Quotes from Ann Cleeves

She could understand why some of the women inside loved those true-crime books. The ones with pictures of blank-faced killers staring out of the pages. There was something compulsive about the sadism. The sexual violence. She remembered again Jason's words, his hard laughter and his scorn at her tears. The books the women read were all about pain and humiliation.

Vera smiled. She liked it when Joe stood up to her, as long as he didn't do it too often.

But perhaps do-gooders could wear lacy bras too.

Alicia was close to tears and wanted to sit on the empty platform and cry in peace.

I'm a historian by training, Jimmy. Telling the truth has become a habit.

Perez might irritate the shit out of him, but he was the best judge of character Taylor knew. He watched men like David Attenborough watched animals.

occurred to her as she passed the big house that she'd have nobody to comfort her in a tragedy. She thought it was probably simpler that way, and besides she'd never been able to cope with sympathy.

There was candlelight for which she was grateful. Recently she had noticed fine lines above her upper lip and knew that she could no longer get away with sleeveless dresses.

The inspector listened to folk talking, just throwing in a question occasionally, like tossing a pebble into a pool and waiting to see what the ripples stirred up.

She was a regular customer at the deli and you couldn't miss her. It was her size and those awful clothes, as if she didn't give a shit what she looked like, or what people thought of her.

Emotionally incontinent. A phrase he'd picked up from somewhere. It was the sort of thing Sarah might have said. Horrible but probably appropriate. He leaked unsuitable affection.

He ate with her before he killed her?

His family longed for him to be home though they would never say so. It was his choice, they said. He should do whatever made him happy. They were proud of the work he did. But the pressure was there, subtle and unspoken.

You don't think of that when you retire – that you don't have any space to yourself.

She'd once read out a comment she'd been given at her appraisal: You shouldn't believe that you're indispensable. Your role is to pass on your skills to others. 'Well

Holly hadn't liked Lizzie Redhead. Somebody else with doting parents and a comfortable life, who'd felt the need to make life difficult for other people.

He was a crazy Time Lord trying to turn back the clock, to save this woman when he'd failed to save the other.

A strange sort of claustrophobia. Though he'd grown up in Fair Isle and that was smaller than Whalsay, here he felt trapped, as if it was hard to breathe.

The CSIs were still working the crime scene and the young had a taste for the ghoulish.

They need you. They wouldn't feel superior without someone to despise. They're inadequate.

Second cousins.

Then she thought she was making a drama of the situation. She always did. Vera could never be part of a story without playing a leading role; this time the role was that of the heartless friend.

almost as much as she did. They loved the drama of it, the frisson of fear, the exhilaration of still being alive. People had been putting together stories of death and the motives for killing since the beginning of time, to thrill and to entertain

Expletive], she thought. I must be light-headed. Thinking I can understand that pair. That's what exercise does to you. And having nothin to eat all day except a packet of biscuits.