Quotes from Ann Cleeves

And she wasn't eating anything. Not even a bit of toast or a biscuit. It always seems a waste to me, going out to a cafe, if all you choose is something you could have for much less money at home.

Perez thought he was stupid to believe that Catherine had been killed because she'd filmed some secret. So little in Shetland was secret. It was simply unacknowledged. There was something Victorian in this need to put on a good show.

His face paled and he blinked violently as if he'd been slapped. She stepped away, expecting an angry outburst, but when he spoke it was almost in a whisper. 'Do you really think that badly of me?

Vera chuckled and thought this woman wasn't so different from her after all. They were in the same business. Clearing unpleasantness from the streets so that respectable people could continue their daily lives in blissful ignorance.

I loved the tales of Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham. I read widely as a young woman, but always went back to traditional crime fiction for my comfort-reading. If I had a cold or had been dumped by my boyfriend, those were the books I returned to for escape and reassurance.

Vera had never been bothered by post-mortems. Dead people couldn't hurt you; it was the living you should be frightened of.

No dignity in death and not much more when she was living

The shock of waking suddenly had made her muscles tense and she'd never been any good at relaxing.

Sometimes she'd scream at him, laughing but irritated too. 'How can you just sit there? What is going on inside your head?' He was never quite sure how to answer. Stories, he thought. I just tell myself stories.

This is urgent. Please make sure Miss Willmore gets it immediately, wherever she is.' She looked at her watch, then she made one more call and drove north.

He expected a blast of Vera's famous sarcasm, but none came. Instead she stopped moving and leaned against a desk. He had a sudden image of an enormous sea-lion stranded on a rock.

places that sold pixie-shittery to the tourists.

Ah pet, I've been wandering down memory lane. Not always a comfortable place to be.

What about Bernie?' Claire had said, but when they asked Mr Howe he said a sandwich would do for him and continued to practise his magic tricks. So Ramsay called in an eager young constable to stay in the house and they drove away from the Headland, Sal Wedderburn in the driving seat and Marilyn and Claire silently in the back. He was surprised there were no reporters waiting for them in the street. Only the slight movement of upstairs net curtains marked their going

Vera had banned Sorry for your loss. 'We're not characters from an American cop show,' she'd yelled at

This was no crossword to be solved by a gentleman in an armchair. Murder was mad and unreasonable and gentlemen had no part in it.

As the rest of them aged and raged against the good night to come, he faced it with equanimity, even with amusement. Death, he said, was the last big adventure.

Joe grabbed the remote, pressed a button to pause the piece and then played it again. No doubt; the bloke who'd refused

You'll have to excuse my husband.' Jane grinned. 'He disapproves of inherited wealth. I'm afraid he's a bit of a socialist.' 'As was Our Lord

She'd been an only child of two doting but not terribly emotionally intelligent parents. They were practical – if she asked for something, they gave it to her. But she couldn't ask for what she really needed. She didn't know how.

We tend to give a moral weight to the things with which we're most comfortable, don't you think?

But Patty thought Vera couldn't really know, because she couldn't imagine the big woman giving up her independence for anyone. And anyway she was strong, not needy like Patty. Not desperate to be loved back.

her judgement had been spoton.

She loved the way Peter disappeared from Baikie's with talk of a meeting at Trust Headquarters, only to return at dusk with flowers and champagne. She loved dancing with him on the lawn to the music from Constance's old wind-up gramophone. No one had ever made such a fuss of her before.