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Then try Jane Haddam's completed Demarkian series, esp. =Precious Blood=, =Act of Darkness=, and =Cheating at Solitaire=.

You might find =The Lost Gallows= more to your taste than anything in Christie; it includes a car chase in which one driver is dead.

True also of most of Christie and Carr.  Not so for Ellery Queen, since Queen comes in with his policeman father.
Starting the story before the murder lets the reader see the conflicts and tensions from which the murder arises, and even wonder who the victim will be.  It gives context which can make the death more dramatic, or carry its ripples through to the reader.
I think the question to ask is "Is the opening a story that engages the reader?"

The point is the motto.

And yes, that author gave fair warning in the first strip.

I don't know.  I prefer to ask whether the others on the forum will consider it a useful contribution.  This varies with audience of the forum, small clubby group versus everybody.

Topic drift?

It's a chapter from Being a Complete and Unembellished Account of the Instructive Journeys and Improving Adventures of the Sober and Sagacious Count Hulhauzen Lundersot, and of His Life and Times, presented as a Seeming.

Well, see for yourself.

The three-book series by Correia and Ringo in Correia's Monster Hunter universe (Grunge, Sinners, Saints) end with the protagonist's death, described by another character.  It was set up in the very first book, and does not read as a tragedy.  Impact, yes, but grief without sorrow.

Haven't read the story, but the synopsis mixes a high-stakes bet with a great deal of personal faith in each other, and perhaps a great, determined commitment to each other

First and last, though it's all worth hearing.

BLAM!

He definitely prefers a good read to a live performance.