Mystery Series Quotes & Sayings

No matter how offensive she's been to me, she continues to act as if she has some sort of God-given right to keep coming back for more favors. — Diane Capri

There was no mistaking her daughter's handwriting. And the words... "If you're reading this, I'm already dead. — Elizabeth Heiter

This is the right time
They are the right people
Will it be enough for mankind?

From "The Rishis: Book of Secrets. — Robert Delgado

The professor's motive was in the grand scheme of things terribly petty " Greenwood said. ""Pilate's Cross" is inspired by the questions this terrible crime created but as a work of fiction it is set in a different place and time and has a more complex motive for the murders. — J. Alexander Greenwood

His attitude to physical clues was rather like that of the modern Christian to miracles. They could happen, but probably not just at the moment. — Reginald Hill

What is Life?
(1) Tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
(2) Dictionary definition in biology (chemical process within organic entities involving metabolism etc.)
(3) Mrs Woolf: 'Life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.'
(4) Series of actual and hypothetical behavioural data which differ in certain assignable ways from data defining dead or inanimate entities.
(5) That which the Lord infused into Adam. See Genesis 1. 4 [sc. 2. 7].
Which?
Mental Cramp. — Isaiah Berlin

After I had written seventeen full-length mysteries, two volumes of mini-mysteries, a travel guide and some quiz books, not to mention a spin-off Roman Mystery Scrolls series, I thought it was time I moved to new historical pastures. — Caroline Lawrence

We're Killers On The Keyboard — Cyndi Williams Barnier

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

P.I. Cassie Cruise--You don't have to like her, but you damn well better respect her — S.L. Ellis

My motto? Don't trust someone who is just as cagey as yourself."
"What kind of detective are you?" "A lousy one and proud of it. I write, remember?"
She looked down at her hand & laughed. "Berretta doesn't make lighters." "Why I was a writer! My life revolved around fiction. I could make something up"
"She looked down at her hand & laughed. "Berretta doesn't make lighters."
"So they're not Tolstoy, they're a little shorter ... Okay, okay a lot. Go ahead, read my mystery series anyway."
"A detective has their boundaries especially me. So mine shifted occasionally ... okay a lot"
"Beat it, Buster. My temper and this mace have a hair trigger."
"Interference could be lethal." I got right up in his face, hissing, "Don't push me, I'm hormonal."
I'm not really a lousy detective, just rough around the edges. — Peggy A. Edelheit

I'm an idiot for trying to avoid these feelings because they have caused me pain in the past. — Kellyn Roth

With so many people lulled into believing everything they found on the Web, he expected computer shrines to pop up in homes soon. Worship the new Oracle of Dell-phi. — B.V. Lawson

He launched into the color-tsunami of Prokofiev's fourth piano sonata. It soon carried him onto a distant shore where the only thing broken was the silence. — B.V. Lawson

Once upon a time, about 10 years ago, I thought maybe I could write a mystery series about a midwife in Elizabethan England. I had an elaborately convoluted title and an elaborately convoluted plotline, and at that point I got stupendously bored. — Deborah Harkness

If I am going to be a monster, the least I could do is be well fed! — Cristina M. Sburlea

For me the Anita series is built like a mystery series, which means that as much as possible each book stands alone, so you have a mystery to solve from the beginning to the end of the book. — Laurell K. Hamilton

The M.E. dissected pieces of a corpse to tell a story, while Drayco tried to bring them back from the dead, jagged piece by jagged piece. — B.V. Lawson

What else should our lives be but a continual series of beginnings, of painful settings out into the unknown, pushing off from the edges of consciousness into the mystery of what we have not yet become. — David Malouf

Let the spirits guide you, but never let them take you. — E.J. Stevens

There are a few rules in investigations, and one is to never cringe at the person's appearance that you're about to pump for info. — Ruth Bainbridge

She would not have another man push her aside like some appetizer, there to wet his whistle only to be left once the main dish arrived.

No more. She pushed her thumb into his throat a little harder. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

The Bible was penned by men. The Epistles of Paul were penned by that evangelist salesman and his students, desperate to bring mystery and excitement into a quiet philosophy, turning it into a religion promising the secret of an afterlife, answers to questions that previously no one could answer. Always remember, words written by men have an agenda. Sometimes their agenda is for the better, but it's usually for the self, and that almost always leads down a dangerous path."

~Character Mark from The Awakening, book one of The Judas Curse series. — Angella Graff

They've also asked me now to start on another series that we're gonna do after this Frontier Earth. But it's not science fiction, it's more in the Mystery and Crime division and that's another area I'm very interested in. — Bruce Boxleitner

When you're poor and hungry and frightened of failure, you often don't have the luxury of high values, lofty goals, and social conscience. Funny how fear and poverty will acid-wash your value set, burn away all the flimflam and artifice and learned morality and leave you with nothing but the urgency of survival. - Dr. Dan Trix - Chasing the Horizon. — Rodney Romig

Avid readers are the most authentic creatures on the face of the earth, and their hearts and minds are not for sale at any price. "Mysteries for the Inspired Traveler" Goodreads blog — Kopman-Owens

The word "Eucharist" means literally "act of thanksgiving." To celebrate the Eucharist and to live a Eucharistic life has everything to do with gratitude. Living Eucharistically is living life as a gift, a gift for which one is grateful. But gratitude is not the most obvious response to life, certainly not when we experience life as a series of losses! Still, the great mystery we celebrate in the Eucharist and live in a Eucharistic life is precisely that through mourning our losses we come to know life as a gift. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Son of a bitch! You're Steve Allen! — Steve Allen

The love of money can do wicked things to one's soul. — Jules Haigler

Everything is grounded in mystery. Everything is swimming, and the stable does not exist. Life is a series of guesses, and there is mystery in a match. The commonplace is the habitual and the habitual is a mystery that has grown stale from sense-insistence. Life undulates; there is no such thing as a level; a straight line is a myth, and all directions are indirections. Up and down are movable points on horizons that do not exist; focus is an eye-trick, and motion is cell-palpitation. All things radiate from a common point, and differences are the same looked at from various angles. — Benjamin De Casseres

Quote taken from Chapter 1:
"Is Petey Samson a bloodhound for real?" Blue asked. "I could've sworn he's a mixed breed, what my folks used to call a pound mutt."
"Oh, brother," Alma said. "I wished you hadn't said that."
"I'll have you know Petey Samson is no pound mutt," Isabel said, shaking her finger at Blue. "His best breeding lies in his bloodhound line," she said.
"I didn't know that," Blue said.
"Pay no mind to Isabel," Alma said. "She's just being overprotective of her fur baby. — Ed Lynskey

Ah, the bliss of Mahotsava!
What joy it brings to every heart!
What a rare and precious chance
To share all knowledge with the wise,
And bless and love all peoples of the Earth!"
- Book of Secrets I, 1 — Robert Delgado

He was one of the few men who didn't aspire to be alpha as long as he was in on the hunt. — B.V. Lawson

I cadged a complimentary green matchbook with a gold bird icon from the Bell canning jar. Later we'd use the matches to light our spliffs. My fingertips tapped the stem to the gizmo that dinged a bell. Nobody came out. Wrong signal, so I did two bell rings. No response prompted me to tap out a series of bell rings. — Ed Lynskey

Her killer wrote a note on that stationary."
"A note." Now Renquist's eyebrows lifted. "Well. That was rather arrogant of him, wasn't it? — J.D. Robb

There should be a drama series about women trying to figure out their mystery leg bruises. — Kelly Oxford

I hated all this: the mystery of myself. — Rebekkah Ford

He was a Super Politician, defender of untruths, injustice and the American power-play. — B.V. Lawson

The real core of this book is about the open secrets that can fester in a community until an outsider raises questions. — J. Alexander Greenwood

[Charlie] Moon was trying hard to get a handle on this. Maybe he's got a PhD. What with pass-fail replacing conventional grading, Internet diploma mills, and who knows what other academic innovations that has been driving the dumbing-down in American education, you couldn't tell who might have a sheepskin tucked away in his hip pocket. — James D. Doss

The smell of beer surrounded him in a cloud as if he'd been doused in Eau de Frat Boy cologne. — B.V. Lawson

Friendships outlive marriages and family. Friendships can make a life wonderful or wasted, worth sacrificing or worth saving. In the Paris-based 7-book Apricot Tree House Mystery Series, Jamie Litton and Ben Foulof choose to save each other because they have learned that friendship is that fragile thread tethering all of us between Heaven and Earth. — Peggy Kopman-Owens

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

Don't wait for the right time to do what your heart craves. The right time may never come. In the end, there is nothing more dreadful than the doom of a half-lived life. — Yveta Germano

Emma was doing something nice for Simon? Hell must be enjoying the snow day. — E.J. Stevens

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look? — Nancy Lynn Jarvis

The finest thing in the world is knowing how to belong to oneself.
Michel de Montaigne — Laurie Stevens

He wore his personality like a suit that was too tight. — B.V. Lawson

I really enjoyed hearing the likesand dislikesof my readers at book clubs as well as meeting new fans at the book signing at The Bookworm in Omaha " he said. "The book clubs have overwhelmingly asked me to hurry up on writing the sequel. — J. Alexander Greenwood

She is my friend, and there is nothing you can say or do that can stop me from helping her. — Peter G. Nogel

Some day I would like to write a textbook on how to be a female detective in a man's world. Rule Number One: try not to let your animosity show. Your career as an investigator will be short lived if you cannot hide your feelings when you dislike, distrust, or despise your interviewee. — Frances Brody

At the moment developing a nice little inoffensive cancer somewhere on dry land seemed infinitely preferable to what she was grimly convinced was soon to be her death by drowning way too far out at sea. — Dana Stabenow

The Land of Civilian was a dry bitter place where you sat in your car staring at drawn curtains and closed doors for hours on end, and where everything was a big, freaking secret. — Lily Gardner

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

Awoke to find three vultures sitting on the fence. Realizing they were a portent of impending death I shot them. — Bridget Allison

I encourage makers to recognize that when you pull your ego out of the game, your work can become a series of joyful collaborations (between artist and mystery, between artist and peers, between artist and audience). The important thing is to take responsibility for continuing to show up for your side of the bargain. — Elizabeth Gilbert

The blight of office cubes housing lawyers and lobbyists had popped up like chokeweeds in the manicured lawn of the family homestead. — B.V. Lawson

So it's fate then?" I asked with him so close my lips brushed the line of his jaw with each word, "Us being together?"
"Absolutely," Calvin said with a low growl. Then he lifted my chin, tilting my head back, and kissed me deeply.
Who was I to argue with Fate? — E.J. Stevens

[Georg Cantor was the first to prove that there could be a series of infinities; that infinities come in an infinite number of sizes.] Thus Cantor's Absolute is a perfect image for what we experience of God. When I speak of a Big Enough God I am not merely thinking of an Infinite God, but the God of infinities, the Absolute, which either chooses to reveal itself or remains veiled in mystery. Modern mathematics does begin to feel like the language that God talks. — Sara Maitland

King Yorandt to Kristina in book three of Fracture the Secret Enemy Saga~Secrets
release date: Summer 2014

Even the master does not play perfectly. He can only hope to make fewer mistakes than his opponent, and that in the end, he is the victor. Sajah (chess) is a ruthless game where the pieces are all pawns and the Queen is the true killer.
She spares no one to protect the king. The king however, is ruled by all of the pieces that lay before him, even his opponent. Every move is a decision that can change the whole board, and the endgame. — Virginia McKevitt

The 'Scream' series is unique in that it's an ongoing murder mystery, even though it's a different killer, so if you know who that killer is, then half of the fun of the movie is gone. — Wes Craven

Ah ha!' the Doc screeched suddenly, wheeling around. 'The salicylic acid! Maybe it SHOULD have been heated first! — Clare Havens

Her thoughts went to Stefano Garini as if pulled by an elastic - whenever she didn't pay attention, they snapped back to him. [Carlina's attraction to Stefano] — Beate Boeker

We don't fall in love with a woman because of her good character. — John Dickson Carr

The rabbi glanced over glumly from behind the jail bars. 'My faith in God is fine,' he said. 'It's people I'm not so sure about. — Richard Fliegel

Reacher was the kind of guy who solved all problems as permanently as possible. — Diane Capri

Ian once suggested that in addition to the mystery stickers and the sci-fi and animal ones, there should be special stickers for books with happy endings, books with sad endings, books that will trick you into reading the next in the series. 'There should be ones with big teardrops,' he said, 'like for the side of Where the Red Fern Grows. Because otherwise it isn't fair. Like maybe you're accidentally reading it in public, and then everyone will make fun of you for crying.' But what could I affix to the marvelous and perplexing tale of Ian Drake? A little blue sticker with a question mark, maybe. Crossed fingers. A penny in a fountain. — Rebecca Makkai

Indignation is often the best defense. — Diane Capri

For what is religion if not a great mystery? It is nothing if not a series of clues, a key to unlocking the greatest secrets of the universe. The careful detective will spend as much time pondering the spiritual mysteries as he does on whatever singular problem has crossed his path on any given day. Guide to the Criminal and Commonplace, M. C. Wheaton — Rachel McMillan

She was a tornado in a skirt. — B.V. Lawson

Culture is the best society has to offer...How can we pass on civilization to those who do not value civilization. (Terrence Rattigan) — Beth Fine

This is the day the Lord has made, suck it up and rejoice. — Donna White Glaser

Life's too short for cheap beer--or cheap men. — Daryl Anderson

After only a few moments in her presence, he found himself wondering what dragon he might slay for her. — Regina Scott

I think authors are just realizing there's no real reason to feel limited to a narrow set of genre rules in their writing. There's no reason a mystery novel can't have fantastic elements in it. Similarly, there's no reason why your epic fantasy series can't have elements of a mystery. — Patrick Rothfuss

Humanity thrown together in the equivalent of a Petri dish under a microscope bred malignant organisms as often as benign. — B.V. Lawson

What makes a show good for me, personally, is a mystery that just doesn't quit. I want to know why. Why did this happen? Why is this phenomenon occurring? Why did that person do that? A series is really good to me that takes its time in answering those questions. — Mark Pellegrino

In the meantime, without realising it, I had learned a valuable lesson - in the need for an author to have a total belief in their characters if they are to come alive! — Robin Rowles

I thought that you would be frozen in awe when you found the sequence, when you heard a bird's song repeating my Morse code, my cry for help, my S.O.S, when you saw the same numbers in the petals of a flower and the structure of a pine cone, when you saw with your own eyes the interconnectedness of all things.
But I was wrong.
You searched for a male god, a creator, an intelligent designer, or you banished the beauty and mystery of the world beneath the cold concrete grave of closed-eye skepticism. The few of you who could still hear my music felt tortured and misunderstood; you reached out for any conspiracy theory large enough to explain your alienated despair, your sense that the Earth was dying and no one cared.
But listen to me -- you are not alone. Run your fingers through the grass and grab it in your fists, feel my pulse echoing through your blood. You. Are. Not. Alone. And I -- I am not dead yet. — Sarah Warden