A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy Quotes

“It’s your aunt,’ someone said. ‘She says it’s urgent.’ Ramsay almost refused to speak to her. Tell her I’m too busy, he wanted to say. She can leave a message. But the conversation with Corkhill had chilled him. Corkhill had lost the habit of human contact. He cared for Theresa, but preferred loneliness to the responsibilities that came through living with her. Perhaps I’m like that, Ramsay thought. I resent the demands of friendship. So when Annie came through to him he spoke to her kindly, with unusual warmth. But he knew it was all pretence and, like Corkhill, he was better on his own.”
― Ann Cleeves, A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy

“A young woman doctor had broken the news to her that she had cancer. She had been very gentle, very sympathetic. ‘Sit down, Mrs Bowman,’ she had said. ‘Don’t hold in your feelings. Cry if you want to. It’s bound to be a shock.’ But Mrs Bowman had not felt like crying. The first sensation had been of exhilaration. This is it then, she had thought. It’s all over but I’ve had a good life. She had one son, but for years he had lived in New Zealand. No one would miss her. She had never been one for taking risks and this was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her. There was something dramatic about being incurably ill and she had expected a sudden change in her condition, then the final adventure of death. She”
― Ann Cleeves, A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy