This best opening of any mystery book I ever read (Michael Connelly, "Lincoln Lawyer":
CHAPTER ONE
Everybody lies.
Cops lie. Lawyers lie. Witnesses lie. The victims lie.
A trial is a contest of lies. And everybody in the
courtroom knows this. The judge knows this. Even the jury knows this. They come
into the building knowing they will be lied to. They take their seats in the
box and agree to be lied to.
The trick if you are sitting at the defense table is
to be patient. To wait. Not for any lie. But for the one you can grab onto and
forge like hot iron into a sharpened blade. You then use that blade to rip the
case open and spill its guts out on the floor.
That’s my job, to forge the blade. To sharpen it. To
use it without mercy or conscience. To be the truth in a place where everybody
lies.