Chapter 1 of The murderer is here in full — 223 sentences across 45 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The murderer is here in full — 223 sentences across 45 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck. A crawling sensation spread down his spine. There was something moving in the room! It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside. The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
Chapter 1 of The murderer is here in full — 223 sentences across 45 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/44 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
a slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the body
From this reading “A crawling sensation spread down his spine.”
a criminal who commits homicide (who performs the unlawful premeditated killing of another human being)
From this reading “The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck.”
possessive form of “murderer” — a criminal who commits homicide (who performs the unlawful premeditated killing of another human being)
From this reading “The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck.”
(of weather) wet by periods of rain
From this reading “It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.”
plural of “rectangle” — a parallelogram with four right angles
From this reading “It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.”
an unelaborated elementary awareness of stimulation
From this reading “A crawling sensation spread down his spine.”
the series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord
From this reading “A crawling sensation spread down his spine.”
not clearly expressed or understood
From this reading “It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.”
English keeps certain words together, and knowing the pair is worth more than knowing each word alone. Every partnership below was counted across our whole published library, and earns its place by appearing far more often than two unrelated words of the same frequency would.
Shown as this reading writes them, with the form the library counts, what kind of pairing it is, and how often it occurs.
In this reading “The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.”
In this reading “It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading A crawling sensation spread down his spine.
the form of “a” used before a word that begins with a vowel sound
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
in or near a particular place or position
From this reading The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck.
in or to or toward a former location
From this reading The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck.
earlier than; in front of
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
a slow mode of locomotion on hands and knees or dragging the body
From this reading A crawling sensation spread down his spine.
being or moving lower in position or less in some value
From this reading A crawling sensation spread down his spine.
deficient in magnitude; barely perceptible; lacking clarity or brightness or loudness etc
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
the past form of “have”, used to form the past perfect
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
a covering for the body (or parts of it) consisting of a dense growth of threadlike structures (as on the human head); helps to prevent heat loss
From this reading The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck.
consisting of one of two equivalent parts in value or quantity
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
belonging to a man, boy, or male animal already mentioned
From this reading The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck.
a period of time equal to 1/24th of a day
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading There was something moving in the room!
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
location near or direction toward the left side; i.e. the side to the north when a person or object faces east
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
held up in the air
From this reading The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck.
by chance
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
a written account of what transpired at a meeting
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
in motion
From this reading There was something moving in the room!
a criminal who commits homicide (who performs the unlawful premeditated killing of another human being)
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
possessive form of “murderer” — a criminal who commits homicide (who performs the unlawful premeditated killing of another human being)
From this reading The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck.
the part of an organism (human or animal) that connects the head to the rest of the body
From this reading The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck.
the time after sunset and before sunrise while it is dark outside
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck.
and nothing more
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
used of mouth or eyes
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
relating to or being on or near the outer side or limit
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
extremely dark
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
(of weather) wet by periods of rain
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
plural of “rectangle” — a parallelogram with four right angles
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
an area within a building enclosed by walls and floor and ceiling
From this reading There was something moving in the room!
an unelaborated elementary awareness of stimulation
From this reading A crawling sensation spread down his spine.
a thing, without saying which
From this reading There was something moving in the room!
the series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord
From this reading A crawling sensation spread down his spine.
distribute or disperse widely
From this reading A crawling sensation spread down his spine.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The murderer's hair lifted at the back of his neck.
in or at that place or location
From this reading There was something moving in the room!
used for a person or thing that is near, or that has just been mentioned
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
the cardinal number that is the sum of nineteen and one
From this reading The murderer had left this room half an hour before, maybe only twenty minutes before.
a formal word for “on”
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
not clearly expressed or understood
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading There was something moving in the room!
in or at the place that
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
(trademark) an operating system with a graphical user interface
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
in the company of; together with
From this reading It was pitch-dark, with vague rectangles of faint grayishness where windows opened upon the rainy night outside.
Chapter 1 of The murderer by Murray Leinster holds 223 sentences, grouped into 45 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 1 holds 223 sentences of The murderer, unabridged, divided into 45 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The murderer by Murray Leinster exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 223 sentences, grouped into 45 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 45 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 45 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 1 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading The murderer by Murray Leinster on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 0 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #? are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #?, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 5 minutes of reading across 0 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The murderer section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 0 chapters of The murderer to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in The murderer, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
