The Darkness Quotes
"Being questioned by the police was an intimidating business at any time."
"Over the years she had spoken to so many suspects she had developed a knack of spotting when people were trying to pull the wool over her eyes."
"She pursued her inquiries with integrity and a level of dedication that, she knew, bordered on the obsessive."
"Accepting your age was one thing; accepting retirement quite another."
"The truth was that she dreaded being lonely."
"The years had flown by so quickly. It hardly seemed any time since she had become a mother, since she had got married."
"The truth was that she dreaded being lonely, though there was a potential bright spot on the horizon."
"It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy foreign travel – chance would be a fine thing – but her finances put the kibosh on any plans of that sort."
"I’m nowhere near solving that one, I’m afraid," she said after a pause.
"In spite of the times she had felt aggrieved that her talents weren’t appreciated."
"She needed a distraction, something to take her mind off what had happened."
"She knew she was going to miss her job, in spite of all the times she had felt aggrieved that her talents weren’t appreciated."
"They always made her wait, as if to punish her, to remind her of her mistake and give her a chance to reflect on the error of her ways."
"Christmas was fast approaching and she wanted to buy a present for her daughter, although she wasn’t sure what to get her."
"She had sometimes tried going out by herself, to restaurants for lunch or dinner, but it had made her feel self-conscious and embarrassed."
"She prayed that the little girl didn’t feel the same way. The child wept every time, but it wasn’t clear that being parted from her mother was the cause of her tears."
"She told herself that everything would be all right in the end, that the relationship between mother and daughter would eventually become normal. Normal was all she asked for."
"Hulda had watched her protégée’s meteoric rise with a pride not unmixed with envy."
"The truth was that she’d always found it difficult to bond with her colleagues, always kept them at arm’s length, and had paid the price for that in her career."
"I sometimes read crime novels, but I never thought I’d get mixed up in a case myself."
"Say what you like about her colleagues, their company was a lifeline for her."
"It wasn’t only her boss’s offhand manner of breaking the news to her that had brought on this state of bemused shock."
"She had been a restless sleeper for as long as she could remember, even before the recurrent nightmares had begun."
"Could she have done something differently …?"
"She was finding it a hard, unrelenting struggle."
"Everything about the house felt cold and bleak."
"The proposal knocked the mother sideways."
"Their financial situation was precarious, too."
"She had begun to regret that she had never told the girl’s father she was carrying his child."
"He was an American soldier, stationed briefly in Iceland after the war, and their relationship had been even briefer, lasting only a night or two."
"Was it possible that this unknown man had picked Elena up the day before her body was found; that he’d been a client?"
"She had never visited the remote south-east of the country before."
"That never changed. But I think it’s just my nature. I’ve always been quick to forgive. Don’t know why."
"It was a gorgeous spot, right by the sea. I still miss the sound of the waves."
"Perhaps one day she would feel able to open up to him about her daughter, tell him stories about her, tell him what a dear, sweet girl she had been."
"She tried to rise to her feet on the slippery snow, but that was easier said than done with the destabilizing weight of the rucksack on her back."
"Despite the gloomy subjects they were discussing, the sitting room seemed like a haven of tranquillity."
"She was so young, only just turned thirteen."
"She didn’t say anything, just stared at the gifts. She hoped it wasn’t an engagement ring or anything like that."
"The Syrian girl was a thin, wan figure, hunched in misery."
"The feeling had never been stronger than in that moment."
"‘I can’t force my cooking on you every night. So that’s settled then.’"
"‘I hope you learned something useful,’ said Ólíver, giving Hulda a patronizing smile."
"‘Perhaps we could go out for a meal somewhere? Celebrate your retirement. I’ll buy you dinner at Hótel Holt. How does that sound?’"
"‘She was lying there in the shallow water, obviously dead. There was nothing we could do.’"
"‘You’re coming with me to show me the spot.’"
"‘She had head injuries, though there’s no way of knowing exactly how she got them. Probably fell, banged her head and knocked herself out.’"
"‘We both knew what would happen – what I meant by inviting you away for the weekend.’"
"May was definitely the best time of year in her chilly northern homeland."
"It was the first time he had ever killed anyone, and, in truth, it had been disturbingly easy."
"For a moment, looking round at the wide-open spaces and boundless blue sky, Hulda experienced a feeling of freedom, that her potential was limitless."
"Once, she had loved no one in the world as much as those two, her husband and her daughter. But when she found out that Jón had been subjecting Dimma to unspeakable cruelty, her love had been transformed into hate."
"I’ve already got away with two murders. I’m getting to be quite an old hand."
"Hulda had replaced his pills with a useless substitute, and then waited, hoping the change would have some effect, that he would – one fine day – simply fall asleep and never wake up again."
"Nothing would ever be normal again, of course, but she had done what she had to do."
"She had killed a man who had committed a crime worse than murder."
"The birds sang. They didn’t know it was night."