Here is a 20-word-per-sentence opening for a murder mystery: When the maid opened the study door early Thursday morning, she saw Sir Reginald slumped over his desk with a knife sticking out of his back. Lady Amelia let out a blood-curdling scream when she entered the room moments later and saw her husband's lifeless body there in his leather chair. Scotland Yard Detective Wilkinson was summoned to the manor and declared that Sir Reginald had been murdered sometime in the middle of the night.