First Lines...

"The scream that pierced the dull yellow November sky was preternaturally high-pitched. Its sounds carried effortlessly, echoing through a neighborhood of Queen Anne Victorians into the barren woods beyond, fading only as it descended toward the Hudson River. Those who heard the sound mistook it for that of an animal - perhaps the call of a screech owl, maybe the shrill cry of a loon. No one believed it to be human."

....In The Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff