In a post on the Killzone blog, Sue Coletta offers tips for starting your novel with a harrowing, in media res scene and then jumping backwards to tell the story leading up to this event.
In her Grafton County series, Coletta starts her novels with the first half of such a scene, and then jumps back in time in chapter 1. Eventually, she and her protagonist proceed to the scene that opens the book. “No matter where the payoff is—first plot point, midpoint, or climax—continue the jump cut scene from there,” she advises. “Newer writers may be tempted to copy/paste the first half of the scene. Resist that urge. Trust the reader to connect the dots. They’ll recognize the setting and situation.”
Coletta examines two examples to see how this idea works. The Prologue of Pressure Points by Larry Brooks opens with this kind of scene, and then chapter 1 backtracks to 41 days earlier. She also takes a look at her own technique in her novel RACKED.
