"Mom is still alive, but she’s going to be murdered at midnight on Good Friday."
"They referred to the first murder as the Case of the Misplaced Baseball Bat, so as not to insult the victim by giving it a more explicit name."
"What was the significance of a baseball bat being inserted into such an intimate orifice?"
"Perhaps Ed Staton had deserved his fate, but the kids who played Ripper were not interested in moral issues; they focused strictly on the facts."
"Celeste Roko, the famous astrologer, had predicted a bloodbath in the city."
"Lying facedown on the massage table, Ryan Miller was dozing under the healing hands of Indiana Jackson, a first-degree Reiki practitioner."
"Everyone’s got to make a living. You charge less than your colleagues at the Holistic Clinic."
"Ryan was convinced that if Indiana’s other male clients were anything like him, they paid simply to be near her, not because they had any faith in her healing methods."
"Amanda’s godmother, Celeste Roko, the most famous astrologer in California, made her 'bloodbath' prediction the last day of September 2011."
"In northern California, the chance of being murdered was one in twenty thousand; it was, everyone believed, a crime that happened to other people."
"Just wait till her hormones kick in, and she’ll nosedive to the usual level of teenage stupidity."
"At seventeen she still shambled along, still bit her nails, and still dressed in bizarre castoffs she bought in thrift stores and accessorized according to her mood."
"I'm worried about Amanda. Her new obsession is crime."
"It's not like that, Indi. They're just a bunch of kids playing games."
"Most girls her age have crushes on movie stars."
"The only people I know who claim to be spiritual are sanctimonious and steal books about the occult from bookstores."
"If reincarnation really does exist, I'll come back as a cockroach."
"Anyone looking for illicit drugs could buy them at the Hairy Caterpillar at bargain prices right under the noses of the police."
"A healthy imagination could dream up without involving third parties or animals."
"The world’s full of guys like that, unfortunately."
"I jot down anything that interests me, never know what might be useful to me in the future."
"I'm the most pitifully boring widower in the world."
"In the end, the principal put him on the night shift to avoid any trouble."
"It can’t have been easy to get his pants down and position him over the vaulting horse; Staton was tall, and he was heavy. Why do it?"
"A message," murmured Abatha. "A sign, a warning."
"Statistically, a baseball bat is often used in cases of domestic violence," said Colonel Paddington in his affected British accent.
"Hmm... the mystery of the baseball bat," mused Abatha. "I suspect the killer chose it for sentimental reasons."
"No one practices sodomy for sentimental reasons," said Sherlock, the only one who did not resort to euphemisms.
"Surely it depends on the sentiment?" said Abatha.
"Thank God for the Internet," thought Amanda as she got ready, because if I’d had to ask the girls at school, I’d look like a complete idiot.
"This semester I have to do a project on a country for my social justice class. Do you mind if I use yours?"
"I’d be honored, but you’d be better off picking somewhere in Africa or Asia—nothing ever happens in Uruguay."
"It’s me, Ryan," he whispered, helping her out of the crate. "Everything’s fine."
"It was easy to love her, yet he did not allow himself to be tied down, considering himself a wayfarer in this world, a traveler who did not take the time to look more deeply into anything except art, which alone seemed to offer permanence."
"They had been together for four years and never mentioned the future, and though he had no intention of getting married, it offended Alan that Indiana had not raised the subject."
"You make me really happy, Indi," he said in an uncharacteristic surge of honesty, mesmerized by what he had just experienced without recourse to pills. "I hope we can go on seeing each other."
"Whatever this is, it has to be mutual—that way neither of us will feel betrayed."
"Lit by the faint glow of candles in the darkened bedroom, Indiana sat naked on the bed, her legs drawn up, her hair tousled, a work of art open to Alan's expert gaze."
"If an illness is not fatal, she would say, the body almost always heals itself."
"Pain, like our other feelings, is a doorway into the soul."
"Ask yourself what you are feeling and what you are refusing to feel. Listen to your body."
"Life is a mystery, sweetie. We can't simply dismiss everything we can't explain or control!"
"The only money that mattered was in the hands of computing and finance billionaires."
"He’d had a string of brief affairs but never married, and he had no need to worry about contributing to the planet’s overpopulation."
"Notionally, he preferred breeding horses to breeding children."
"His complete lack of business acumen drew jokes from his friends and criticism from his family."
"He lived in the country mansion his grandfather had built back when Woodside was in the heart of the countryside."
"Life was full of little ironies, she thought: better to enjoy what you have than focus on some uncertain future."
"The worries about his health and his virility that had disappeared when he had met Indiana were coming back to haunt him."
"He had achieved nothing in his life that might merit mention in an epitaph."
"His relationship with Indiana was comfortable, and Amanda hated him, luckily, as this absolved him of any responsibility toward her."
"The focus of our attention is Susanna, and only her."
"Just look at the young woman’s skin: warm, smooth, gilded by the evening sun."
"She moves languidly, because she wants to prolong the pleasure of her bathing, of the cool water and the warm breeze blowing through the garden."
"She has no illusions about the world, about humanity, or about my own fate. Still less about love. I married Richard for his money."
"In the end, the fate of those liars isn’t the important thing, is it? The lecherous old men are irrelevant; that’s why they’re hidden in the shadowy corners of the canvas."
"It’ll be good for Mr. Jackson to have a pet."
"I’m waiting, Dad." "What for?" "Come on, don’t play dumb," she demanded, drowning her ice cream in chocolate syrup. "I need the details of the psychiatrist’s death."
"Worse ones than you can even imagine, Dad. The psychiatrist has got to be important—you always keep the best cases for yourself. You wouldn’t waste your time on some garden variety murder."
"If you’re this cynical when you’re seventeen, I dread to think what you’ll be like when you’re thirty."
"His wife found him in the morning. You should see her, Amanda, she’s incredible—the most beautiful woman I’ve seen in my life."
"There’s nothing ridiculous about it. Maybe that’s the custom in her country."
"Apart from being a wonderful woman, she’s got a lot of control over her emotions. She was very composed on the day I met her."
"In a cop show, maybe, but in real life it’s my experience that guides me; and I got a sixth sense for these things, that’s why I’m a good policeman."
"You shouldn’t let the prime suspect’s supermodel figure interfere with this sixth sense of yours, Dad."
"When she got back to her father’s house that night, Indiana sifted through the mail."
"It was then she saw the article that would turn her life upside down."
"You don’t know how horrible it is being rich and not having any money."
"A warrior without a spiritual practice is nothing but a killer."
"That’s a long time. When did you plan to get married?" "We never talked about it."
"Sorry to take up your time, Deputy Chief. I was passing and thought I’d come and talk to you."
"Both had struggled to find work when the economic crisis hit, and by late 2010, when she met Ashton, their situation was getting desperate."
"Ashton treated her like a queen when they were in public and like trash when they were at home."
"Good always triumphed, but Evil always had the most interesting role—no one would go to see an auto sacramental that didn’t have a load of vice, sin, or cruelty in it."
"She planned to spend every last cent before she died—she did not want her son and daughter-in-law enjoying the fruits of her work."
"In my line of work, I’ve seen too many horrors to harbor any illusions about human beings: they’re capable of the worst atrocities."
"The aroma of coffee reached his nostrils, the phone rang."
"Police officers across the country felt they had been mocked."
"It was not worth risking their excellent working relationship for a few drunken kisses."
"Those two years had turned into four when another young prisoner ended up in the infirmary after an altercation with her."
"She died of asphyxia, but not from the rope around her neck."
"The woman was strangled and then hanged at least ten or fifteen minutes later, by which time a body no longer bruises."
"That explains why the fan didn’t come loose from the ceiling."
"If you asked yesterday, I would have said no. Today I’m not so sure."
"The neighborhood had an unmistakable Latino feel, with taco stands, markets selling products from south of the border, and signboards in Spanish."
"A higher number than in any other country, including the worst dictatorships, making up 25 percent of the world’s prison population: a nation imprisoned within a nation."
"He could not dismiss the possibility, though: the judge was notorious for handing down long prison sentences to the juvenile gang members who appeared before her."
"Any woman who winked at him could turn his head."
"But if this was an attempt to make her jealous, Petra thought, blowing on her fingernails, he was wasting his time."
"Better he should go to prison than that they kill him, I think."
"No one can know that this information came from me, otherwise they won’t just kill my Hugo, they’ll kill our whole family."
"Alone and unable to consult his therapist—who was on a pilgrimage to the ancient Zen monasteries of Japan—Keller did much soul-searching."
"His house of cards had collapsed, and he lay among the ruins—but he was free."
"For her penultimate patient of the week, Indiana had prepared by dabbing a drop of oil of lemon on her wrists—which helped focus her mind."
"From now on our relationship has to be confined to the four walls of this consulting room. Please don’t be offended—it’s nothing personal."
"Don’t do this to me! You’re the only one who can heal me, Indiana, I’ve been much better thanks to you."
"The only possible answer was that her love for Alan had been stronger."
"She loved his powerful masculinity, the strength he exuded, the warrior air about him, which in her arms changed to helplessness."
"She thought with pleasure about the pared-back simplicity of the apartment."
"The only time you can understand someone truly is when you can feel their unconditional love."