Also, pill bottles aren’t really comfortable in jeans pockets. Why wouldn’t she keep them in her purse or something?

Concur with the other comments about the writing.

Claire Campbell winced at approaching headlight beams. As the station wagon passed, she sighed and focused on the curve ahead. Deadman's Curve, they unimaginatively dubbed it as teens, which, in Claire's case, proved nearly prophetic. Her right knee ached. She gripped the wheel, ignoring the pain, as she navigated this curve yet again. The pain was not memory, though memory played its part; Hat Trick took the curve too fast, too high, and Claire went through the VW van's windshield, landing on the crumpled hood of a Cadillac. Now, exhausted, hurting, and afraid, Claire made the curve and eased off the accelerator. The semi-circular driveway was up ahead on the left, flanked by hedges, missing it was easy.

WTF?

What does this mean? I’ve been working so hard to figure this paragraph out, I haven’t the interest or the ability to go on.

I was going to rewrite the paragraph, but honestly I have no idea what you’re going for here. Okay. I’ll try again. (notice how nothing I’ve written so far is useful or interesting?)

Headlights blinded Claire just as she came to Deadman’s Curve. The station wagon passed; she gripped the wheel and focused on the road. The aching in her right knee, always there, intensified as she entered the curve. She saw Hat Trick again, taking the curve too fast, too high. Again she flew through his van’s windshield. Again she landed on the hood of a Cadillac. But this time, she made the curve, eased off on the accelerator, and spotted the driveway up on the left, almost hidden by hedges.

I wonder if the problem is that you’ve done the equivalent of writing the paragraph twice, once from third person and once from third person subjective limited (or whatever that third person/first person hybrid is called). Then you’ve put the two paragraphs together.

I think you’re trying to get as much detail as you can into the opening, which is good. But you have to remember the limitations of your style. If it’s subjective, and you want to put the reader in the character’s head, then you can’t have details that the character wouldn’t be thinking of in the moment.

My rewrite is probably too stark, and of course it’s just a suggestion. I could be all wrong!

Find a new beginning. This isn’t it. I was told once to start at the moment everything changes. So, my advice would be to forget this beginning and find the right one. Start with action, to draw your reader in and make them care, and then filter in bit by bit, as it naturally comes up, the backstory rather than dumping it all rather haphazardly in the first few paragraphs.

I understood that she had been in an accident, but at first I thought it was quite a while earlier, then I wasn’t sure.

The pain was not memory, though memory played its part; Hat Trick took the curve too fast, too high, and Claire went through the VW van's windshield

Six weeks ago, Hat Trick had taken the curve…? Two years ago…? (At first I thought Hat Trick was a cutesy name for her car.)

This was home, but it wasn't hers anymore.

Why isn’t it her home? Does she live someplace else? In which case, why is she here?Apparently not to see her mother, since she wishes her mother weren’t here.

Who is Jill? I assume that explanation is coming up soon.

This is all a bit nitpicking and easily fixed. I do find this intriguing and would gladly read on.

And thank you for not beginning in the middle of a dramatic scene. That is a fashion of which I am getting heartily sick. I prefer to find out who’s who and what’s going on in a more leisurely way.

I would certainly read further. Good luck with it. :-)

#1, driving to a daunting location as the start of a contemporary story is a pretty frequent opening.

#2, I agree that too much clear baggage up front before I bond with a character can turn me off to the character. Make me care about her and who she is first, then I’ll care about her baggage.

#3 Watch the “she thoughts,” and “she wondereds” You don’t need them in her POV. Just let her have a direct thought.

I liked that she tensed every time a car went by. It was a neat way of showing that she’d been in a car accident and she still wasn’t over it. Maybe you can be a little more subtle there, and not spell out the accident quite as clearly, but if this is meant for one of the lines, then spelling it out isn’t a bad thing either. It helps get to the point.

In a way, I’d like to see her reaction to the pain killers a little more clearly. How does it feel when she takes them, what drives her to take them, and how does she feel afterward? All those questions if drawn out and shown through use of deep POV techniques could really help this opening.

Good luck with this. I think it is a strong start.

Good luck!

For example:

Deadman's Curve, they unimaginatively dubbed it as teens, which, in Claire's case, proved nearly prophetic.

is incomplete and awkward. It could be something like this:

“Deadman’s Curve” was coming up; it was an unimaginative moniker she remembered from her teens, yet all too apt in her case.

You’ve left out quotation marks and other punctuation. I believe a good amount of editing would make this much better for publication.

All in all, not sure I’d read this as the “coming-home, pain-killer addict” has been done before.

The description is good and I like the time period so I hope you keep going.