Ant > Ant's Quotes

“Some crime or offence is committed. The match starts on the basis of more or less objective facts. It’s a problem with one or more unknowns that a rational mind tries to solve.”
― Georges Simenon, Pietr the Latvian

“But what he sought, what he waited and watched out for, was the crack in the wall. In other words, the instant when the human being comes out from behind the opponent.”
― Georges Simenon, Pietr the Latvian

“And there they were, just lying there in the middle of all his papers. How long had she been in the room? Had she seen them?”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“He and Henrietta had been away on holiday when she had died.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“I didn’t ever take to Mary Blakiston and I’m not going to start singing her praises just because she managed to fall down a flight of stairs and break her neck.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“She remembered the conversation she’d had with Mary Blakiston just two days before Brent had called her to the house. Dr Redwing had discovered something. It was quite serious, and she’d been about to go and find Arthur to ask his advice when the housekeeper had suddenly appeared as if summoned by a malignant spirit. And so she had told her instead. Somehow, during the course of a busy day, a bottle had gone missing from the surgery. The contents, in the wrong hands, could be highly dangerous and it was clear that somebody must have taken it.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“Don’t you worry, Dr Redwing,’ Mary had said. ‘You leave it with me for a day or two. As a matter of fact, I may have one or two ideas . . .’ That was what she had said. At the same time there had been a look on her face which wasn’t exactly sly but which was knowing, as if she had seen something and had been waiting to be consulted on this very matter. And now she was dead.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“Sir Magnus and Lady Pye won’t be there,’ Johnny muttered as an afterthought. ‘Where?’ ‘At the funeral. They won’t be back until tonight.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“Her son wanted to get it over with. Can’t blame him, really. The whole thing’s been a bit of a shock.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“What was she doing here?’ she asked suddenly. ‘Mary Blakiston?’ ‘When?’ ‘The Monday before she died. She was here.’ ‘No, she wasn’t.’ Johnny laid down his knife and fork. He had eaten quickly and wiped the plate clean. ‘Don’t lie to me, Johnny. I saw her coming out of the shop.’ ‘Oh! The shop!’ Johnny smiled uncomfortably. ‘I thought you meant I’d had her up here in the flat. That would have been a right old thing, wouldn’t it.’ He paused, hoping his wife would change the subject but as she showed no sign of doing so, he went on, choosing his words carefully. ‘Yes . . . she did look in the shop. And I suppose that would have been the same week it happened. I can’t really remember what she wanted, if you want the truth, love. I think she may have said something about a present for someone but she didn’t buy nothing. Anyway, she was only in for a minute or two.’ Gemma Whitehead always knew when her husband was lying. She had actually seen Mrs Blakiston emerging from the shop and she had made a note of it, somehow divining that something was wrong.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“As for Johnny Whitehead, despite what he had said, he remembered very well his last encounter with Mrs Blakiston. She had indeed come into the shop, making those accusations of hers. And the worst of it was that she had the evidence to back them up. How had she found it? What had put her on to him in the first place? Of course, she hadn’t told him that but she had made herself very clear. The bitch. He would never have said as much to his wife, of course, but he couldn’t be more pleased that Mary Blakiston was dead.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“She and Magnus were twins. They were equals, happily protected by all the wealth and privilege which surrounded them and which the two of them would enjoy for the rest of their lives. That was what she had always thought. How could this have happened to her?”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“Why was she even going to this funeral? It suddenly struck her that her brother had been closer to Mary Blakiston than he had ever been to her. A common housekeeper, for heaven’s sake!”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“that was when the thought had first wormed itself into her head. It had remained there ever since. It was there now. She had tried to ignore it. She had prayed for it to go away. But in the end she’d had to accept that she was seriously contemplating a sin much more terrible than covetousness and, worse, she had taken the first step towards putting it into action. It was madness. Despite herself, she glanced upwards, thinking about what she had taken and what was hiding in her bathroom cabinet. Thou shalt not kill.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“That evening he had argued with his mother and in truth the two of them had never really been civil to each other from that time. But the worst argument had happened just a few days ago, when the vicar and his wife were away on holiday and Mary Blakiston was looking after the church. They had met outside the village pub.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“Why don’t you leave me alone? I just wish you’d drop dead and give me a bit of peace.’ ‘Oh yes. You’d like that, wouldn’t you!’ ‘You’re right! I would.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“I wouldn’t put it past you, Magnus.’ ‘Well, I couldn’t have. I was here the whole time with you.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“There was something he had to do and he would do it as soon as he got home.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“And here was something rather strange. One of the mourners was already leaving even though the vicar was still speaking. Jeffrey hadn’t noticed him standing at the very back of the crowd, separate from them. He was a middle-aged man dressed in a dark coat with a black hat.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“I told them I was going to the theatre in Bath and that I was staying overnight with a girlfriend. But the fact is that I was with Robert all night and I left him at nine o’clock in the morning, which means he couldn’t have had anything to do with it.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“The thief broke in through the kitchen window—cut himself on glass. You’d have thought that would be a big enough clue but the police weren’t interested, of course.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way.”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

“A day is like a whole life. You start out doing one thing, but end up doing something else, plan to run an errand, but never get there.… And at the end of your life, your whole existence has that same haphazard quality, too. Your whole life has the same shape as a single day.”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park

“Life is actually a series of encounters in which one event may change those that follow in a wholly unpredictable, even devastating way.”
― Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park