The Postscript Murders Quotes
"Sometimes, just for fun and to keep her observational powers honed, Peggy makes an inventory of people who have walked past her window."
"They aren’t laughing or arguing – the two best ways to spot if people are a couple."
"Who comes to Shoreham beach and doesn’t even glance at the shimmering water, looking at its very best today, dotted with sailing boats and accessorised with seagulls?"
"It’s as if the molecules have rearranged themselves."
"Full of self-obsessed people talking about their lives. That or time travel."
"‘Rest in peace,’ she mutters as she dials the number for Care4You."
"Passed away. It’s an English phrase that Natalka has never really understood. It sounds ethereal, ephemeral, something half seen and then forgotten."
"‘Best Gay Sikh Detective in West Sussex’, first out of a field of, well, one."
"‘I wonder why.’ ‘I know why,’ says Natalka, with the air of one putting down a winning hand."
"Because the murderer always attends the funeral. Honestly, Benny, don’t you know anything?"
"‘No reason really,’ says Harbinder. She goes back to her buttered chicken and, thank goodness, the two guests take the hint and leave."
"‘I thought only Irish people became priests,’ his mother said once."
"‘Thanks for the murders?’ ‘Yes. And now she’s been murdered.’"
"Passed away peacefully. There’s a book open on the arm of Peggy’s chair. High-Rise Murder by Dex Challoner."
"‘I went to the police yesterday evening,’ says Natalka, as if this is an everyday occurrence."
"It’s unlikely, I know. Her doctor didn’t think so. He put heart attack as the cause of death."
"It’s just that it’s a small space. Nice, though. Harbinder’s parents’ house suffers from the fact that neither of them ever throw anything away so, with the notable exception of Harbinder’s bedroom, it is full of tiny tables, cabinets containing china and myriad pictures of forgotten Indian relatives."
"But Sally does not ask. ‘Peggy had lots of friends,’ she says, head on one side."
"Harbinder notes that there are opened bottles of wine on a side table – but Sally has obviously made the cultural assumption that she is teetotal."
"‘We’ll miss Peggy,’ says Patricia. ‘She was a one-off.’"
"‘She always asked about my family,’ says Maria. ‘She knew such a lot about Poland. Unlike most British people,’ she adds darkly."
"Harbinder’s friend Clare says that people who went to Cambridge always mention it in the first ten minutes of conversation."
"‘Summit meeting,’ explains Natalka. ‘The Coffee Shack. Five minutes.’"
"‘Harbinder is a detective,’ says Natalka. ‘She’s going to help us find out who murdered Peggy.’"
"‘No evidence?’ says Natalka. She’s sitting on the picnic table and smoking a cigarette, making a half-hearted effort to blow the smoke away from them."
"Natalka came to England in 2013 to study Business Studies at Bournemouth University."
"‘I’m not looking for a mother figure,’ she tells people, because she has a perfectly good one waiting for her at home."
"‘Something’s going on,’ repeats Natalka. ‘Why was Dex Challoner at the funeral? Was it to watch us? And why did he leave so early?’"
"Natalka knows that she’s got him now. He’s talking practicalities instead of ethical concerns."
"The whole place reminds Natalka of a film she once saw about an ocean liner that was really an outpost of hell, full of damned souls endlessly playing bingo and having three-course meals with a single complimentary glass of wine."
"‘I can’t hear anything,’ says Benedict. ‘Shhh.’"
"‘What’s happening?’ says a woman’s voice. ‘I got an alert from the emergency services.’"
"‘We were in Peggy’s flat,’ says Natalka, ‘when a man came in and pointed a gun at us. Then he ran off with a book.’"
"‘Some old book no one’s heard of,’ says Natalka."
"‘It’s a CID matter,’ says DS Kaur, ‘because of the gun. We’ll see if there are any forensics in the flat. Was the man wearing gloves?’ ‘Yes,’ says Benedict. ‘Black leather.’"
"‘A gunman in Preview Court.’ ‘Seaview,’ says Natalka. ‘That’s what I said.’"
"‘Do you think he’ll come back then?’ says Alison, echoing Edwin earlier."
"This is the first time Benedict has lived on his own."
"‘Down on your knees And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man’s love.’ Not a very feminist sentiment."
"‘Jesus,’ says Neil. ‘Why would anyone have so many books?’ ‘She liked reading,’ says Harbinder. ‘She liked murder mysteries. I think she was a bit of an armchair sleuth.’"
"Our man saw his chance and took the car. Might imply this is a spur of the moment thing."
"If it’s a replica, then the gunman didn’t mean to kill, just to scare people off."
"I think we should talk to Dex now. If he was involved, it’s better to see him before he gets his story straight."
"Looks like we have a serial killer on our hands."
"‘No one knows the day or the hour,’ ‘not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself.’"
"It’s hard to find new ways of killing people."
"Murder consultant? Is that how Dex introduced her?"
"Dex even had some business cards made up for Peggy."
"She was in the Polish resistance when she was only a teenager."
"I imagine that she saw some terrible things."
"I always text him after an event, if I can’t be there in person."
"A thousand ages in thy sight are as an evening gone."
"It's not enough to write a book, you have to go out there and sell it."
"I divide my time between the sofa and the fridge."
"Men hate us. Books are a way of getting our own back."
"You don’t know if she ever went to Russia? No, I think Peggy did most of her travelling in books."
"He said that she had the soul of a killer hidden in the body of a sweet old lady."
"There are lots of people who I’d like to hit in real life but I’m not allowed to. So I do it in my books."
"I was trying to find out if she knew any more about Peggy."
"Listen, those men. I think they’ve come to kill me."
"She’s on crutches. She hasn’t got time to make parathas."
"Man stirs food for ten minutes and suddenly he’s Jamie Oliver."
"I’m hoping the graphologist gets back to me soon."
"He said she gambled too much. She gambles too. Peggy said so."
"I wanted to study music at university, but my father said there was no money in it."
"I walk along the promenade every morning, from the peace statue to the pier. Just me and Arthur. My dog."
"I still miss my cat, Barbra. It’s the space that they occupy."
"Writing a successful book isn’t just getting lucky."
"I think she does this because it leaves her free for other things."
"I thought at first that she had a rich boyfriend but that’s another thing: she’s a really pretty girl but there’s never a mention of a man."
"The murderer is usually a member of the family."
"Maybe it’s because he hadn’t seemed shocked at her revelations, but he’d suddenly seemed less of a joke."
"Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles."
"Captain Haddock always seemed like a typical Englishman to me."
"I was quite shocked when I found out that Hergé was Belgian."
"The landowner keeps trying to stop the fishing but it’s been happening for hundreds of years."
"Marmite is just one reason why the British will never be a civilised nation."
"It’s another beautiful morning, the air fresh and smelling of the sea."
"What must it be like to see people reading something you’ve written? Nerve-wracking, she imagines. Like watching a teacher read your English essay."
"‘I think we should go for a walk on the beach,’ says Natalka."
"‘That’s the best time to see the sea,’ says Natalka. ‘In the wind and the rain.’"
"‘It’s probably only a sprain,’ says Julie. ‘I just need an aspirin and a lie down.’"
"‘It’s wretched being in A and E on your own,’ says Edwin."
"Benedict has always wanted to be a hero. How would it feel, he used to wonder, to emerge from a burning building with a body in your arms? Or to take a bullet for the girl you love?"
"‘You are a hero, Benny,’ says Natalka softly."
"Thank heaven fasting for a good man’s love."
"‘Human beings are monsters,’ says Dmytro, but he says it with a laugh in his voice."
"‘Religion is the opium of the people.’ Why had Peggy, who despised formal religion, kept a holy picture in a book?"
"‘Crimea too,’ says Natalka. ‘You learn about Florence Nightingale in history books but it’s still going on.’"
"Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day."
"We always leave a trace of ourselves behind."
"Time and the hour, but now the words have a jaunty, rhythmic feel."
"There's a lot to be said for sleeping with someone who tries to do everything in the best way possible."
"I think that’s Weronika Challoner next to her," says Benedict. "Lance’s mother is probably in the picture too."