The Moth Catcher Quotes

“the hugeness of the world was a pool to dive into, not somewhere to drown.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“Vera thought for a moment that she might have found a man if she’d scrubbed up a bit better, then decided that no man was worth the time it took to plaster stuff on your face in the morning, when you could have an extra cup of tea instead.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“Not unless he crossed the line.’ Holly supposed she should let this go, but she was tired of Vera’s bullying. ‘Ah, that line . . .’ Vera leaned back in her chair with her eyes half-closed. ‘If only we knew exactly where it was.’ There”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“She’d learned that it was important when you were dealing with professional do-gooders to keep calm. Otherwise they judged you. Wrote things like anger-management problems in their reports.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“But perhaps do-gooders could wear lacy bras too.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“rooms, easy to heat. Now there was one L-shaped open-plan”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“She’d just qualified as a probation officer and seemed a bit overwhelmed. I couldn’t see it was right, a young thing like her dealing with murderers and rapists. They’d send her out to interview men on council estates where the police would only go in pairs. After a day like that she just wanted fun,”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“She always said she’d never work at a job she wouldn’t do without pay.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“She shut her eyes. A fat, complacent Buddha, keeping her own counsel and her thoughts about the case to herself.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“Lizzie looked up then. ‘Who’s Vera Stanhope?’ ‘The inspector in charge of the murder investigation.’ ‘What’s she like?’ ‘Fat,’ Sam said. ‘Nosy.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“Holly knew it was pathetic, but she felt ridiculously disappointed that she couldn’t share the information now, wouldn’t have the immediate payback of a hoot of pleasure from the fat woman and a shouted ‘Great work, Hol’ in front of the whole team.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“I think we were all feeling a bit strange,’ Annie said. ‘It was those two killings at the big house. Right on our doorstep. The fat detective poking into our business. I suppose we thought a bit of a party would be a way to relieve the tension. Besides, it was Friday night. We always get together on Friday night.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“How was Alicia Randle?’ Vera leaned against the desk. The fat on her backside spread inside her Crimplene skirt, made it bulge. Holly found herself fascinated by it.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“She paused and sipped the coffee. The cups were very small and painted with flowers. Vera wouldn’t have got her fat fingers through the handle.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“No.’ But Annie thought the fat detective would be interested in everything they did. She was that sort of woman. She allowed her eyes to glance at the clock on the wall. Sam took food seriously. He’d get moody if he thought the meal he’d prepared was spoiling.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“Annie’s!’ She beamed. ‘Of course. I ate there myself a couple of times. If there was a special occasion. You had a great reputation with the foodies.’ Annie found herself smiling. She knew this fat woman was trying to get her onside, but she couldn’t help herself. ‘That was Sam. He was the chef.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“A fat woman in a dreadful coat had just come out of the Lucas house and was sitting in her car making a phone call. Annie wondered if she had anything to do with the death of the Randle boy. Surely she must do. Could she be a reporter? They’d been bothered by the press a few times after Lizzie was sent away.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“Vera perched on a desk, her fat legs swinging. She was wearing square lace-up shoes and her feet banged against the table leg. She was aware that the team was waiting for her to speak.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“Vera finished her beer and set her glass on the table in front of her. ‘So we have three priorities for tomorrow.’ She held up a fat thumb and two fingers of her right hand in order, as if she was counting. ‘We need to find out where Randle was killed, and at least get a name for the older man. And talk to the neighbours in the valley.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“Where did he come from?’ The questions were coming quickly now. Percy thought the fat woman would surely have an address, if she’d found his driver’s licence, so what could that be about?”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“So Benton was collateral damage?’ Vera closed her eyes for a moment. ‘He was never an intended victim.’ She stood, as still as some bloated and ancient Buddha, and then snapped back to life. ‘Actions for the day,’ she said.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“The weight of her feet in their walkers’ sandals had caused a permanent dent in the cushion. Vera shut her eyes. She thought concentration was the skill most required of a good detective. Concentration and an innate nosiness.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“Annie stayed with Sam in the kitchen for a while, not helping with the cooking, but enjoying the company. The rhythm of his work relaxed her. ‘How do you think she seemed?’ He was chopping an onion and stopped, the sharp knife poised above the board. ‘Well. She’s put on a bit of weight.’ ‘I mean in herself.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“So finally we know where Randle was killed.’ Vera was standing in front of them, but she couldn’t keep still. She moved up and down the narrow space between the chairs and the whiteboard. If she hadn’t been so heavy, Joe would have said she was dancing. The spirit of Muhammad Ali before a title fight was there, even if her weight stopped her prancing on her toes. ‘In the veggie garden at the side of the house.’ Joe listened to the details: the blood on the cold-frame, the crushed salad plants and the moth traps that had been set, but not emptied.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“And that was when the doorbell rang and, glancing through the window, she saw that the fat woman was standing on their step.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“So Susan handed over the bunch of keys and the piece of card with the number neatly written on, and the detective left the house. They stood at the window and watched her walk out to her Land Rover. ‘Nice woman,’ Susan said. ‘You’d think she’d want to lose a bit of weight, though.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“The detective got to her feet and that seemed to break a kind of spell, because Percy found that he could stand up now too. At the door the fat woman wobbled a bit as she struggled to pull on her shoes, and Percy put out his hand to steady her.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“We wondered what you’d like to do this evening,’ Holly said. ‘My boss suggested that you might like to have dinner with us, but really if you’d rather stay here on your own, that’s fine too.’ She didn’t want to inflict Vera, with her size and her brash questioning, on this grieving woman.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“Sometimes she panicked at the thought that he would die before her; then she decided that the worry was ridiculous. You’re the one to talk. A size sixteen these days! If anyone’s going to have a heart attack, it’s you.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher

“It was a Land Rover, so mucky and bashed that it was impossible to make out the original colour, and there was a woman at the wheel. He got out of his car to tell her that she was on the wrong road and this was a dead-end, and anyway she wouldn’t get past him here, but she stopped and got out. He wondered how her knees managed the weight of her on the deep step down to the tarmac. She was big. No beauty. Bad skin and bad clothes, but lovely eyes. Brown like conkers.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Moth Catcher