]

Here is Edward bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. And then the murders began.

[Jubal]

I'm pretty sure that that desecration of Winnie-the-pooh gets you an instantaneous ticket to muffin hell. That is, nonetheless, somewhat brilliant.

Also this one works:
The book you now hold in your hands went through a number of iterations before it, and the ideas in it, began to grow into something book-shaped. And then the murders began.
(The opening to the game studies volume "Playing with the Past".)

[dubsartur]

Philology reigned as king of the sciences, the pride of the first great modern universities- those that grew up in Germany in the eighteenth and earlier nineteenth centuries.  And then the murders began.

(Touches up the edge on his pocket knife while whistling "Die Dreigroschenoper")

[Glaurung]

There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And then the murders began.

[Jubal]

There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And then the murders began.

That it, that's the Silmarillon. The rest of the book is just minor details really

And another:

For thousands of years, until the XVth century, the Mediterranean, surrounded by its three continents, was the cradle of peoples, empires and civilisations, which occupied, dominated and fashioned it. And then the murders began.
- Carthage: A Site of Cultural and Natural Interest, by Abdelmajid Ennabli

[The Seamstress]

"What is fashion?" In November 1993, marketing consultant Estelle Ellis posed this "deceivingly simple question" in a speech at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York.

And then the murders began.

[Jubal]

Sounds like par for the course at an academic conference, yes


Three books on my recently read or to read lists:

"The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had bought. And then the murders began."

"Some said it was the fault of the horse, which went lame just as he tried to escape. And then the murders began."

"When the Moon rose in the Third Northern Hall I went to the Ninth Vestibule to witness the joining of three Tides. And then the murders began."

[Glaurung]

We appear not to have this one yet...

When Mr . Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton. And then the murders began.

[dubsartur]

"In the doorway of the temple of Ra at Memphis.  Deep gloom.  And then the murders began."

[The Seamstress]

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.

And then the murders began.

[Jubal]

"In 2002, the Katholikos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Ilia II inaugurated a foundation that he named the 'Society of Iveria'. And then the murders began."
(Nikoloz Aleksidze, Sanctity, Gender and Authority in Medieval Caucasia)

[The Seamstress]

Eighteenth-century France witnessed a dramatic rise in the consumption of clothing, particularly in Paris and other cities.

And then the murders began.

(First sentence of the chapter I'm currently reading, in Clare Haru Crowston - Fabricating Women. The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675-1791)

[Glaurung]

'All these will I give you,' said Satan, showing Jesus the kingdoms of the world, 'if you will fall down and worship me.' And then the murders began.
(Tom Holland, Millennium)

[Jubal]

"One dark and rainy evening the Moomin family sat around the verandah table picking over the day's mushroom harvest. And then the murders began."
- The Invisible Child, by Tove Jansson