Catherine Aird Quotes

Sloane wasn't interested. As a police officer he was concerned with crime, not punishment.

In detective work you thought in much the same way as you would pick your way across a swamp, testing for firm ground each time you took a step forward.

He did his best to explain this to Inspector Sloan afterwards. 'A funny feeling, sir.' 'Yes?' Funny feelings were not encouraged at Berebury Police Station.

Gone out to look for a hair to split, I expect.

I never touch nothing with writing on it.

Pax Intrantibus, Salus Exeuntibus

Really,’ she exclaimed, stumping into the kitchen and plonking herself down on the nearest chair, ‘this place is getting worse than Nightmare Abbey. Whatever next?’

A grammatical purist might have wondered why Miss Bentley hadn't said ‘whoever’ rather than ‘whatever’ but the former headteacher belonged to the Superintendent Leeyes school of taking bad news as a personal affront rather than as an occasion for sympathy for the victim.

Dead and never called her mother, in fact,” misquoted Sloan, who had once seen the Berebury Amateur Dramatic Society play East Lynne, and never forgotten the searing experience.

If there was one thing which Sloan had learned over the years it was that you should never underestimate the element of luck in detective work.

If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.

Though,' observed Sloan profoundly, 'where there's a will there's usually a relative.

Although the last enemy might be death, in long and sad police experience, the first enemy could usually be found, Cain and Abel fashion, within the family circle.

Jezebel didn't drive up in a chariot.

Since the coat has absolutely no intrinsic value, Inspector, I must regretfully conclude that the choice lies between an outbreak of gesture politics or the damage being the work of a mind deranged.’

Sloan tried another tack. ‘And which would you think the more likely?’

‘Malice or madness? I’ve no idea at all, Inspector.

We know hardly anything about anything.