Spook Street Quotes

“Those who write the rules rarely suffer their weight.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“And no amount of Kevlar offered protection from a woman’s disappointment.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“Nothing more frightening, to someone who’d lived by his wits, than to be slowly losing them.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“when it comes to suicide bombers, everyone’s a first-timer.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“Lamb seemed to consider several responses before settling for a fart.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“And me, apparently I’m “irritable”.’
‘You broke a dude’s nose, Shirl.’
‘He was asking for it.’
‘He was asking for a couple of quid.’
‘Same thing.’
‘For Children in Need.’
‘He was dressed as a fucking rabbit. I assumed he was dangerous.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“You want me to issue a shoot-to-kill order.” “Well there’s no point shooting to wound. People would only get hurt.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“His tone was polite, but his eyes weren’t.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“When the cat was away, Lamb had been known to remark, the mice started farting about with notions of democratic freedom. Then the cat returned in a tank.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“...What did you say?” “You heard me, River. I’m your father.” “My father?” “You want to hear it in a Darth Vader voice?” River didn’t want to hear it at all. He blinked several times, but nothing altered.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“Grapevines say a lot of things. But it’s mostly the wine talking.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“Nice flat."
"Thank you."
"Quiet area, too. And you're a reader." Emma Flyte nodded at Catherine's bookshelves. "Nothing spoils a good book faster than a lot of background noise."
"Unless it's unwelcome visitors," Catherine said.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“The seagulls’ cries were ever more distant. You moved the rubbish somewhere else, and the racket followed it. It all seemed so simple, put like that. Complications only set in once you moved away from the metaphorical”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“A younger listener might assume Moira to be delivering these fragments down a telephone, but in fact they are directed at the papers on her desk, papers which have accumulated in the absence of Catherine Standish, and have done so in a manner uncontaminated by organisational principle, whether chronological, alphabetical, or commonsensical, since they were deposited there by Lamb, whose mania for order has some way to go before it might be classed as neurotic, or even observable.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“We speak on the phone, we sometimes meet up. Every now and then she tries to have me killed.” He shifted a buttock. “I can’t remember if I’ve ever been married, but it sounds like that’s what it’s like.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“London was a class-A city, of course, constantly topping those lists which explained the world in bullet points. It had the best clubs, the best restaurants, the best hotels; it threw the best parties, and cobbled together the best Olympics ever. It had the best royal family, the best annual dog show and the best police force, and was basically brilliant except for the parts that weren’t, which were like someone had taken all the worst bits of everywhere else and shored them up against each other. And the traffic was a fucking nightmare.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“Either he knows more than he’s pretending or less than he should.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“River had the absorbed air of one getting something off his chest, but with a way to go before he’d mined down to the real stuff.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“I’d say you’re out of shape,” she told him. “But I’m not sure what shape you’re aiming for.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“Dame Ingrid Tearney, erstwhile head of the Service, had used their offices to further her own interests, and while initiative was frequently applauded, getting caught exercising it was not.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“He pressed a finger to his upper lip. ‘That mole of his, looks like he’s been eating crap and missed a bit? Mystery Man doesn’t have one, and that’s going to be noticed.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“And as a result of all this change, of course, most things remained the same.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“A lot of the shooting had taken place underground, and the area itself was notable mainly for the number of residents who jumped under trains leaving Paddington, but still: you can only let so many bodies fall before someone notices the thumps. It was the excuse several of the big-chins on the Limitations Committee had been waiting for; revenge for having one of their own ground into mince, after being caught with his hand in the till. Criminal, yes; treasonous even, if you wanted to split hairs, but the chap was stripped of his knighthood for pity's sake. Could hardly show his face in his club once he'd served his three months, less time off for having been at Harrow.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“days were mere splinters of time, no useful measure. The sudden events that blind us with their light had roots in the slowly turning decades.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“And one thing joes learn quickly is that those who write the rules rarely suffer their weight.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“Nothing more dangerous than a believer.” Because believers were always on a quest, for one Holy Grail or another. And quests were fuelled by the blood of anyone who happened to get in the way.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“As a devout Muslim, Samit abhorred the practices he daily bore witness to, but as one of Westacres’ dedicated team of Community Regulation Officers—or Security Guards, as they called themselves—he forbore from calling down divine retribution on the unGodly,”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“but as one of Westacres’ dedicated team of Community Regulation Officers—or Security Guards, as they called themselves—he forbore from calling down divine retribution on the unGodly,”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“And the boiler, the heart of this beast, wouldn’t so much beat as flutter in a trip-hop rhythm, its occasional bursts of enthusiasm producing explosions of heat in unlikely places; its irregular palpitations a result of pockets of air straining for escape. From doors away you can hear its knocking, this antiquated heating system, and it sounds like a monkey-wrench tapping on an iron railing; like a coded message transmitted from one locked cell to another.”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street

“(“Don’t set off any new trends,” Marcus warned her when he found out. “I took an idiot round Shoreditch once. That’s how hipsters started.”)”
― Mick Herron, Spook Street