The Grave's a Fine and Private Place (Flavia de Luce, #9)

by Alan Bradley

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. If I had stuck my finger at random into the Bible as fortune-tellers do, I couldn’t have hit upon a more apt entry. Wasn’t this a direct warning against poisoned wine? Could “the poison of dragons” and “the cruel venom of asps” refer to gossip?

fifty-fourth book of the Bible was the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy. I followed my finger to chapter 6, and then to verses 7, 8, and 9: For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therefore content. But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. A passage about drowning found in the pocket of a drowned man? It was beyond coincidence.

What had Almighty God seen that morning, I wondered, as He looked into the secret hearts and desires of those three women who were about to die, and into the heart of the clergyman who was about to murder them?

“Feminine intuition,” I replied. Which was an outright lie. Feminine intuition is no more than an acceptable excuse for female brains.

“You’re observing me observing you observing me. Is that the way the world works?” “Largely,” Dogger said. “Yes.”

Already her eyes were glittering like a snake’s. This woman’s metabolism burned recognition in the same way that an automobile burns petrol.

Imagine Trump.

Chumminess invariably leads to confidences being exchanged, which, when you get right down to it, is what the art of detection is all about. Sleuths learn nothing by being aloof. It was the one thing that the great Holmes got wrong.

“I’m the kind of person who is going to make a difference in the world,” I told her. “As soon as I get rid of my braces.”

“thrill,” which ought to be spelled with a couple of Z’s instead of L’s, since it has the same effect as sticking your finger into an electrical receptacle. I put the scrap on

“This was in Orlando’s pocket,” I said. “The numbers refer to the book of Timothy: ‘But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare—’ ” “ ‘—and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition,’ ” Inspector Hewitt finished for me.