Splinter the Silence Quotes

“It was a lot easier to be optimistic about equality when you didn’t have to confront the Neanderthals on a daily basis. When you could imagine that people were actually changing their minds because they’d stopped groping secretaries at the photocopier.”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“Kevin tried not to look at the tautness of her blouse over her breasts. He’d spent years schooling himself out of sexist responses, but it was hard when women’s bodies were so present, so attractive, so tempting.”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“Daisy’s mobile in the pocket of her jeans and rigged it up to the old-fashioned answering machine he’d brought with him, setting them both down close to the stove.”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“Plath had gassed herself, but that was back before the days of natural gas. Then, stoves and household fires were fuelled by poisonous coal gas. People put their heads in the oven and turned on the gas and they died.”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“the usual Carol Jordan buzz on.”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“That was one of the reasons she’d liked working for Carol Jordan. The boss cared about her results, not the minutiae of how she got them, provided that nothing Stacey did was going to come back and bite them in the arse at a later stage.”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“But his desire to do the right thing”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“And she keeps in touch with Stacey, who isn’t averse to doing foreigners for an old friend either.”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“Fuck you, Tony. I don’t need you. I don’t need anyone.”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“Carol Jordan had been the perfect boss as far as she was concerned.”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“But she was a good boss, Sam. The best I’ve ever had.”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“Neanderthals”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“So you’re a functioning drunk. You don’t have to be falling down in the street or pissing yourself or sleeping with unsuitable men or losing whole days at a time to be a drunk.”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“zeugma”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“Carver”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence

“Her eyes widened and her mouth formed an anguished O. He had to admit, there was real pleasure in seeing her pay the price for her bitching and whining and moaning. She’d called men like him misogynists. That was the opposite of what they were. Men like him, they loved women. They understood the kind of life that suited women best. They knew what women really wanted. Proper women didn’t want to be out there in the world, having to shout the odds all the time. They wanted to build homes, take care of families, make their mark and exercise their power inside the home. Being women, not fake men. After”
― Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence