The Body in the Library

What I feel is that if one has got to have a murder actually happening in one's house, one might as well enjoy it, if you know what I mean.

Downstairs in the lounge, by the third pillar from the left, there sits an old lady with a sweet, placid, spinsterish face and a mind that has plumbed the depths of human iniquity and taken it all as in the day's work....where crime is concerned, she's the goods.

One does see so much evil in a village,' murmured Miss Marple in an explanatory voice.

No, I wouldn't. I wouldn’t tell a soul.' 'People who use that phrase are always the last to live up to it.

Because when you’re in love, you think you’re invincible. It blinds you. And you don’t seem to care.

Bottled, was he?" Said Colonel Bantry, with an Englishman's sympathy for alcoholic excess. "Oh, well, can't judge a fellow by what he does when he's drunk? When I was at Cambridge, I remember I put a certain utensil - well - well, nevermind.

So I suggest you cut the cackle and come to the horses.

Melchett said gloomily, 'Well, we know where we are -- or rather, where we aren't!' 'Where we aren't expresses it rather better, sir.

People who ought to die of shock and exposure don't die of shock and exposure, et cetera, et cetera. The human frame is tougher than one can imagine possible. Moreover, in my experience, a physical shock is more often fatal than a mental shock.

Yes. She rebelled, I suppose, against being made to live in the past. After all, there's a time for everything. You can't sit in the house with the blinds down forever.

She belonged to the class that wear their best clothes, however unsuitable to the occasion. Last year, you know, we had a picnic outing at Scrantor Rocks. You'd be surprised at the unsuitable clothes the girls wore. Foulard dresses and patent-leather shoes and quite elaborate hats, some of them. For climbing about over rocks and in gorse and heather. And the young men in their best suits. Of course, hiking's different again. That's practically a uniform, and girls don't seem to realize that shorts are very unbecoming unless they are very slender.

When people ask “Do you put real people in your books?” the answer is that, for me, it is quite impossible to write about anyone I know, or have ever spoken to, or indeed have even heard about! For some reason, it kills them for me stone dead.

The vicar, a gentle, middle-aged man, was always the last to hear anything.

With a sigh the young mother returned to the hearthrug and, by way of carrying out her principles of stern neglect, butted her son three times in the stomach so that he caught hold of her hair and pulled it with gleeful yells. Then they rolled over and over in a grand rough-and-tumble until the door opened

La verità è che la maggior parte della gente, non esclusi i poliziotti, si fida troppo di questo mondo perverso. Crede troppo a quanto viene loro raccontato. Io no. Mi dispiace, ma io voglio sempre rendermi conto personalmente delle cose.

Activity was always to Inspector Slack’s taste. To rush off in a car, to silence rudely those people who were anxious to tell him things, to cut short conversations on the plea of urgent necessity. All this was the breath of life to Slack.

Mrs. Bantry reflected a minute and then applied an urgent conjugal elbow to her sleeping spouse.

Either her dream had taken a very odd turn or else - or else Mary had really rushed into the room and had said (incredible! fantastic!) that there was a body in the library.

One does see so much evil in a village,” murmured Miss Marple in an explanatory voice.

Here was a man who would never rail against fate but accept it and pass on to victory

for a minute her good-natured blue eyes were hard and sharp; she was the female fighting for existence—“that

A maguk… veszekedései jellemzőek a házasság első hónapjaiban. Teljesen… mások, mint egy törvénytelen kapcsolatnál. Tudja, azt mondják… és azt hiszem, ez igaz, hogy csak akkor lehet igazán nekimenni valakinek, ha az ember össze van vele házasodva. Ha nincsen… törvényes kötelék, akkor az emberek sokkal óvatosabbak; állandóan bizonygatják önmaguknak, hogy minden milyen szép és jó. Igazolniuk kell magukat önmaguk előtt. Nem mernek veszekedni! Észrevettem, hogy a házastársak még élvezik is a csatáikat, és… a megfelelő kibéküléseket.

Colonel Melchett silently marvelled at the amount of aids to beauty that women could use. Rows of jars of face cream, cleansing cream, vanishing cream, skin-feeding cream! Boxes of different shades of powder. An untidy heap of every variety of lipstick. Hair lotions and “brightening” applications. Eyelash black, mascara, blue stain for under the eyes, at least twelve different shades of nail varnish, face tissues, bits of cotton wool, dirty powder-puffs. Bottles of lotions—astringent, tonic, soothing, etc. “Do you mean to say,” he murmured feebly, “that women use all these things?” Inspector Slack, who always knew everything, kindly enlightened him. “In private life, sir, so to speak, a lady keeps to one or two distinct shades, one for evening, one for day. They know what suits them and they keep to it. But these professional girls, they have to ring a change, so to speak. They do exhibition dances, and one night it’s a tango and the next a crinoline Victorian dance and then a kind of Apache dance and then just ordinary ballroom, and, of course, the makeup varies a good bit.” “Good lord!” said the Colonel. “No wonder the people who turn out these creams and messes make a fortune.” “Easy money, that’s what it is,” said Slack. “Easy money. Got to spend a bit in advertisement, of course.” Colonel