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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47110
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The first page of your novel is vitally important, but not necessarily because the action starts there. **The first page, and first several pages, should:**

- **set your tone and reader expectations.** In a thriller, that means establishing a rhythm that will push forward rather than linger, and maybe having some sort of stakes already in play, even if they're unrelated to the central plot. (Your protagonist is running late to get to a meeting and is running to catch a bus pulling away from her bus stop.)
- **make your reader care to continue on** : have a hook that grabs the reader's attention, makes them think, "now that's interesting," and pulls them from one paragraph to the next. Make them interested in solving a mystery from the first paragraph, even if it's a minor question only pertinent to your opening scene. (Why was she running late? Where was she rushing off to? What are the consequences of her tardiness?) 
- **introduce some important aspect of character or theme** ; setting can be introduced here but is easy to overdo. Don't make setting the only thing you talk about; it is impersonal exposition and therefore doesn't make the reader care. In a thriller this is especially true; don't describe setting with any more words than you need to unless it can be worked into what the character is doing or is itself inherently thrilling.
- **be without flaws**. It's early, you don't have to defend or overcome structural weaknesses here– but you do have to polish your writing to a mirror finish. 

So, your story starts in a pub. I recall your writing sample from another question, where characters are showing up for a business meeting. Was that your opening for a thriller? If so, I'd suggest cutting down on context and starting inside the pub, with an argument about the product design or something to intrigue the reader and introduce the characters. You can work in the exposition after your opening paragraph.

Original score: 27