Historical Fiction Mystery Quotes

If Miss Elton spoke water instead of words, then there would have been a repetition of Noah's flood. ~ Kellyn Roth

She and I are as far apart as the stars in the sky and the soles of my feet." Detective Sean Ryan ~Deception on Sable Hill by Shelley Gray ~ Shelley Gray

Life is volatile. ~ Robert J. Pajer

How men fear the chaos of the world, I thought, and the yawning eternity hereafter. So we build patterns to explain its terrible mysteries and reassure ourselves we are safe in this world and beyond. ~ C.J. Sansom

Yet, the quest for knowledge will overcome us and we must know. And, at last, we must see where the road ends, even if it be the cliff. ~ Nancy B. Brewer

A smile is hidden beneath the mustache, it crinkles the corners of his hooded eyes. "I didn't. I have other business in town and I told my friend I would attend to the matter of his son, as he could not do so himself."
"Very kind of you."
"Yes. I have been looking forward to it for quite some time."
Daddy's lemonade is almost gone, he sips it carefully, turning his eyes back to the water. "Looking forward to seeing the lad or to conducting your business?" Daddy is toying with him.
"Both. You see, I had never actually met his son." The glass rests against Daddy's lips, unmoving. Mr. Geyer watches him closely. "But now I have, so I can get on with my," he fixes his own gaze on the water, as though trying to see whatever it is that has transfixed my father, "business. ~ Gwenn Wright

I reckon it's true what they say that good begets good and bad begets bad. The evil men do lives on after them, but what good they done gets buried with their bones. ~ Lisa Kaye Presley

I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him. In my defense I must say it was an engrossing book, and it was very rare to come across another person in that particular part of the world in that war year of 1915. ~ Laurie R. King

Judge with your eyes closed shut and your heart wide open. ~ Sijuan King

Rooks have clustered on either side of the long road. It is as if they line a grand parade route for our passage. Their black feathers are stark as soot against the white road and the snow. They stab at the ground with their strange bare bills and gray unfeathered faces. The birds are like rough-edged black stones on a string around this stripped cold neck of road. The old books tell us rooks bring the virtuous dead to heaven's gate. ~ Ned Hayes

What was justice, after all, but a particular outcome? ~ Suzanne Rindell

@The darkest and most complex novel in (the Murdoch) series. ~ Maureen Jennings

He stopped in a seedy alley in Holborn where he jumped down from the carriage, held a muttered conference with a dirty, one-eyed old woman, and climbed back in, his arms full of grubby cloth.
She wrinkled her nose. "Phew. What the devil is all that?"
"It's a dress."
"Oh, no. I'm not putting that on. It stinks of last week's washing up."
"It smells of the people. ~ Y.S. Lee

Durand smiles. There is nothing behind the smile except perhaps another smile, repeating ad infinitum into the distance.
'Of course,' he says. ~ Beatrice Hitchman

These were not the belongings of the past prisoner he had imagined. These were a lady's things - hairpins and stockings and a glove. There were more clues waiting but William no longer felt certain he wanted to know the dark secrets of this cell. ~ Gwenn Wright

Elsa's mother no longer spoke to her of men and love, but of duty and fate and accepting one's burden. As far as Elsa could tell, if love really was the inherited female domain, then women were saddled with the biggest burden of all. It was pressing down upon them, the way the sea pressed down upon the creatures of the deep. ~ Kathy-Diane Leveille

She had very much looked forward to a word in private with him. But she forgot, as she usually did, the silence that always came between them in these latter years, whenever they found themselves alone.

The queer sensation in her chest, however, was all too familiar, that mix of pleasure and pain, never one without the other.

She could have done without those feelings. She would have happily gone her entire life never experiencing the pangs of longing and the futility of regret. He made her human - or as human as she was capable of being. And being human was possibly her least favorite aspect of life. ~ Sherry Thomas

I like a good fun chick-lit book as much as I like historical fiction, mysteries, or biographies, I like to be well-rounded! ~ Erin Duffy

In Sing Sing Prison, in a ghastly white room stands a chair. Its parts are heavy joinings of oak, riveted and screwed together; its strong legs fastened to the floor with teeth and claws of steel. It bites into the marrow of men with fangs of fire. For this is the faldstool of bloody human justice, the prayer-chair of man's vengeance upon man. Into it are strapped ... men who have killed other men. In it, for a high moral purpose, erring human lives are shocked across the barrier into night and the grave. - Edward H. Smith (1918) ~ Yasmin Tirado-Chiodini

No matter where she went, God was her family. He was her hope. ~ Tricia Goyer

The end is but a new beginning for the eternal Ba. ~ Inge H. Borg

From my Facebook Page: You spend the first 50 years acquiring and the second 50 years getting rid of ~ Mary R. Woldering

I aim to make the fiction flexible so that it bends itself around the facts as we have them. Otherwise I don't see the point. Nobody seems to understand that. Nobody seems to share my approach to historical fiction. I suppose if I have a maxim, it is that there isn't any necessary conflict between good history and good drama. ~ Hilary Mantel

Ann Boleyn...a Renaissance Audrey Hepburn in a little black dress. ~ JoAnn Spears

Of the true mysteries of the universe . . . the one we may never solve is the mystery of other people. This is the underlying subject of all fiction--Who ARE you, and why are you different from me?--from a NYT Book Review review of Since We Fell, by Dennis Lehane ~ Noah Hawley

Annie's message is timeless, her shining spirit and healing gift from the Spiritual Universe will capture your heart. She was born with birth defects in a time when special children and their mothers were put to death or banished. But have things changed really that much? Have they changed enough? "No!" Bullying, abuse, ridicule, and inequality thrives in the lives of women and children in our global modern society, just as surely as it did in the mid-1600s Colonial America. Based on factual research. ~ Deborah A.Bowman

You will never feel complete if you allow your heart to become a place of compromise. --George Pennington, "This Day is Ours ~ Gretchen Jeannette

War's all either country knows, and everything seems to depend on it now. ~ Samuel Snoek-Brown

She was a cute as a washtub. ~ Raymond Chandler

To Jana's mind everybody seemed happy to see BAbichka and resisted returning her, like a misplaced package sent to the wrong address. It was as if the recipient opened it up, knowing it should be returned, but wondering who long they could legitimately keep it before being changed with theft. ~ F.C. Malby

Historical fiction is not only a respectable literary form; it is a standing reminder of the fact that history is about human beings. ~ Helen Cam

When I was growing up I loved reading historical fiction, but too often it was about males; or, if it was about females, they were girls who were going to grow up to be famous like Betsy Ross, Clara Barton, or Harriet Tubman. No one ever wrote about plain, normal, everyday girls. ~ Kathryn Lasky

I taught English and history, so my education for that really helped prepare me for writing historical fiction. ~ Candace Camp

Some of the braver say I am mad. ~ Katlyn Charlesworth

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

Going for it and changing what you could change-that's what success was all about. ~ Julie Garwood

Good historical fiction can bring those sights, smells, and even the oppressive heat so alive, you feel that you are there, ~ Erin Brown Conroy

I followed the curious intensity behind those dark blue eyes and the moment his eyes changed. Suddenly, my world felt terribly small, like I'd experienced merely a handful of what it had to offer. ~ Abigail Wilson

But as the good-hearted young man discovers, a hero is not merely born, he is honed in the moments when his love and loyalty are the most sorely tested."

― Jin Yong ~ Jin Yong

I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of. ~ Dashiell Hammett

The great city seemed to weigh upon me, as though it were crushing me under its heap of brick and stone. Gray, drizzly skies, congested streets, the soot-belching boats and barges chugging up and down the Thames, the teeming mass of four millions hastening about the countless activities of daily life in a metropolis, things adventurous, meaningful, spiritual, quotidian, futile, criminal, meaningless and absurd. Amidst this seething stew of humanity, I painted. ~ Gary Inbinder

Power is a corrupting force, as is the fear of losing it. I cannot wield this power - Konjic ~ Rehan Khan

Let her go… Because that girl has got to die so that you may live. ~ Sanjida Kay

The Spaniards were seated at a table by the hearth, dominating the room with their mustachioed handsomeness and aggressive good cheer. ~ Dawn Patitucci

What matters now, is what you choose to do in the next hour, what you choose to do tomorrow. If your past decisions didn't get you where you wanted to be, figure out what decisions will. Beating yourself up over the past won't change a thing. ~Annie ~ Melissa Jagears

When sex was something godlike, Lust was the profane curiosity that killed many a straying cat. Now, having removed mystery, Lust is less a long-standing, overpowering yearning, more a sudden craving of the appetite. Less quest, more impulse buy. ~ Geoffrey Wood

Prisoners!" Finan shouted, and I suspected he was shouting at me because I had so blatantly ignored my own insistence that we take men captive. ~ Bernard Cornwell

How will we ever tell you apart?" Collins asked, unable to resist the question.
"It's really quite simple, sir, once you know us," the spokesman assured him. "If he's talking, it's probably George, because Geoff is a quiet lad; if he's dancing a hornpipe, it's Geoff, because hornpipes make me dizzy."
"You're George, then?"
"Yes, sir - the eldest."
"By five minutes and fifty-five seconds," added Geoffrey, frowning.
"Five minutes and fifty-nine seconds," George corrected him calmly. ~ Sarah Brazytis

My father was a patient father. He was so patient that when he once saw a sign that read 'Patient Entrance' at the Welt Foot Hospital, he drove his automobile incredibly slow. ~ Shoeburn Ruffet

You have both shown physical courage. Now demonstrate your moral courage - Awa ~ Rehan Khan

Life is replete with comedy, drama, horror, suspense, tragedy, romance, mystery, fantasy and a good dose of fiction. While at times the plot may seem to be lacking, the special effects alone are well worth the price of admission. ~ Derek R. Audette

People think blood red, but blood don't got no colour. Not when blood wash the floor she lying on as she scream for that son of a bitch to come, the lone baby of 1785. Not when the baby wash in crimson and squealing like it just depart heaven to come to hell, another place of red. Not when the midwife know that the mother shed too much blood, and she who don't reach fourteen birthday yet speak curse 'pon the chile and the papa, and then she drop down dead like old horse. Not when blood spurt from the skin, on spring from the axe, the cat-o'-nine, the whip, the cane and the blackjack and every day in slave life is a day that colour red. It soon come to pass when red no different from white or blue or black or nothing. Two black legs spread wide and mother mouth screaming. A black baby wiggling in blood on the floor with skin darker than midnight but the greenest eyes anybody ever done seen. I goin' call her Lilith. You can call her what they call her. ~ Marlon James

His touch felt like coming back, and Quincy realized she had been waiting for it. When he pulled away, both of his hands now on the sides of her face, his eyes searching hers for answers, Quincy nodded then wrapped her arms around him. She pressed her face to his chest, and his response was to gather her to him, saying something she couldn't her.

And there it was, the heartbeat she had heard the night of the Fothergils' ball, pulsing again in the shell of her ear. Quincy closed her eyes from relief. It gave her the same comfort the sound of the press gave her. It was a familiar machine. ~ Beth Brower

She ran the harder and zagged more erratically, and in the wreckage left from the hurricane the girl misjudged her path and ran straight into the old well.
She didn't even scream. ~ Samuel Snoek-Brown

Now, at last, she understood her great attraction to him. Here was the companion of her spirit. Here, indeed, was love. ~ Anne Rouen

Midnight Omen Deja vu - Because everyone should experience love in the Caribbean ... at least once in a lifetime. ~ Marti Melville

A laconic and highly entertaining" novel. "The characters are strong, each showing major evidence of being a product of their respective cultures. Overall, the story is a strong one, with a couple of well-executed twists that succeed in surprising the reader."

- Publishers Weekly judge for the 2014 ABNA Contest, Two Brides for Ewan de Buchan


"I love historical romance novels and this one right off the bat based on the plot/hook made me want to read more. I devoured this...and re-read it twice. It seems like the author has a very good handle on the time period in which this novel is set."

- 2014 ABNA Contest judge, Two Brides for Ewan de Buchan


"I think this is really well crafted and interesting. The plot/hook caught me from the first paragraph. The characters are well done and I really loved the novelist's attention to historical detail...It's a really great romance novel, and is of publication quality. This novelist has a real future in writing romance (or even general fiction) books."

- 2014 ABNA Contest judge, Two Brides for Ewan de Buchan ~ E. Elizabeth Watson