Unknown POV Character for Chapter

[MatthewCEarls]

How would you feel if the POV character (3rd person) for the first chapter of a novel was an unknown person? Would you be confused or feel cheated in some way by the author not letting you in on the "secret" of who this person is?

To give you a little background, the first major event of my novel is the murder of the former Hand of the King. He left the kingdom several years ago because his popularity was rising to volumes that overshadowed the King. The Hand befriended the King many years before and they had become like brothers. So, to prevent any future conflict between the two, the Hand decided to step down and leave the kingdom. The King resented but understood what the Hand had to do.

The person killing the Hand is an integral part of the story, but I do not want his identity as the murderer to come out at the beginning.

So, I have a couple of options: (1) Tell the story from the murderer's POV or (2) Tell the story from the former Hand's POV. Don't know how awkward it would be to tell the story from the POV of someone who is about to be murdered.

Any other suggestions? Comments? Concerns?

Thanks in advance.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

This is a tough call. A POV from the person being murdered might be effective because of the fear, emotion, & pain you could describe. However, it would have to be set up in a way that the victim wouldn't recognize and call out the assailant. That might not be believable.

A POV from the murderers perspective will be even more difficult. You should write what the character is thinking inside his head. Intentionally withholding information may ring false to a reader. People don't do that with private thoughts.

You might want to ask yourself if the POV should be in a completely different person, one that stumbles on the scene after hearing commotion.... Fights of the mystery attacker but is too late to save the victim.

Either way I'd say write it from a few different perspectives. Experiment with it. You'll know what feels right.

 

[MatthewCEarls]

Thanks for the advice. One possibility is that the former King's Hand won't know who it is that is murdering him, and it will more likely add to the twist because the men will be wearing uniforms from the King's Watch. So, before he is murdered or as he's looking his killer in the eye he could be questioning why the King's men would want to kill him. Maybe add a little more to the twist later on.

I think you may have just helped me solve my problem!

 

[ThinkerX]

'Hand of the King' - are we talking Westeros / Game of Thrones here?

That said, perhaps...

Tell the story from the murderers POV, but leave the Hands identity out of it.

 

[MatthewCEarls]

Hand of the King isn't set in stone. In fact, it was originally the King's top Knight who led the Royal Guard. I have changed it a few times. His importance has more to do with him being the father of two children (the main characters), not his title. It will probably end up changing to something along the lines of a Knight because I want his skills with a sword to be superb so he has the ability to pass it on to his son through training.