WHO HAS HIS BIRTH DAY, HAS HIS BURIALL TOO; AS WE INTO THE WORLD COME, OUT WE GOE. - Catherine Aird

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.

Your amateur’s not cluttered up with academic prejudice, Miss Holroyd,” Richard Tindall was fond of saying. “He hasn’t read every single thing that has ever been written on the subject. The amateur sees a problem in its simplest form and it doesn’t occur to him that it’s insoluble.

"That's the idea sir," he said heartily, "Smaller villains."