"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. And then the murders began." - 100 Years of Solitude
"Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested. And then the murders began." - Kafka, The Trial
"Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. And then the murders began." - Ulysses
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. And then the murders began." - Neuromancer
(In case you find yourself away from your books, as tends to happen to Downers in need of a quote,
here's a handy collection of first lines.)