Being Dead, by Jim Crace
On a beautiful Tuesday afternoon, Joseph and Celice, both middle-aged professors of zoology, revisit the remote beach that was the landscape of their courtship and first passion. Joseph is hoping for an amorous encounter, and Celice heads into the dunes looking for a mattress of grass to cushion their adventure. Partially undressed and sharing a sandwich, they are listening for the bay's famous wind song, and never see the thief who comes from behind and kills them with a chunk of granite. They begin to die at 3:50 p.m., although Joseph dies for 30 minutes longer than Celice.