The Rising Tide Quotes

“lough”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“They were very young. Our lot were involved anyway, stomping in with their big boots, just at the time when everything was most raw.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Rick had lived his life on the edge and really his death had come as no surprise. Rick was never going to leave this world easily, peacefully, without drama. He wouldn’t have wanted to.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“He was smart, this man of theirs. He had the knack of making himself indispensable. He’d go far.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Mick Herron’s Slow Horses.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“T. S. Eliot. Better a bang than a whimper, she thought. Rick’s philosophy every time.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“equanimity,”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“equinox,”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Holly went up to her room, switched on the kettle and made a mug of herbal tea. She never travelled without teabags these days. Orange and cranberry, her favourite flavour. She sent an email to the boss and to Joe, describing her conversation with Robson and the barmaid’s description of the people in the Seahorse. She ate the salad she’d made, and then, guiltily, the packet of biscuits that was on the tray next to the kettle.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“For once, Vera didn’t seem distracted by the thought of food, though Joe saw that she ate the sandwich in a couple of bites when it was presented.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Well,’ she said. ‘They’re planning on going skinny-dipping in the lough in the morning. A kind of tribute to Rick Kelsall. I might go and watch.’ A pause. ‘I might even join them.’ The look of horror on the young officers’ faces made her laugh. ‘Ah, I’m only kidding. About me, at least. The world’s not ready for that. But really, I thought you youngsters weren’t into body-shaming. You should have a word with yourselves.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Of course.’ Vera got to her feet, suddenly brusque, almost impatient. ‘I’d like you to give a statement to my colleague here. I’ll see you before you go.’ Then she’d left the room. For someone of her build the boss moved remarkably quickly, and Holly didn’t really see her disappear.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Philip had already swum to the other bank, a brisk crawl, insulated perhaps by all that fat.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“The last thing in the world she wanted was to end up like the boss. Vera was bloated, idle. When the inspector leaned against the desk at the front of the room to address her minions, the fat on her bum spread and made unsightly bulges in those dreadful crimplene trousers she’d taken to wearing now the weather was colder. Though Holly had seen her put on a surprising turn of speed occasionally, not even her biggest admirer – the brown-nose Joe Ashworth – would claim she was fit, and the woman’s diet would make any doctor weep.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“ANNIE LAIDLER HAD RECOGNIZED THE WOMAN detective as soon as she’d first walked into the Pilgrims’ House. She was a regular customer at the deli and you couldn’t miss her. It was her size and those awful clothes, as if she didn’t give a shit what she looked like, or what people thought of her.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Vera ate greedily, but she still managed to ask questions.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Although she was a senior detective, Annie thought of the woman as Vera because that was what Jax always called her, shouting at her across the crowded shop, her voice joyful as if it had made her morning that the big woman was there.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“There was something comforting about the woman, her bulk and her determination.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Now, the detective stood in the doorway, her bulk blocking the light.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Then they all jumped in again, sharing memories, telling the same old stories, because if they were talking about the past, somehow they didn’t have to think too much about the present.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“hanging”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Whenever she asked about the family, it was just going through the motions. She had no real interest.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“There was no point, she’d learned, in raging against the inevitable, and incompetent bosses seemed to be as inevitable as death.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“This was what Vera missed, now she had to spend so long at her desk. The prying and nebbing into other folk’s business.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“She was a regular customer at the deli and you couldn’t miss her. It was her size and those awful clothes, as if she didn’t give a shit what she looked like, or what people thought of her.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“She loved her parents – of course she did – but when they were with her, she had to put on a show.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“She was so used to living alone that gatherings of people, even people she cared about, freaked her out a bit. It was a sort of claustrophobia and occasionally she felt close to a panic attack.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“Rick supposed there were worse ways to go than a fatal heart attack. Anything, surely, would be better than descending into dementia like Ken. The cloudy eyes and unfocused thoughts, the restless twitching of the hands. That was surely a kind of death. It was as if Ken was disappearing almost before their eyes but becoming at the same time deeper and more nuanced.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“He’d been obsessed with dying when he was a small boy. He’d banged his head against the pillow in an attempt to drive away the thoughts. How was it possible not to exist? How could he not exist? As a teenager, the preoccupation was still there, but he’d hidden it more skilfully, turning the obsession into an intellectual pose, a cloak to hide his real terror.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide

“As the rest of them aged and raged against the good night to come, he faced it with equanimity, even with amusement. Death, he said, was the last big adventure.”
― Ann Cleeves, The Rising Tide