Quotes from Lisa Gardner

It's human nature, Rainie. We're all looking for something to believe in, and someone to blame.

away from the window and the night descending upon Bakersville's streets.

In the end, it's not much of a decision at all. Angelique. I am here to find Angelique. To save a girl. To redeem a sin I can never change. And maybe to chase a bullet I dodged ten years ago. I turn left, down the end of the hall to the fire escape. Then, I vanish into the dark.

someone, probably Heidi, ran into the coffee

I'm convinced these are the moments that ultimately make us or break us. Like a wave lapping against the same boulder day after day, eroding the stone, shaping the line of the shore, the ordinary minutia of our lives holds the real power, and thus all the hidden danger. The daily things we do, or don't do, without ever understanding the long-term ramification of such minor acts.

A counterfeiting operation for student visas. Requiring one mastermind, followed by enough men to kidnap two teenage girls and force them into servitude. That shouldn't require too many bodies.

The academic world is competitive. For ideas, grants, students, funding.

I'm filled with the age-old terror of making a mistake, looking foolish. How is it we all leave high school, but high school never leaves us? Bob

What I gleaned: Especially in situations where technology has failed, the right person asking the right questions can make all the difference. That total strangers care that much for the missing among us, I found powerful—though also heartbreaking. So this book is for the dedicated, whether they're amateur detectives, professional pilots, registered dog handlers

We have been together too long for her to want to be apart. We are hers, the children of her sister's body and her heart.

Luka loved the sheriff's department. He moved in a stiff-legged trot, all keen eyes and pricked-up ears. Retired police officer, returning for duty.

Promise me, then: If you ever see my father, if he should ever show up at our front door, you'll kill him first, and ask questions later. He'll never touch Ree. Promise me that, Jason. My husband looked me in the eye. He said, Consider it done.

couloir étroit en l'aidant à contourner les obstacles, à savoir les camés en

constant budget crises, the going rate for protecting

A perfect family, I think, is one that's learned how to forgive.

Thank you," I say, and I mean it. Ten days, ten months, ten years, you never know when the next craving is going to hit, and in those moments, a single connection can make all the difference.

You hurt, and you hate hurting. Worse, you feel helpless, which in turn makes you feel hopeless, and you are not a woman accustomed to either emotion.

She had this conversation with herself once a year. Generally, right about now, when the holidays were looming and people were talking excitedly about family gatherings, and she went home each night to an empty condo that seemed much emptier than it did in spring-filled May or hot, sunny August.

Don't ignore your pain. Register, accept, then work with your own body to push through. Naming your pain . . . It's simply a device to help you identify and focus. If calling your pain Melvin makes you feel stupid, don't do it. Refer to it as Pain or don't call it anything at all. But acknowledge your pain threshold. Consider how your injury feels. Then work with your body to do what you need to do.

They met in the conference room. The official investigative team. Quincy thought. Two profilers one sheriff, a homicide sergeant, a volunteer tracker, and a thirteen-year-old girl. Definitely the most interesting team Quincy had ever seen assembled.

A detail provided by Emmanuel, I realize now, in order to humanize his sister. Make her real not just for sympathizers, but to any predator who might be holding her.

Where are these perfect families? Is it yours? Your friend's, your neighbor's? I don't think you can just point one out. The ones we're most likely to admire are simply the ones with the best-kept secrets. No, the real perfect families, they have warts and bruises and scars. They had to screw up and admit their mistakes. They had to do everything wrong so they could learn how to do few things right. They had to hate so they could know what to love.

He's familiar, but he's not the same. He's an American whose family came from Haiti. My aunt, my sister, myself, we are Haitians who now live in America. He has never felt the ground shake beneath his feet. He doesn't understand that it can happen again.

And what is a marriage except adding A to B and hoping it equals an amount greater than the sum of its parts? Briefly, the promise of a new life almost made the math work. Except A was still A, and B was still B. We could create a new life, but we couldn't stop being ourselves.