Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely
Baudrillard, The System of Objects
The Chandler has an odd opening. It starts with Marlowe wandering out of some place, seeing this giant of a man force his way into a club, getting dragged in by him and being held up in there along with the staff while this bloke flings the bouncer across the room and shoots the owner. It's 0 - 60 within about two pages.
The Baudrillard kicks off with a typically slick line before getting into a Barthesian attempt at, well, a system of objects...
"Could we classify the luxuriant growth of objects as we do a flora or fauna, complete with tropical and glacial species, sudden mutations, and varieties threatened by extinction?"