Relic (Pendergast, #1)

by Douglas Preston

But you’ve displayed three gifts that are indispensable to a first-class researcher: a sense of what to look for, a sense of where to look for it, and the zeal to see your theories through.”

D’Agosta just couldn’t get used to the Hall of the Great Apes. All those big grinning chimps, stuffed, hanging out of the fake trees, with their hairy arms and hilarious realistic dicks and big human hands with real fingernails. He wondered why it had taken so long for scientists to figure out that man was descended from the apes. Should’ve been obvious the first time they clapped eyes on a chimp. And he’d heard somewhere that chimps were just like humans, violent, excitable, always beating hell out of each other, even murdering and eating each other. Jesus, he thought, there must be some other way to get around the Museum without going through this hall.

“I mean, how do you know the killer came through here?” “I suppose I was guessing,” said Pendergast, examining the next painting. “You see, when someone says ‘it’s impossible,’ I have this very bad habit, I can’t help myself, I immediately contradict that person in the most positive terms possible. A very bad habit, but one that I find hard to break. But of course, now we do know the killer came through here.”

position. Your partner is Wilson.” “Wilson? You know I don’t like partnering with a woman, sir—” “Henley? There’s something else.” “What’s that?” “Wilson’s gonna be carrying the twelve-gauge.”

Suck shit

noticed he was still clutching a morsel of shrimp in his hand, and bolted it down.

Ffs smithback rly

Smithback quickly shoved a wedge of Camembert into his mouth, holding it between his teeth, realizing suddenly that he was eating while the biggest event he’d ever seen

“There was sadness in its eyes,” said Cuthbert. “Infinite sadness.”