Quotes from Ann Cleeves

They might share the same secret, but they had different interests. The thought worried her. It was one of the reasons she was scared about leaving prison: that Shirley might land her in the shit, big time.

I'm not sure Catherine was very close to anybody. She didn't need people. Liz, my wife, was very different. She had so many friends. At her funeral the church was packed, people standing at the back, people I'd never met but who felt close to her, touched by her warmth. I don't know who will come when we bury Catherine. Not many people.' The statement almost took Perez's breath away.

Doubt was a cancer that grew unbidden.

the long call, the cry which always sounded like an inarticulate howl of pain.

Taylor leidis, et tema jaoks tähendab lõbusõit kruiisilaeval maapealset põrgut. Jääda laevale lõksu, keset merd koos sadade inimestega, keda sa pole endale kaaslaseks valinud ja kelle vastu sa pead olema viisakas, ilma et oleks võimalik jalga lasta. Perekonnaga on ju tegelikult sama lugu, mõtiskles ta.

He'd left the window down and now he could hear the surf on the beach and the cry of a herring gull, the sound naturalists named the long call, the cry which always sounded to him like an inarticulate howl of pain. These were the noises of home.

She was still thinking about Adam, the tight bum in the skinny jeans.

If you met him you'd think the inspector was kind of slow. It was his way of thinking before he spoke so you knew that when the words came out they were just the ones he'd intended.

There was something of the indulged schoolboy about Ross. It was the gelled hair and designer shirts, the inability to understand a different world view. He seemed a man of certainty. His marriage to Melanie, whom Jen had once described as the perfect fashion accessory, hadn't changed him. If anything, Melanie's admiration only confirmed his inflated opinion of himself.

Hiya... Sorry, it you're selling something, I'm skint. And if you're selling religion, I'm an atheist. The resident God-botherer is out. So, there's nothing for you here.

She thought that if these weren't witnesses, she'd like them as friends; she suddenly felt strangely lonely.

What did your neighbours do before they retired?' Vera knew she should move on to the detail, to questions more relevant to the investigation, but she'd always been a nosy cow.

She read detective stories when she wanted to escape, when she had flu or when she needed to forget some man or other.

The winters were so bleak and black that in the summer folk were overtaken with a kind of frenzy, constant activity. There was the feeling that you had to make the most of it, be outside, enjoy it before the dark days came again. Here in Shetland they called it the 'simmer dim'.

There was a sort of magic in his asking the right questions the first time, picking up the clues in a situation, knowing when it was time to move on.

The chef was obviously a sociopath.

My memory's not so good. I blame the ECT but it's probably just age.

People were always more complex than she realized and she was always too quick to jump to conclusions.

she'd felt on coming into the house, made Vera angry. Bloody hippies! She'd given them a key for emergencies, not so that they could wander into her house whenever they felt like it. They had no respect for personal boundaries.

That was his father's way. Things he couldn't change he made the best of. He said there was no point in taking on the world. He'd never win.

No signature, but none was needed.

Let folk into your life and they started making demands. She hated people making demands.

Ashworth drove carefully up the track and through the ford towards the forest.

He'd been obsessed with dying when he was a small boy. He'd banged his head against the pillow in an attempt to drive away the thoughts. How was it possible not to exist? How could he not exist? As a teenager, the preoccupation was still there, but he'd hidden it more skilfully, turning the obsession into an intellectual pose, a cloak to hide his real terror.