A is for Alibi

Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they're right - a chilling thought when you sit down to dinner with a family of five. All those potential killers passing their plates.

You try to keep life simple but it never works, and in the end all you have left is yourself.

I don't know what is love about and I'm not sure I believe in it anyway.

People can hold out just so long and then they fold.

You kill people you hate or you kill in rage or you kill to get even, but you don't kill someone you're indifferent to.

A lot of people were mistaken about a lot of things.

My own mystery, unplumed, undetected, was sorted into files that were neatly labeled but really didn't say much.

There were pieces missing yet but they would fall into place and then maybe the whole of it would make sense.

So far, I felt like I had a lapful of confetti and the notion of piecing it all together to make a picture seemed very remote indeed.

Haven’t you ever heard of compromise?” “Oh sure,” I said. “That’s when you give away half the things you want. That’s when you give the other guy half of what’s rightfully yours. I’ve done that lots of times. It sucks.

Vegas tends to affect me that way, some combination of tension and dread to which my body responds with all the symptoms of incipient flu.

The basic characteristics of any good investigator are a plodding nature and infinite patience. Society has inadvertently been grooming women to this end for years.

Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they’re right—a chilling thought when you sit down to dinner with a family of five.

I don’t know what love is about and I’m not sure I believe in it anyway.

A man in a nylon bikini, with that little knot sticking out in front, isn’t half as interesting as a man in a good-looking business suit. Charlie