154 quotes
I’m all for courageous action, in moderation, Peter. But you have an alarming tendency toward heroics.
Lies Sleeping (2018)
The bell sang with the first hammer and screamed with the second. And within the scream I heard a familiar laugh and the jingle of merry bells.
Lies Sleeping (2018)
After that I was up and ready for action. It might have been a Saturday, but below the rank of chief inspector weekends are an entirely notional concept.
False Value (2020)
Keeping a secret always makes the police suspicious. And while we’re willing to believe in the possibility of a totally innocent explanation, we never think that’s the way to bet.
Broken Homes (2013)
I find you get two types of police, those that don’t want to know and those that do. Unfortunately, dealing with things you don’t want to know about is practically a definition of policing.
Foxglove Summer (2014)
He didn’t have “instincts”, he had thirty years of experience—which was much more reliable.
Tales from the Folly (2020)
The ABC of policing literally goes: Assume nothing, Believe no-one, Check everything.
The Hanging Tree (2016)
The difference between stripping and burlesque, as far as I could tell, was class.
Moon Over Soho (2011)
Ask not for whom the buck stops, I thought, it stops for thee.
The Hanging Tree (2016)
When you’re four, forever and ever can mean yesterday.
The Furthest Station (2017)
Technically, you don't have to have a corpse to convict for murder but detectives always feel better when they've found your actual victim—they're superstitious like that.
Broken Homes (2013)
Common sense said I should scarper. But is anyone will tell you, me and common sense have always had an open relationship.
Lies Sleeping (2018)
Questions would be asked. Answers would be ignored.
Rivers of London (2011)
“Are you smarter than me?”
“I’ll answer that when you give me a working definition of intelligence.”
False Value (2020)
I’ll say this for the Queen. She was brave—or possibly stupid. It’s easy to mistake the two.
Foxglove Summer (2014)
As Conan the Barbarian famously said, “That which does not kill us does not kill us.”
Whispers Under Ground (2012)
Given that he was writing in the late eighteenth century, I like to cut him slack.
Rivers of London (2011)
I’ve always believed that my dad is right about one thing—your life is your solo and whatever song you choose to sing you only get to do it once.
The Furthest Station (2017)
None of those choices seemed likely, but if I’ve learned one thing on the job, it is that a coincidence can kill someone just as easily as malice.
Amongst our Weapons (2022)
You don’t get to be a senior investigating officer unless you have a degree in skepticism, an MA in distrust and your CV lists suspicious bastard under your hobbies.
Broken Homes (2013)