Quotes from Ann Cleeves

There was no point, she'd learned, in raging against the inevitable, and incompetent bosses seemed to be as inevitable as death.

It was the sloppy thinking, the laziness which irritated him most.

She was tall, angular, striking in a Glenda Jackson sort of way.

She was making a shawl for the child. The knitting was so intricate that it looked like one of the wedding veils worn in his grandparents' day. Then, the women had said the yarn should be so fine that you should be able to pull the veil through a wedding ring.

Joe's Sal was obsessive about housework. Vera thought she should find something better to do with her time.

Rick supposed there were worse ways to go than a fatal heart attack. Anything, surely, would be better than descending into dementia like Ken. The cloudy eyes and unfocused thoughts, the restless twitching of the hands. That was surely a kind of death. It was as if Ken was disappearing almost before their eyes but becoming at the same time deeper and more nuanced.

An inspector's role was strategic. Except that she'd always been seduced by the detail. She told herself she'd be back at the station before lunchtime.

only role. There wasn't any warmth there. If another woman showed him

Kindness is very attractive when you're not used to it.

Toast was one of the few things he could cook well.

She loved her parents – of course she did – but when they were with her, she had to put on a show.

They were flawed and cruel, but there was no intent to kill. Not within the meaning of the law. And the law's all we have to hold things together.

Oh, a sense of humour,' Vera said. 'I do like a sense of humour in a villain.

At nine o'clock he went into an estate agent's office and asked if they had a map of the town. He was afraid they would not give him one unless they thought he was a serious purchaser, so he came out with an armful of property details too

We don't often notice the people who look after us, do we? Though we'd miss them if they weren't there.

This was what Vera missed, now she had to spend so long at her desk. The prying and nebbing into other folk's business.

Recovery isn't just about stopping drinking or giving up drugs; it's about taking responsibility. Not easy, if you've been running away from it all your life.

She was so used to living alone that gatherings of people, even people she cared about, freaked her out a bit. It was a sort of claustrophobia and occasionally she felt close to a panic attack.

We weren't that sort of family. We just got on with things.

excuse to run away from the

Annie found herself being drawn into the conversation despite herself. She'd been terrified of dying since she was a child. Not the reality of pain or illness, but the idea of the world going on without her.

Caminando hacia ellos sonreía con la alegre despreocupación que lo distinguía, y que Rachel percibió como la clase de confianza que da una educación cara

Not when Martha was there. She was always

He thought a lot about the old days. The memories clouded his thoughts and confused him.