Quotes from Lee Child

on the report from the dentist's wife. Milosevic started giving him a hard time about that, like it

The guns were Smith & Wesson Sigma .40s, which were modern part-polymer weapons, and expensive. They were both fully loaded.

Books by Lee Child Title Page Copyright Dedication Introduction

Life," Joe said. "What a completely weird thing it is. A person lives sixty years, does all kinds of things, knows all kinds of things, feels all kinds of things, and then it's over. Like it never happened at all.

The fittest guy he had ever known was a Belgian soldier who swore the key to fitness was to do whatever the hell you liked as long as you drank five litres of mineral water every day.

Confidence, maybe," Chang said. "Or overconfidence. He thinks we're dead by now. Maybe he's got nothing else to worry about. He could be the apex predator here. Unchallenged.

Bramall told a joke about a lawyer who died and got to the pearly gates. Not fair, he said. I'm only 45. Saint Pete said no, we got a new system. Now we do it by billable hours. According to our records you're 153.

counterpane and the counterpane was still tight over the pillows. But there was a head-shaped

chill. Ten minutes

A tall, thin, gaunt, cadaverous man, who moved like he might collapse at any moment, like a broken stepladder.

His name was Kramer and he was a Catholic and his blood group was O.

The chief of detectives was not thrilled to get it. Not at first. He got more excited later. His name was Griezman. He was considered successful. His department's ninety-percent record was impressive.

Seventeen rounds to a magazine, hence the name.

The atmosphere was happy. Maybe a little forced. They were welcomed at the reception desk by a cheerful woman who spoke to them as she would to the bereaved, except not exactly. A little livelier. A unique tone. Maybe part of her training. Maybe learned in role play class. As if visitors to an old people's home made up a unique demographic. Not the recently bereaved. The soon to be. The pre-bereaved.

Military police," Reacher said. "But don't worry. I'm sure by five o'clock we'll have plenty of civilized people here. You can give up on me and get along with them instead." The

women passengers

Afterward the last one looked best off. He was still moving. So Reacher stepped down and kicked him in the head. Just once. The irreducible number. But hard. To discourage further participation. Then the lobby door opened and Brenda Amos walked in.

At the very same moment, close by, a car breaks down. Two young Canadians are trying to get to New York City to sell a treasure. They're stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. It's a

This is an event horizon, colonel. This is where it all goes wrong. Possibly for nothing. Possibly for some little thing other guys have gotten away with. But you're going to crash and burn. Best case, you're going to stall. Best case, you're going to get an asterisk against your name forever. As in, we can't be sure about that guy.

I was in a booth, at a window, reading somebody's abandoned newspaper about the campaign for a president I didn't vote for last time and wasn't going to vote for this time.

He hung up the phone and stood in the silence. He could hear Griezman's Mercedes behind him, idling at the curb. He could hear a faint penumbra of noise from the city, a mile away, and a ship's horn far down the river. Closer by he could hear a compressor running somewhere. Maybe someone was spraying paint. There were occasional engine noises, in the middle distance, as if things were being hauled back and forth. Not

You can't be real-world smart and real-world dumb, all at the same time. You can't be rational and irrational. You can't deal with reality and simultaneously not deal with it.

You got to imagine your memory is like an old bucket, you know? Once it's filled up with old stuff there ain't no way to get new stuff in.

She pressed buttons and waited for answering beeps, and then she said, "I want the personnel jacket for U.S. Army Private First Class Wiley, first name unknown, currently four months absent without leave from an air defense unit in Germany. To me in Hamburg, seriously fast." Then she clicked off. The National Security Council. The keys to the kingdom. There was a knock at the door. For