Crime Fiction Quotes

His fear-inflamed mind sent the control-signal to his finger-joint to fold back. The trigger sliced back. The blast seemed to lift the booth clear off the floor, drop it down again. A pin-wheel of vacancy appeared in the glass, flinging off shards and slivers. ~ Cornell Woolrich

The NRA is an outdated special interest group. The Association's membership does not have the best interests of our students or the safety of our schools in mind. Its' influence must be diminished and ultimately destroyed. The NRA has our fallen friends' blood on its hands. ~ Mark M. Bello

Scandinavian crime fiction has become a great success all across the world and rightfully so. Sjowall and Wahloo ushered in a whole generation of Swedish crime writers, many of whom are now available in English. ~ Camilla Lackberg

February 9th was HIS day. The day he always striked. ~ Mary Papas

There was a ringing in his ears, like a dead phone line that he couldn't hang up on. ~ Mark Capell

Logan glanced at the clock on the cooker: nearly five minutes fast. The room was bathed in the pale orange glow of the overcast sky, the back garden a jungle of silhouettes and shadows through the window. He filled the kettle, then poured half of it out, before sticking it on to boil. The growing rumble drowned out the babble on his Airwave handset as DI Bell got his firearms team into place. ~ Stuart MacBride

God, I swear I've never seen a more
nervous bunch of people. Like a bunch of rats in a science lab. ~ Feather Stone

Somebody had angrily scrawled DOPE HOUSE with a broad Sharpie above the apartment 6G peephole in the Truman Houses.
"The quality goes in before the name goes on," the CSU tech standing next to Billy said before entering the scene. ~ Harry Brandt

Pedro, the Guardia, asked him if he could inspect the inside of his van because hundreds of very expensive ham legs had been stolen recently and the robbery perpetrated by a gang of men dressed as priests ‒ how do you say, monks. Danny felt the beads of sweat trickle down his back as he slid open the door. Along the side was a clothes rack with different costumes hung on hangers. He couldn't actually remember when he'd last cleaned the van out, hadn't the front to admit to such slovenliness. Pedro the cop lifted off a cassock.
"I use that for my work."
Pedro put his hand on the van and poked his nose in, sniffed and backed his face away and looked at his hand covered in sticky egg yolk and shell.
"It's for the wash," continued Danny, fighting a smirk.
Pedro pointed at his eyes with his fingers and then at Danny's to indicate, I'm watching you.
Danny reluctantly handed the cash over to the cop. They ambled off as he watched his money scrunch into his pocket.
Danny slumped at the bar, deflated. ~ Mark Shearman

My name's Alis K. From now on you will be Willy. Come on, let's push the bicycles for a bit."

Ingrid aka 'Alis K'
The Informer ~ Steen Langstrup

Whose Daddy's Little Girl Now? ~ Lauren Bradshaw

Both men were pictures of the kind of grief that cauterizes open wounds in memory and turns them into black scars. ~ B.V. Lawson

That's the thing about digging holes," Quinn said. "There are no assurances you'll find what you want - or want what you find. ~ Tami Hoag

On a Wednesday morning in mid-June, Eli Sharpe was sitting at his desk treating jetlag with strong coffee when he heard a knock on his apartment door. After a second, more insistent knock, he added a dash of George Dickel to his Folgers and hid the pint in a desk drawer.
"It's open," he said loudly and stood up to receive his visitor.
In walked a tall blonde, her high heels stabbing the scuffed- up hardwoods, her perfume battling the smell of coffee and dust permeating Eli's six-hundred square foot studio apartment that doubled as a working office. Her perfume won the battle: Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana. Same scent his third fiancée used to wear. ~ Max Everhart

I started out a human being. But pretty much had all the humanity wrung out of me after passing the Bar and practicing law for ten years. Not sure what I am now. ~ Jeffrey Rasley

The sliver of sun turned water crystals among the coal-colored clouds into the halo of a sundog. ~ B.V. Lawson

Everyone should have a kid. They really put things in perspective. I know a guy can get you one cheap. ~ Anthony Chapman

False assurances were certainly more harmful than none at all. ~ Chris Womersley

You weren't kidding about the rolls," Rebus said, taking another bite.

"Bacon just the right side of crispy," Robert Chatham agreed.

They were seated across from one another at a booth with padded seats and a Formica-topped table. Mugs of dark-brown tea and plates in front of them, Radio Forth belting out from the kitchen. ~ Ian Rankin

Last night, I killed a man. If I had to, I'd do it all over again. Afterwards I slept like a baby. There's a surprising amount of physical exertion in murder - they don't call it a dead weight for nothing. ~ A.E. Rawson

Some sinister secret lat buried in the heart of the graveyard ! ~ Rajib Mukherjee

In the crime fiction section, you may just find a novel that talks about the place where you're from and speaks to you about your life - or the life yours could have become if a little misfortune had come your way. ~ Adrian McKinty

Crime fiction confirms our belief, despite some evidence to the contrary, that we live in a rational, comprehensible, and moral universe. ~ P.D. James

When I began to write, I was surprised at how little London had been used in crime fiction. Places such as Edinburgh or Oxford or L.A. seemed to have stronger identities. ~ Mark Billingham

You spill a lot of beans in historical fiction. Crime fiction is about spilling no beans at all. You spill the least beans you possibly can. So because I had already written historical fiction before I was really good at the spilling beans section, but the new skill I had to learn when I was writing Brighton Belle was difficult. I had to avoid the equivalent of shouting, this character's a murderer! Look who did it!. ~ Sara Sheridan

What did you tell me, Jesse? Sure Jake, Stephanie will do exactly what you tell her. Sure Jake, protecting her will be a piece of cake. "
Snorting in disbelief, he added, "Being at war is safer compared to this shit, and it's a hell of a lot easier than looking after your girlfriend. ~ Nina D'Angelo

All I knew was, my Father was famous for being a loser, and a loser that wanted nothing to do with me, since the day I was born. ~ Holly Hood

Think of your new position as that of a business mercenary; fighting the war for the mighty dollar – after all, it is money that holds all the real power in this world, is it not? ~ D.B. Stephens

As Ruth only knows one priest (one male priest that is) she's not that surprised to find Father Hennessey waiting for her at one of the long tables, a cappucino in front of him. 'Hallo Ruth, sorry to call in on you like this.'

'That's OK.'

'Are you going to get yourself a drink? This coffee's really very good. It's truly terrible, the stuff they serve at the police station.'

'I know.' Ruth has had her own experience of Nelson's coffee. She wonders if it's a way of torturing suspects until they confess. In contrast, the coffee at the university is excellent. Ruth gets herself an espresso. She thinks that she is going to need the energy. She has a feeling that, like the visit from Nelson all those years ago, this conversation is going to complicate her life. ~ Elly Griffiths

I know you, Ruth Ann Carver. I know you better than you know yourself. You think you do things right. You think you're a paragon of right living. This is a self-told lie, one bolstered by your coddling parents and grandparents. ~ Carolyn Lee Adams

The majority of things in life are about picking your battles. You'll learn that too. And that will never be clearer than when you're at IKEA. You'd have to visit a Danish vacation village after two weeks of pouring rain and no beer to come across as many couples arguing as you'll hear in the IKEA section for changeable sofa covers on any given Tuesday. People take this whole interior design thing really seriously these days. It's become a national pastime to over interpret the symbolism of the fact that "he wants frosted glass, that just proves he never listens to my FEELINGS." "Ahhhhh! She wants beech veneer. Do you hear me? Beech veneer! Sometimes, it feels like I've woken up next to a stranger!" That's how it is, every single time you go there. And I'm not going to lecture you, but if there's just one thing I can get across then let it be this: no one has ever, in the history of the world, had an argument in IKEA that really is about IKEA. People can say whatever they life, but when a couple who has been married for ten years walks around the bookshelves section calling one another words normally only used by alcoholic crime fiction detectives, they might be arguing about a number of things, but trust me: cupboard doors is not one of them. Believe me. You're a Backman. Regardless of how many shortcomings the person you fall in love with might have, I can guarantee that you still come out on top of that bargain. So find someone who doesn't love you for the person you are, ~ Fredrik Backman

We have a few chicken-shit senators who are afraid of the NRA and its ilk, but with the right tweaks, I still think you have a shot . . . ~ Mark M. Bello

Angel you may have lucked out this time, but just remember I'm going to be on your ass until I get my revenge. I promise you this will not be the last time you will see me! You're a dead man Medina, maybe not now but soon! - Orlando to Angel under the crumbling furnace in the hotel. ~ Angel Ramon Medina

Sneaking out at night. You think you're so clever, but you're not. Either you're a saboteur, Johannes, or you've got a mistress.
The Reverend's wife, Grete
The Informer ~ Steen Langstrup

He wants to be perceived as a hero to people who have been bullied and not as a deranged lunatic who committed mass murder without rational explanation . . . ~ Mark M. Bello

We saved the lives of a whole family that night. Children, parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, all sailed to safety in Sweden inside a little fisherman's boat."

Johannes aka 'BB'
The Informer by Steen Langstrup ~ Steen Langstrup

She knew with chilling and absolute certainty she was next. ~ Alexa Grace

In terms of going back and forth between fiction and nonfiction - in which I'll include memoir, biography, and true crime - is that one relieves the other. ~ Kathryn Harrison

I have romanticised you to the point where the knives you pressed into my skin began to look like cupids arrows. ~ E.J. Wood

Life's unpredictable patterns had a strange way of forming a connected web. ~ D.A. Pupa

Take this in to them, s'il vous plaît," Chef Véronique's large ruddy hand trembled slightly as she motioned to the trays. "And bring out the pots already there. They'll want fresh tea."

She knew this was a lie. What the family wanted they could never have again. But tea was all she could give them. So she made it. Over and over. ~ Louise Penny

While the gun lobby sought to close the courthouse door to all legitimate claims, Zack and other clever lawyers often artfully dodge these efforts with carefully crafted pleadings and appropriate argument, successfully litigating their claims, and holding gun companies responsible. ~ Mark M. Bello

Today, women have as much of a place as protagonists and antagonist as men. ~ JP Wolfe

She had been lying there, facedown in the water long before the tide had turned at 3.04 that morning. Her eyes were staring into the river, her blonde hair first fanning out, then drawing back under her head with the wash of the water, like a pulsating jellyfish. The belt of her raincoat was caught on the branches of an overhanging tree and she'd been hooked, destined to forever flap against the corner of the broken pier with outstretched arms. She wasn't going anywhere now; she was simply bobbing up and down with the rhythm of the water - and she hadn't blinked in a long while. ~ A.J. Waines

Most crime fiction plots are not ambitious enough for me. I want something really labyrinthine with clues and puzzles that will reward careful attention. ~ Sophie Hannah

I needed to become a fully functional, contributing member of my life ~ Vicki Wilson

God don't give out certain. ~ Jeffery Deaver

Kay could see how Michael stood to receive their homage. He reminded her of statues in Rome, statues of those Roman emperors of antiquity, who, by divine right, held the power of life and death over their fellow men. One hand was on his hip, the profile of his face showed a cold proud power, his body was carelessly, arrogantly at ease, weight resting on one foot slightly behind the other. The caporegimes stood before him. In that moment Kay knew that everything Connie had accused Michael of was true. She went back into the kitchen and wept. ~ Mario Puzo

Those Zolofts make me so fucking hungry. I've gained 20 pounds – it's totally out of control."

George Hanson
In The Shadow of Sadd. ~ Steen Langstrup

The viewpoint character in each story is usually someone trapped in a living nightmare, but this doesn't guarantee that we and the protagonist are at one. In fact Woolrich often makes us pull away from the person at the center of the storm, splitting our reaction in two, stripping his protagonist of moral authority, denying us the luxury of unequivocal identification, drawing characters so psychologically warped and sometimes so despicable that a part of us wants to see them suffer. Woolrich also denies us the luxury of total disidentification with all sorts of sociopaths, especially those who wear badges. His Noir Cop tales are crammed with acts of police sadism, casually committed or at least endorsed by the detective protagonist. These monstrosities are explicitly condemned almost never and the moral outrage we feel has no internal support in the stories except the objective horror of what is shown, so that one might almost believe that a part of Woolrich wants us to enjoy the spectacles. If so, it's yet another instance of how his most powerful novels and stories are divided against themselves so as to evoke in us a divided response that mirrors his own self-division.

("Introduction") ~ Francis M. Nevins Jr.

Either I've got a wart on my nose they find curious, or I've grown a tail, Albie Merani muttered to himself. Just then he thought. I'd better get a move on, got work to do. He hurried across to some stairs, heading down deeper into station, then followed the signs to the pod station. ~ R.W. Rivers

Crime fiction, especially noir and hardboiled, is the literature of the proletariat. ~ Adrian McKinty

I think the shooter is Kevin Burns. I know him pretty well. Maybe I can talk him down."
"Are you nuts? He's crazy. Everyone knows he's a lunatic. No one can talk him down. Get out of there!"
"I can't sit around and do nothing. I have to do something. Remember what Mom and Dad told us after Father Gerry? If you have a chance to save or protect innocent people, you have to make that sacrifice. I won't let another predator get the best of me."
"That's not what they meant, you idiot! Get the hell out of there and let the police handle it. I'm sure they're on their way!"
"If anything happens to me, I want you to know you're the best little brother a guy could hope for, squirt. Take care. I love you."
"I love you too. Please don't do anything stupid."
"We're going to get out of this together. Understand? We're best brothers, forever."
"Forever, bro . . . ~ Mark M. Bello

I open the toilet door and step out, my internal fire re-stoked, ready to face my demons, fight if need be and win. I'm raging, focused like a jungle warrior after his second bowl of tiger-cock soup. ~ John Bowie

There are two kinds of people who sit around all day thinking about killing people ... mystery writers and serial killers. I'm the kind that pays better. ~ Richard Castle

Hascomb snatched an ancient weapon out of his glove compartment. Officers have smuggled them home from the last five wars. The Colt.45 automatic. ~ John D. MacDonald

Call me Dudley. We're of equal rank. I'm older, but you're far better looking. I can tell we're going to be grand partners. ~ James Ellroy

It brings me peace to know that it all began with crime fiction as a child, and that it is there, after a thousand detours, that I have landed again. As a child I found peace in crime novels, and it is with them that I find peace today. There has been some turbulence along the way, but I wouldn't have avoided any of it. I wouldn't have reached the place I have without all of it happening. ~ Sara Blaedel

If the dad has a criminal record, he shouldn't have been able to purchase the guns, and we've got a serious problem."
Barrington unloads again. "I pay you a lot of money to prevent us from having a serious problem. Take care of it, dammit! ~ Mark M. Bello

Did that fucktard touch you? ~ E.J. Wood

No parent should lose a son or daughter, no teacher should lose a student, no sibling should lose a brother or sister, and no student should lose a best friend or a teacher. ~ Mark M. Bello

I don't want you to say anything. I want you to listen. You know, being confident isn't the same as being right. ~ William Landay

So, when a judge requests your services as a 'personal favor,' declining representation is out of the question, unless you don't mind appearing in front of a pissed-off judge with a long memory. ~ Mark M. Bello

We hear these people argue that, somehow, we are trying to strip people of their constitutional rights. What about our constitutional rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? It's difficult to achieve those rights when you're dead. ~ Mark M. Bello

Rage and despair shook her for minutes or hours. She was unaware of the passage of time. Finally spent, she retreated inward and collapsed onto the floor in a fetal position, the letter in shreds around her. The room had grown dark. Like a gentle snowfall, the cold mantle of an unbearable silence descended. ~ V.S. Kemanis

The most popular American fiction seems to be about successful people who win, and good crime fiction typically does not explore that world. But honestly, if all crime fiction was quality fiction, it would be taken more seriously. ~ George Pelecanos

Lawyers aren't the most popular people, Miss Allen ... - Murder in Hand ~ Celia Conrad

So much of contemporary crime fiction is painful to read and obsessed with violence, particularly against women, and I can't read that. ~ Donna Leon

Crime fiction is the fiction of social history. Societies get the crimes they deserve. ~ Denise Mina

The laws governed people's happiness. To be lawless was to be happy. ~ Jess C. Scott

Zack is suddenly torn between client obligation and representation on the one hand, and due process and civil and criminal rights on the other. Burns is a child. I'd give him the same advice. Do I need his testimony? ~ Mark M. Bello

That crap about doing something with your life are luxury problems. People like us have to play by a different rules.
#ShadowofSadd #Books ~ Steen Langstrup

Jennifer's eyes begin to water again. "Don't let anything bad happen to him, Dr. Sampson. My husband is a famous lawyer. He sues doctors when they screw up."
"Jennifer!" Zack exclaims, embarrassed. ~ Mark M. Bello

Guthrie handed him the mug, a wee pout pulling his pale face out of shape. With his semi-skimmed skin, faint ginger hair, and blond eyebrows he looked like a ghost that had been at the pies. "Milk, two sugars. ~ Stuart MacBride

Please don't complicate the investigation by offering an explanation that might actually be true.
--Marjorie Branell-Markson ~ Jennifer A. Girardin

I write from that dark place in my mind where all the sad, ugly, and twisted cases I've worked are stored. Writing keeps me sane. ~ Jesse James Inigo

Guy tries to buy a gun, but when he returns, he learns he's failed the background check. 'Oh well,' the guy tells himself. 'It was worth a try.' The dealer says to the guy, 'Hold the phone, buddy. Ask a friend, your brother, your sister, anyone you know, to come in, pass the background check, and we'll sell the guns to them instead of you. What happens to them afterward is none of our business . . . ~ Mark M. Bello

We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody threw the girl off the bridge. ~ John D. MacDonald

Quote taken from Chapter 1:
That's the idea. Listen, Frank, this one is different. She's a keeper." He let that part gel in me. "Get your head screwed on straight and move to Richmond. You hate it living in Pelham. ~ Ed Lynskey

Injustice, large and small, was like sour, moldy bread. Consumed often enough, it brought on hunger for the meat of revenge. ~ B.V. Lawson

Jennifer can no longer ignore the personal connection. Is there a copycat killer at work? Was the wrong man convicted? Or is there something more sinister at play ... ~ Caroline Mitchell

For my money, noir boils down to bleak humanism – or, to put it more plainly: shit options, bad decisions, and dire
consequences. The difference between Greek tragedy and noir ain't the height of the fall, but the reason: those who fall in Greek tragedy do so because they're destined to; those who fall in noir choose to their damn selves.

In short, free will's a bitch.
But regardless of whose definition you go with, you'll notice something's lacking: namely, any mention of genre. That's because for as much as noir's assumed to be a subset of crime fiction, it's more vibe than subgenre. And, as many an enterprising modern writer seems intent on proving, that vibe is one that plays just as well with fantasy and science fiction as it does with crime. ~ Chris Holm

I like it when no one knows what I'm going to do next. It makes everything more exciting. ~ James Runcie

There were three of them in the room now, where only two had first come in. Death was in the room with the two of them. ~ Cornell Woolrich

Her immediate impulse was one of self-preservation. She was tied up in this somehow, she didn't know why or how, but there was something waiting for her on the other side of this crowd. ~ V.S. Kemanis

Ladies and gentlemen, after Columbine, Newtown, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, San Bernardino, Orlando, Vegas, Parkland and now in our own community, one thing should be clear to citizens and politicians alike. Our society needs stricter laws for people who purchase guns for the purpose of perpetrating criminal acts. We need tougher laws for people who buy guns to sell to criminals or kids. These laws should severely punish anyone in these categories - neither suggestion steps on the Second Amendment . . . ~ Mark M. Bello

If a buyer is having trouble getting a gun in Michigan, he or she just travels to Ohio or Indiana or Illinois. You know what I mean?"
~ Mark M. Bello

I go where I want to go, I do what I want to do, and I am beholden to no one. ~ Mark M. DeRobertis

I just can't comprehend, that you, Borge, of all people, couldn't keep your mouth shut. ~ Steen Langstrup

Last time I was on the welcome Wagon, I was holding some guy by the balls for 15 minutes while the inspector explained why should leave (Birmingham) and go home... It were really painful.

I bet it was.

'Yeah I got terrible cramp in me fingers, but he were very attentive. ~ Jim McGrath

May we have Kenny's iPhone and your younger son's, what's his name? We need to obtain copies of these texts."
"His name is Jake. I'm sure it's fine. You know kids, though. I suggest you get what you need quickly. If you keep their phones for too long, there will be hell to pay," Zack chuckles.
"Don't I know it," Ross laughs. "I've got a teenaged girl. Girls are much worse than boys. ~ Mark M. Bello

The remaining chain swung down, he wrenched the door out and he was free. The last thing he heard behind him was the oncoming stomp of running feet.

Now began flight, that excruciating accompaniment to both the sleep-dream and the drug-dream as well. Down endless flights of stairs that seemed to have increased decimally since he had come up them so many days before. Four, fourteen, forty - there seemed no end to them, no bottom. Round and round he went, hand slapping at the worn guard-rail only at the turns to keep from bulleting head-on into the wall each time. The clamor had come out onto a landing high above him now, endless miles above him; a thin voice came shouting down the stair-well, "There he is! See him down there?" raising the hue and cry to the rest of the pack. Footsteps started cannonading down after him, like avenging thunder from on high. They only added wings to his effortless, almost cascading waterlike flight.

Like a drunk, he was incapable of hurting himself. At one turning he went off his feet and rippled down the whole succeeding flight of stair-ribs like a wriggling snake. Then he got up again and plunged ahead, without consciousness of pain or smart. The whole staircase-structure seemed to hitch crazily from side to side with the velocity of his descent, but it was really he that was hitching. But behind him the oncoming thunder kept gaining.

Then suddenly, after they'd kept on for hours, the stairs suddenly ended, he'd ~ Cornell Woolrich

I was its skin, its movement, its shape, its god, its creator, its destroyer. And you thought Dexter was bad. The Bridgeman arrives soon. ~ Catherine Astolfo

All that crap about love and fairness and doing something with your life, Bruno ... Those are luxury problems. The CEO's wife can go around worrying about that stuff. People like us from the projects have to play by a different set of rules."

George Hanson
In The Shadow of Sadd ~ Steen Langstrup

Flowers are fragile and ephemeral ... Even if you meant to protect them with a surrounding fence from wind and rain, they would die without sunlight ... and a spindly fence has no power against a strong wind. - Haibara Ai ~ Gosho Aoyama

I've always said women are vicious creatures - Detective Zach Grimes ~ Lauren Bradshaw

I'll bet you $10 right now that there are an awful lot of literary writers who started a long time ago and now they find themselves in this place where secretly they feel trapped. And you know what they really read for fun? They read crime fiction. ~ Robert Crais

I've read crime fiction all my life. A thing that's bothered me about crime fiction is that it's generally about one or two people, but there's not much about society. I want to get away from that particular pattern: a lead, a supporting role and backdrop characters. ~ Stieg Larsson

I'm sold as a literary writer in Holland; I'm sold as crime fiction in England. I think of it as just literature. ~ Karin Slaughter

Carrying a shotgun makes you less amusing. ~ Barry Graham