Quotes from Harlan Coben

Tragedy sort of works this way: Once it snakes it's way in, it cuts down all your defenses and allows it's brethren easy access to feed.

Corny, yes, but there you go. Purity. That was what hit you when you get lost looking at your own child—a purity that could be derived only from true, unconditional love. He loved Ryan so damned much.

Two metallic swivel stools were painted red on the base, looking about as inviting as rectal thermometers.

That'll never sell." "Sure it will, Lance. I don't want to sound immodest, but who's better at spin than yours truly? And wait, you haven't heard me wax philosophical on the comparisons between this case and Richard Jewell, or on the overzealousness of the D.A.'s office, or how they were so eager to pin this on Dr. David Beck, hero to the downtrodden, that they obviously planted evidence at his residence.

You look like Donald Trump being sprayed with mace." "That's the poo-poo face. I

Brooke?" It was Win. "I get it," he said. "You're angry." "Man, you're perceptive." "But more than that, you're trying to motivate me," Win said. "There is no need. You know that too." Their eyes met. If someone passed a hand between those eyes, it would probably have been chopped off via laser. Her

Might be a cliché. Might not. Then again, to coin another cliché, we see what we want to see, especially when we are a desperate mother hoping to end a decade of pain. Tears

Ellen and Al Bolitar—my grandmother likes to joke that they're "El-Al, like the Israeli airline"—greeted us at LAX airport. Grandma sprinted toward Myron and me, arms wide open, hugging us as though we were innocent men just released from serving an unjust prison term, which is to say, like a grandmother should. She hugged us with everything she had and then she looked us over, inspecting us to make sure that everything was how it should be.

They often quoted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's beloved Sherlock Holmes: "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." "Myron?

Growing up, she'd decided, was never easy. Adolescence is a war zone, no matter where you live.

Let's live on the edge, old friend. That's where all the goodies reside.

Knowledge is bigger than debate," I

The whole place had a feel and aura about as warm as a cold sore. Myron

There's a Shakespeare quote," she said. "From Hamlet. He says that death is—and I think I have the quote right—an undiscovered country from whose borne no traveler returns." He

Olivia turned off the ignition. Matt checked his face in the visor mirror. He looked like hell. Lawrence was right. What with the bandage wrapped around his head, he did resemble the soldier playing the flute in Willard's Spirit of '76.

In short, Millie explained in long, they would decorate the middle school gymnasium to look like various comic-book places.

Myron was playing Mr. Bureaucrat to the hilt; nothing made a person feel more impotent. There is no darker pit than the blank stare of a bureaucrat.

Myron strolled, feigning interest. He stopped at a crystal statue with a marble base. Something modern or cubist or what-have-you. Symmetrical Bowel Movement maybe. Myron put his hand on it. Substantial. He looked out the one-way glass. Too low for much of a view beyond the hedges lining the front gate. Hmm. The

There was a swirl of giggles, of "Hello, Ms. Lawson," wet hair, the gentle perfume of both YMCA chlorine and bubble gum, the sound of backpacks being shucked off, of seat belts fastening.

You want to spend the night in jail?" "For what, asswipe? You going to arrest me on some trumped-up charge? Go ahead. I work for a law firm. I'll sue your ass back to the high school equivalency exam you probably never passed." More

Declarations of love or loss were meaningless to her. It was like playing catch with yourself. It had to go two ways.

The tires bore down, kicking up dust like an Arabian stampede. Elizabeth flipped off the car stereo. Out of the corner of my eye, I could tell that she was studying my profile. I wondered what she saw, and my heart started fluttering.

I bet you're confused," Corey said. Dr. Understatement. Maya was stunned. Like a boxer on his heels, she needed time to recover, to take the standing eight count, get her head back into the fight. Explanations for how this could be rose into view, but in every case, she was able to shoot them down with too much ease. Nothing

When we stepped out of the car, I heard the ghosts. Lots of them here, too many, swirling and battling for my attention. My father's won out.