Raven Black Quotes

“The fair one was the prettier, round and soft, but Magnus noticed the dark one first; her black hair was streaked with luminescent blue.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“It was precisely midnight when he stepped through the door. Taylor had said he wanted everyone in the Incident Room an hour before first light the next day, but Perez wasn't ready for sleep. As he switched on the kettle to make tea, he remembered he hadn't eaten since lunchtime and stuck sliced bread under the grill, fished margarine and marmalade from the fridge. He'd have breakfast now, save time in the morning.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“I find it difficult to sleep. A sort of daydream, perhaps, reliving old times, trying to capture something of her, while there’s still a flavour of her in the house. It’s real, you know. A perfume. The shampoo she used, I think. Something else I can’t pin down. I know it won’t last for long.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“She fell suddenly and deeply asleep. A reaction to the shock, she thought later. It was as if a fuse had blown. She needed to escape.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“He thought this must be what the moon must look like, if you”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“Because he’d talked to her about Catriona Bruce. He must be a lonely man. Living all on his own in that house since his mother died. Suddenly he had company, someone sympathetic, wanting him to talk, listening to him. Perhaps she had her own reasons for encouraging him to speak. She wanted his stories for her film. Perhaps she was just a nice kid who felt sorry for him. And the temptation was too much for him. Perhaps he’d had a whisky or two and that loosened his tongue. Whatever.’ ‘I can see that,’ Perez said. ‘I can even see him killing her afterwards to keep the whole thing quiet. But I can’t see him going into the Ross house, searching her room and finding the disk, finding the script and wiping all trace of it from the PC. I don’t get that.’ They sat looking at each other for a moment in silence. Taylor stretched, shuffled in his chair. He’d told Perez he had a bad back, disc trouble, that was why he couldn’t sit still, but Perez wasn’t convinced. It was the man’s mind that didn’t know how to rest, not his body. ‘So what do we do about it?’ Taylor said. ‘Time’s running out for me. I’ve promised I’ll be back at the end of the week. Any longer than that and they’ll start talking about a disciplinary.’ ‘I’m going to take another trip to the Anderson,’ Perez said. ‘Check she didn’t hand the film in early, give it to a friend to look at. If the film is safe we have to let the whole thing go. Like you said, the note on the back of the receipt incriminates Magnus. It shows he talked to her about Catriona. Euan says there’s no other way she could have known about the girl.’ Taylor stood up, lifting the plan with both hands on his way.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“She wondered what kind of man he’d have turned out to be if he’d married someone else.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“She wished then he would put his arm around her and hold her, comfort her, tell her it was all right, that it was natural for her to be upset. In a film that was what a hero would do. She wanted to tell him how hard it was for her to be here.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“She’d just finished Sarah Waters’s Affinity. She was hugely impressed by the writing, the Victorian voice. I was so pleased because I’d recommended it to her. It’s such a compliment, isn’t it, when another person becomes passionate about a book you love. It gives you a connection, a sort of intimacy.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“She was feeling good. Not so self-conscious. She’d lost a bit of weight since Catherine had died and that helped. Maybe she could sell the idea to the teenage magazines – The best friend’s murder diet. She knew it wasn’t funny but she couldn’t help smiling to herself.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“Today her mother had asked if she fancied porridge for breakfast. Would she rather something else? An egg, maybe? When Sally had been bothered that she was putting on weight again and suggested fruit instead of porridge some days for breakfast, her mother had only sniffed and said she wasn’t running a restaurant. She hadn’t understood the agonies of needing to fit in.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“The fat policewoman was at the table, awkward, silent.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“He was an obese man, so fat that the effort of walking made him wheeze.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“She hadn’t even bothered with concealer on her zits. And it had been as boring as she’d suspected it would be. A couple of old men sawing away on fiddles. A fat lass squeezing an accordion. The pooled supper. She’d eaten more than she should, couldn’t help it.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“Sally looked at Morag critically and thought she’d put on weight. Sally was aware of how people looked. She knew it mattered. Didn’t you have to be fit to work for the police? And there was nothing flattering about that uniform.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“Morag sat beside Sally on the sofa. Sally thought this was a pre-arranged move. Perhaps she was there to offer comfort. Oh my God, Sally thought. I hope she doesn’t touch me. Those fat, fleshy hands. I couldn’t bear it.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“He leaked unsuitable affection.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“Perhaps it was healthier to hate your mother. Perhaps she should be grateful that Margaret had treated her like shit.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“They need you. They wouldn’t feel superior without someone to despise. They’re inadequate.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“It was typical that now he was being offered what he’d dreamed of he couldn’t make a decision.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“His family longed for him to be home though they would never say so. It was his choice, they said. He should do whatever made him happy. They were proud of the work he did. But the pressure was there, subtle and unspoken.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“Emotionally incontinent. A phrase he’d picked up from somewhere. It was the sort of thing Sarah might have said. Horrible but probably appropriate. He leaked unsuitable affection.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“It was the sloppy thinking, the laziness which irritated him most.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“I’m not sure Catherine was very close to anybody. She didn’t need people. Liz, my wife, was very different. She had so many friends. At her funeral the church was packed, people standing at the back, people I’d never met but who felt close to her, touched by her warmth. I don’t know who will come when we bury Catherine. Not many people.’ The statement almost took Perez’s breath away.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“She’d managed photographers who could make grown men cry, but Mrs Henry made her feel like a nervy six-year-old.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“Generally making myself indispensable. I was ambitious in those days. It seems ridiculous now.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“His face paled and he blinked violently as if he'd been slapped. She stepped away, expecting an angry outburst, but when he spoke it was almost in a whisper. 'Do you really think that badly of me?”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“Perez thought he was stupid to believe that Catherine had been killed because she'd filmed some secret. So little in Shetland was secret. It was simply unacknowledged. There was something Victorian in this need to put on a good show.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“That was why he hated Duncan. Not because he was a bully but because he'd forced Perez to see him as one. Because when he was fourteen, he'd been Perez's best friend.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black

“She pretended to be a dutiful daughter, yet there were times when she wished her mother was dead.
Even her friendship with Catherine hadn't been what it seemed and it had been a real effort to keep the resentment and jealousy from floating to the surface. Sometimes the effort of all that acting made her feel weird, cut off. Like she was looking down at herself.”
― Ann Cleeves, Raven Black