Murder Mystery Quotes

Well, it's an anomaly! He must have received the wrong dosage. That's what happens when you put these matters in the hands of morons. ~ Wodke Hawkinson

She smiled as though someone had just offered her, the oldest virgin in town, a fully functioning Kingsize Vibro vibrator and a deluxe inhibition bypass. ~ Andrew Barrett

The club is too loud to talk, so after a couple of drinks, everyone feels like the centre of attention but completely cut off from participating with anyone else.
You're the corpse in an English murder mystery. ~ Chuck Palahniuk

Stumbling closer, I held up the manuscript, the pages flapping frantically in the wind. "I take it this is a murder mystery? You killed the ex-fiancée and thanked her in the dedication? Mighty dignified of you, I must say."

"Nah. It's a horror novel. But yeah, the bimbo dies in the end. Bob Hall says it's going to be a bestseller, so I figured I owed her some thanks for the inspiration." He edged a few feet closer, his smile spread from ear to ear. The glimmer in his eyes flickered toward the ocean, breaking our connection. He hung his head, licked his lips, then returned his eyes to mine, restoring the connection with an intense smolder. "Are you gonna get over here, or what?"

Letting out a soft chuckle, the tears began to blind me. "Make me. ~ Rachael Wade

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

Sometimes the dead speak to you. ~ Kenneth Eade

While I pulled out my Kindle and settled into a good murder mystery. ~ Barbra Annino

Rain slowly slides down the glass as if the night is crying. ~ Patricia Cornwell

But he couldn't feel self-pity in the face of the memorial. He hadn't lost nearly enough as these children, who'd lost their homeland and, in many cases,their whole families. Perhaps they had gained something, too, though. They had at least escaped the concentration camps, been taken in by good, caring families, and had grown up to live their lives in relative freedom. ~ Peter Robinson

The blood dried on his good hand, he passed his palm over her hair. It curled about his wrist and sprung back into displace as the breeze fluttered by. In the firelight, it was golden like the dandelions of which she'd spoken. The ones that had grown along the Franklin riverbank in late summer. The ones he had lost any faith in since he'd committed his first murder there. ~ V.S. Carnes

If you want to kill serious crime, you have to kill serious criminals! ~ Andrew Barrett

a Sicilian grandma is a formidable opponent ~ Traci Andrighetti

There is always stardust in my eyes when I look at you, my love. ~ Ellen Read

The image of him shifted with the violent frenzy of leaves. He was there and he wasn't, as the leaves whipped and the lightning fell away in a slow strobe effect across the expanse of sky. How he had gotten up there, I had no idea, but he had been there. Crouched in the tree in the middle of the courtyard, he watched me intently through the open window. ~ Gwenn Wright

I can't help wishing that the killer had waited until after this weekend to do him in. Or, better yet, had murdered him somewhere else entirely. Neither the Highland games nor this town needs the bad publicity murder generates."
"I'm sure Jason Graye would have preferred not to be murdered at all. ~ Kaitlyn Dunnett

As they drove on the quiet A3320 towards Notting Hill, Doris spoke. "He won't, you know. He won't pay the ransom."
Wolfe offered her a reassuring smile, but inside his stomach housed a million butterflies. Shamefully, he passed wind again, the words of his captive disconcerting him on his journey to Shepherd's Bush. ~ Anthony Hulse

But why? Why did someone kill you? Someone here, in this building, that we must use logic to deduce whom was the murderer...or murderess!" Rebonka scanned the crowd, and saw nothing out of the ordinary! She pleaded, on her knees, to all the ears who heard her, "Whom? Whom! Whom-done-it?! ~ Mark Gunk

But it was just her mind playing cruel tricks, and she tried to push away the irrational thought that Richard was still in there, waiting for someone to save his life. ~ Paul Pilkington

Understanding anyone begins with the person's family history and the culture he or she is a part of. ~ Pat Brown

I would stay at my grandma's house on my birthday every year and I remember she had a bookshelf of murder mystery books along with really frightening books, like one on Jack the Ripper. She also had a poster of a shark in the closet which also terrified me at the time. ~ Christopher Bollen

... Obviously, I have always wished I could remember what happened in that wood. The very few people who know about the whole Knocknaree thing invariably suggest, sooner or later, that I should try hypnotic regression, but for some reason I find the idea distasteful. I'm deeply suspicious of anything with a whiff of the New Age about it - not because of the practices themselves, which as far as I can tell from a safe distance may well have a lot to them, but because of the people who get involved who always seem to be the kind who corner you at parties to explain how they discovered that they are survivors and deserve to be happy. I worry that I might come out of hypnosis with that sugar-high glaze of self-satisfied enlightenment, like a seventeen-year-old who's just discovered Kerouak, and start proselytizing strangers in pubs ... ~ Tana French

I am not much of a mind to touch ~ Stacey Jay

Toulouse Street ran one way toward the Mississippi River. Jackson looked over [Imogene's] head into one of those famous New Orleans courtyards, full of lush foliage, mossy brick, secrets, and wonder. ~ Hunter Murphy

Far as I know, Legal Aid was invented to help poor people fight wrongs; [the criminals] are abusing the system, and the damned lawyers help them do it. They're all sticking two fingers up at them who pay their taxes. And I'll tell you sommat for free, Sir George, them who pays the taxes are eventually going to get fed up of it. ~ Andrew Barrett

The simplest words often carried the most weight. ~ Renee Ahdieh

People who go to jail breed people who go to jail. ~ Andrew Barrett

Carlina with her cat-like eyes who didn't fit into any category he knew. (Commissario Garini's difficulty with his prime suspect.) ~ Beate Boeker

With little effort, he rolled his late lover off the edge of the cliff and watched, grimacing, when her dainty body bounced off a rocky outcropping. True, he planned on packing her back to France, or to another of his associates. And true, he didn't see her death as a great loss, but he wouldn't have wished her bashed on the rocks, even in death. However, this was the most expedient way to rid himself of an inconveniently dead mistress. ~ Chris Karlsen

As Sloan approached the door, Paul Lyons lifted his eyes to watch her leave. He found himself wondering why after all these years they couldn't manage to get along for a lousy twenty minutes. Perhaps it was the result of their inability to compromise - to give each other the benefit of the doubt. Or maybe they'd both simply lost the ability to trust another human being and believe anything good could come of this world. ~ Kaylin McFarren

...and then a murder mystery will occur. ~ Natsuki Takaya

The bells gave tongue: Gaude, Sabaoth, John, Jericho, Jubilee, Dimity, Batty Thomas and Tailor Paul, rioting and exulting high up in the dark tower, wide mouths rising and falling, brazen tongues clamouring, huge wheels turning to the dance of the leaping ropes. Tin tan din dan bim bam bom bo--tan tin din dan bam bim bo bom--tan dan tin bam din bo bim bom--every bell in her place striking tuneably, hunting up, hunting down, dodging, snapping, laying her blows behind, making her thirds and fourths, working down to lead the dance again. Out over the flat, white wastes of fen, over the spear-straight, steel-dark dykes and the wind-bent, groaning poplar trees, bursting from the snow-choked louvres of the belfry, whirled away southward and westward in gusty blasts of clamour to the sleeping counties went the music of the bells--little Gaude, silver Sabaoth, strong John and Jericho, glad Jubilee, sweet Dimity and old Batty Thomas, with great Tailor Paul bawling and striding like a giant in the midst of them. Up and down went the shadows of the ringers upon the walls, up and down went the scarlet sallies flickering roofwards and floorwards, and up and down, hunting in their courses, went the bells of Fenchurch St. Paul. ~ Dorothy L. Sayers

Every woman wants a cowboy. ~ B.J. Daniels

Look to the past to see what the future holds. ~ Celia Conrad

But it is not everything in life that has its ticket, so much. There are things that are not for sale. ~ Agatha Christie

Sometimes, a scene goes on too long and, with this being a suspense story and murder mystery that you're trying to discover through her heightened paranoia, you don't want scenes that take you on a tangent. Sometimes, you love those scenes, but you know that it's better not to be in the overall film. So, I'm not sad that they're not in the main movie, but I do think it's fun for people to get to watch them, if they want to. ~ Catherine Hardwicke

If there was a day of the week I could skip it would be Monday. Clients had too much time to think and worry over a long weekend and by Monday they were often riddled with fear and anxiety. ~ Stan Turner

His lips brushed over hers. She let out a sigh of relief and joy and pleasure. He pulled her tighter against him, taking her mouth with his own. She melted into him and the kiss, heart pounding, desire sparking along her nerve endings like a string of lit dynamite. ~ B.J. Daniels

They didn't understand, for we were Shakespeare, and they were mere actors in the play. ~ Cassandra Giovanni

Was it really possible she was dead?
But the alternative was not much better. Because if she wasn't, the only other possibility - and suddenly I wasn't sure if it was better or worse - was that I was going mad. ~ Ruth Ware

The spicy sweet fragrance of the large full blooms, which rambled over the side and top of an arched metal framework, welcomed them as they walked beneath them. Shafts of sunlight pierced the canopy, dust motes floating languorously in the golden beams that spotlighted clumps of wayward snowdrops growing in the lawn. ~ Ellen Read

Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to carry on that counts.
Winston Churchill ~ H.A. Corby

The only way he could truly stick out in New Orleans was if he were walking down the street on fire. ~ Hunter Murphy

His kiss was like no other! His kiss was enchanted and fairy-tale like. He applied pressure, but just enough to feel his tenderness and warmth. I could feel his heart beating wildly as he pressed his chest against my chest all the while his loving lips brushed up against mine with a care-filled affection. His tongue lightly licked the outer edges of my mouth, and then searched for my tongue. The pursuit allowed a marriage of both tongues to meet - inspiring a mingling tango of hot and heavy French kissing to manifest profusely. We kissed like two hot and horny teenagers, our mouths moving and craving each others lips, in animalistic desires! ~ Keira D. Skye

Yes, you can see the bullet points here, here and here, sir; there are multiple back-slashes, of course. And that's a forward slash. I would have to call this a frenzied attack. Did anyone hear the interrobang?"
"Oh yes. Woman next door was
temporarily deafened by it. What's this?"
"Ah. You don't see many of these any
more. It's an emoticon. Hold your head this way and it appears to be winking."
"Good God! You mean – ?"
"That's the mouth."
"You mean – ?"
"That's the nose."
"Good grief Then it's – ?"
"Oh yes, sir. There's no doubt about it, sir. The Punctuation Murderer has struck again. ~ Lynne Truss

Vomit began to spill out of me like pea soup, splattering the road with champagne and caviar, long island iced teas, of bacon appetizers and croissants, and a perfectly grilled filet mignonette. It had gone down easy, among the kiss ups of the lawyer world, but spewed out nastily and hard, in the company of a cheater. ~ Keira D. Skye

Never call your office while you're on vacation. That's always been one of my hard and fast rules. ~ William Manchee

Murder mystery featuring woman detective and two suicide/murder victims. Threw in three read herring suspects before the big reveal (the cuckolded wife) which I saw coming. Way too much brainstorming different scenarios by the detective and her partner. They dreamed up every possible scenario but "the Easter Bunny did it", seemingly to fill pages. Meh. ~ Carolyn Arnold

Did you love me?" It was a pathetic question asked in a pathetic whisper.

"Oh, Fiona," The lips he pressed against my temple were anything but ecumenical. His hand on my back drifted to my waist. "My feelings for you cannot be reduced to a single word. You are my only temptation. ~ Kerrigan Byrne

I confess to loving a good murder mystery - anything by Scott Turow or John Grisham. Maybe it's a holdover from my days as a criminal prosecutor in Seattle. ~ Gary Locke

'Original Sin' is, for me, a murder mystery with a huge cast that plays out on a grand stage. ~ Jason Aaron

People never think of a child as being a monster, because if they did, they would never be able to sleep at night. Children are where lies peoples hopes, dreams, innocence... Not where lies murder. ~ Chelsea Radojcic

I stole a bit of a chopped vegetable and was about to put it in my mouth when Jae's long fingers closed over my wrist. "What? You can't eat this raw?"
"It's bitter melon. You won't like it." He went into the fridge and came out with something that looked halfway familiar. "Here, leftover bao. There's char siu inside."
"The red pork stuff? Yeah, I like that. I thought it was Chinese."
"It is. We also eat hamburgers and spaghetti. ~ Rhys Ford

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

I have read all of James Patterson's Books except for the last 5.I have over 80 of his books. ~ Bridget Of Sweden

What you do not understand is that there are things that cannot be bought. ~ Agatha Christie

Buddy ran down the road, turned into another street, and vanished as if he had never been there, like another ghost from New Orleans's past. ~ Hunter Murphy

At this place in time, neither of them were foreign to each other. They were just two humans alone in the middle of the sky. The differences between them now were immaterial, like the faint whisper of traffic far below. ~ Zita Steele

I closed the door and sank into my desk chair. My heart was pounding even harder. I felt like someone who had just staggered out of her car after an accident on a freeway. This was different from the cockroach and the books and the Barbie. I'd been injured. Someone had tried to physically harm me. ~ Kate White

Redemption, n. Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sin through their murder of the deity against whom they sinned. The doctrine of Redemption is the fundamental mystery of our holy religions, and whoso believeth in it shall not perish, but have everlasting life in which to try to understand it. ~ Ambrose Bierce

Always foster and grow that unquenchable curiosity of yours." I smiled. That was a promise I fully intended to keep. ~ Kerri Maniscalco

Emotional speculation is to deductive reasoning what weeds are to a garden – at first sight they appear to belong, but eventually they obscure that which one hopes will come into bud. ~ Lord Patterson Coats

When you read the account of a murder - or, say, a fiction story based on murder - you usually begin with the murder itself. That's all wrong. The murder begins a long time beforehand. A murder is the culmination of a lot of different circumstances, all converging at a given moment at a given point. People are brought into it from different parts of the globe and for unforeseen reasons. [ ... ] The murder itself is the end of the story. It's Zero Hour."
He paused.
"It's Zero Hour now. ~ Agatha Christie

San Francisco would be a good location for a murder mystery. ~ Alfred Hitchcock

I think he has a girlfriend? Not sure though, he just seems to be off limits to all women here - well you know the other single women teachers. Maybe he's gay?"
"I seriously doubt that one." I responded struggling not to laugh.
"That would be a serious punishment to women kind. I wonder what he looks like without that vest and tie teacher getup ... I bet he looks amazing naked."
"Holy crap Jaz!" I yelped, but I knew I was blushing. I knew what he looked like with his shirt off and it was damned good. ~ Cassandra Giovanni

The sheriff peered over his eyeglasses and said, Your son is a suspect in the murder. ~ Jeannie Walker

The man might have died in a fit; but then the jewels are missing," mused the Inspector, "Ha! I have a theory. These flashes come upon me at times ... What do you think of this, Holmes? Sholto was, on his own confession, with his brother last night. The brother died in a fit, on which Sholto walked off the treasure! How's that?"
"On which the dead man very considerately got up and locked the door on the inside," said Holmes. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Pünd remembered their first case together when Fraser had failed to notice that his travelling companion, on the three-fifty train from Paddington, was actually dead. ~ Anthony Horowitz

Lord help the girl he set those eyes on for good. His boyish vulnerability was a weapon, powerful and disarming. ~ Kerri Maniscalco

A detective with his murder mystery, a chemist seeking the structure of a new compound, use little of the formal and logical modes of reasoning. Through a series of intuitions, surmises, fancies, they stumble upon the right explanation, and have a knack of seizing it when it once comes within reach. ~ Gilbert N. Lewis

... but his problem was infinity; his problem was time running along the x-axis versus stress running along the y-axis, and there never seemed to be time without stress. Stress was a constant. ~ Andrew Barrett

I am not their f*****g entertainment. And I am not a f*****g hero! Given the choice, a hero would do exactly the same again. I wouldn't. Okay? ~ Andrew Barrett

I can't say that you should extract this or that value from my books explicitly. They are up for interpretation. In terms of the obligation, I think we're all individuals on this planet, trying to scratch our way through the day, and if you're writing a book exposing atrocities in Rwanda or writing a murder mystery set in a mountain village, I think both ways of spending you time are valid and both books are probably fine to read. ~ Colson Whitehead

Audubon considered it a bad day if he didn't shoot a hundred birds. "It's amazing that his name has become synonymous with conservation. ~ Meryl Sawyer

Just as the Mediterranean separated France from the country Algiers, so did the Mississippi separate New Orleans proper from Algiers Point. The neighborhood had a strange mix. It looked seedier and more laid-back all at the same time. Many artists lived on the peninsula, with greenery everywhere and the most beautiful and exotic plants. The French influence was heavy in Algiers, as if the air above the water had carried as much ambience as it could across to the little neighborhood. There were more dilapidated buildings in the community, but Jackson and Buddy passed homes with completely manicured properties, too, and wild ferns growing out of baskets on the porches, as if they were a part of the architecture. Many of the buildings had rich, ornamental detail, wood trim hand-carved by craftsmen and artisans years ago. The community almost had the look of an ailing beach town on some forgotten coast. ~ Hunter Murphy

The sad fact is there are no natural deaths, despite what doctors say. Every death is felt by someone as a murder, the unjust taking of a loved being. And even the luckiest of us will encounter at least one murder in our own lives: our own. It is our fate. We all live a murder mystery of which we are the victim. ~ Yann Martel

All my scripts have artistic backgrounds
ballet, concert hall, opera
and all the suspects and corpses are cultured, maybe I'll do one about the rare book business in your honor, do you want to be the murderer or the corpse? ~ Helene Hanff

I like taking genres and subverting them. I did that with 'In the Valley of Elah.' I said, 'Okay, this is just a murder mystery. Relax.' And then, two thirds of the way through, I broke every convention of a murder mystery. ~ Paul Haggis

I know what happened. I used my inTWINition ~ Michael Houbrick

No one mentioned the sad piece of tinsel, naked in places, hanging across the chimneybreast, nor that Twelfth Night was a week ago. No one mentioned the two Christmas cards on the mantelpiece. No one mentioned them because inside they were blank. ~ Andrew Barrett

Quote taken from Chapter 1 of The Corpse Wore Gingham:
"You love to figure out things as much as I do," Piper said.
"Like what?" Bill asked.
"You fix broken stuff," Piper replied.
"Repairing a broken toaster or steam iron is far different than unraveling a murder mystery," Bill said. ~ Ed Lynskey

one of the worst things is when witnesses start talking to each other. As soon as you start talking to someone else, the story you have in your head changes. Human memory is rewritten like computer memory. You just get
the most updated file. ~ Maureen Johnson

The northern star changes its position every ten thousand years, but friendships can last for all eternity.
- RJPeters ~ R.J. Peters

I do not possess the ability to draw or paint.
I can't sing or dance.
I can't knit or sew.
But I am an artist.
I have the ability to put onto paper, words that tell an intriguing story.
I am a writer.
A writer is someone who, with just words, can paint a beautiful picture.
A writer can open up a world of imagination you didn't realize was possible.
When you open up a book and become so consumed in the story, you feel like you're a part of it ... you're standing next to that character and feeling the same way that character feels,
That's the art of a writer.
I am an artist.
My inspiration is the world around me.
My paintbrush is my words.
My easel is my computer.
My canvas is the mind of my reader. ~ Bri Justine

She skinned her hair back into a ponytail, a style she knew was probably too young for her, but she planned to drive with her windows open and she could ditch the elastic band once she got to the lake. ~ Joanne Fluke

The years pass so quickly now that I can't keep my mental image of myself up to date. [Mature Dotsy deals with her age] ~ Maria Hudgins

Write or perish in the banality of mediocrity! ~ Thomas K. Matthews

It's an honour to have such a wonderful international cast on board for this world famous murder mystery. Writer Stewart Harcourt has created an exquisite script. His attention to detail is impeccable. ~ David Suchet

Books said nothing for a few minutes. Then, gazing out over the water, watching a sailboat heeled over, cutting across the bay, he asked, "What next?"
I said evenly, "I'm going to kill the two men who murdered Carolyn. ~ David Grant Urban

The historian in me love to uncover things, and the mother in me hates to be lied to...[Why Dotsy investigates murder] ~ Maria Hudgins

Alexandra took the rose and lifted it to her face. The fragrance was intoxicating and the soft petals tickled her lips, as they must have done Benedict's. It was as if he had kissed her. A shiver of delight caressed her body and she felt the warmth of a blush on her throat and cheeks. ~ Ellen Read

It had been a little over a year since the last murder; moreover it had been a year since I had run as quickly as legally possible from whom I had been. It had taken almost that long to become a legal adult, get the money straightened out and get my name changed. Who was Abigail? Who was Vera? I felt as though I was neither person. I felt like I wasn't a person at all anymore. ~ Cassandra Giovanni

Everyone is a whore, Fiona." I felt rather than heard when he unfolded himself from the settee. He wasn't so much a warmth or an essence behind me. But the absence of either.

"We each merely offer different parts of ourselves for use, do we not? Our sex. Our blades. Our muscles. Our mind. Our time. Our souls. ~ Kerrigan Byrne

I see. Because I'm not hideous, not a drunkard, and appear to bathe regularly, you picked me. How you flatter me. ~ Chris Karlsen

My notebook was filled with images of things a lady had no business being fascinated by, yet I couldn't control my curiosity. ~ Kerri Maniscalco

You'd have thought that after twenty years editing murder mysteries I'd have noticed when I found myself in the middle of one. ~ Anthony Horowitz

The carriage could only clop along at about ten miles per hour, which only accentuated Imogene's excitement. She urged it onward: "Fly, horse, fly! ~ Hunter Murphy

The two words expressed volumes. ~ Agatha Christie

I felt it burn all the way down my throat and into my stomach. I felt like I was dying. ~ Jeannie Walker

Tad they were too young to die ... My Mom was a spitfire - a total accident waiting to happen. I'm like her - I can trip over nothing." Tad chuckled acknowledging the thought. "My father ... he was more serious. He used to give me lectures like no tomorrow, he had a strong sense of who I should be - who I wanted to be and how to guide me, and he was my best friend. It seems like everything I love is just out of my reach now. ~ Cassandra Giovanni

Then he would have access to him. Then he could silence him forever. ~ Labake Akinyosoye