The Butcher’s Boy: A Novel, Perry. Yes. Very compelling first chapter, though it accomplishes that via a device that would get old very quickly.
At first look, copyright looked to me to be 2003, but that turned out to be when the introduction was written. The book is from 1982, which was a simpler, much more innocent time, as it turns out. Mechanically sound (though not perfect), and involving enough that I stayed up way too late to finish it. Michael Connelly’s introduction (which does not give away plot, but does reveal more about the structure than I would) describes it as “relentless”, and that seems fair to me. I shall very likely try Thomas Perry again.