Benedict Brown > Quotes

“just how precious a resource our fellow humans are.”
― Benedict Brown, Murder at the Spring Ball

“In an act of rebellion, I waited a good five seconds before doing as I’d been told.”
― Benedict Brown, The Mystery of Mistletoe Hall

“If my tone isn’t clear enough, I think it’s fair to say that I’ve never been a fan of my school’s educational methods. Though my father always insisted that Oakton Academy was where he learnt to be a man, I’ve yet to discover exactly what he would have turned into otherwise.”
― Benedict Brown, Murder at the Spring Ball

“Do you know what gaslighting is?” He showed no fear as he answered. “Yes. It’s the fact of denying someone’s reasonable accusations and suggesting they are mad in order to gain influence over them. The term comes from a very enjoyable horror film from the fifties.”
― Benedict Brown, A Corpse for Christmas

“There will never be a shortage of idiots in this world. Never underestimate just how naïve, arrogant and short-sighted people can be.”
― Benedict Brown, The Hurtwood Village Murders

“He stopped speaking then. I think my eyes might have glazed over – as is the right of any adolescent when an older relative starts reminiscing about their youth.”
― Benedict Brown, Murder at the Spring Ball

“Chrissy, m’boy. I would like to tell you that oars are pilchard stew.” “Pilchard stew?” He shook his head, his eyes never quite settling on me for a moment. “No, no, boy. I wanted to tell you that I saw a picture of you… in the newspaper. You looked most apple light and runcible.” He had a metal tankard in his hand – his own personal one which he took to the pub each day – and he waved it about in the air so that drops of beer splashed about the place. “Apple light and runcible?” I asked to check that it wasn’t my hearing that was the problem. “What do you mean, boy?” He examined me as if I were quite mad. “I said you looked upright and respectable. I haven’t used the word runcible in my life. I don’t even know what it means.” He stopped then and gazed about the room as though unsure what he was doing there. “Anyway, as I was saying, there was a phonograph…” I understood this slurred word without asking for clarification. “… of you with your grasshopper.” It went on like this for quite some time. I particularly enjoyed a story he told from when he was a child on his family’s grand estate. He was playing with his two best friends – a unicorn and a hacksaw – and they discovered a purple blancmange. By this point, I had given up asking what he really meant and tried to enjoy the bizarre story for what it was.”
― Benedict Brown, The Christmas Candle Murders

“afraid I’m a bit confused by the whole”
― Benedict Brown, A Corpse Called Bob

“would excel, but I was still only sixteen. I was just starting out in the world and you shouldn’t write a good man off before he’s had the chance to do so himself.”
― Benedict Brown, Murder at the Spring Ball

“Apparently, actors aren’t the cleverest people.”
― Benedict Brown, The Curious Case of the Templeton-Swifts

“I’m sure such officers had their uses, though I couldn’t imagine what they were.”
― Benedict Brown, Death at Silent Pool: A 1920s Mystery

“I'm a cog in a machine. That's not actually true. I'm more like the pin that holds a single cog in place, and even that suggests I'm in some way pivotal to the functioning of the machine. If anything, I'm one of those bits of transparent plastic that you get on the front of a router when the broadband company decides to send you a new one. If someone removed me, no one would notice the difference.”
― Benedict Brown

“I’m going to take them back to my garden in town and throw them at the neighbour’s cats. I hate those cats.”
― Benedict Brown, The Christmas Candle Murders

“I need to know why he killed our father.”
― Benedict Brown, Arsenic and Old Lies

“Humans are built with just enough resilience to tolerate the passing of older generations, but nothing can prepare us for the loss of a child.”
― Benedict Brown, What the Vicar Saw

“the intoxicating flush of young love that we had once enjoyed may have gone, but it had been replaced by something so much stronger. She was the land upon which my life had been built and, without her there to support me, I was lost at sea.”
― Benedict Brown, What the Vicar Saw

“Any man who has excelled in his field will have spent years mastering his craft, whether he be a worn-out old copper or a young prodigy. Without time, commitment and practice, even the most innate talent will go to”
― Benedict Brown, The Curious Case of the Templeton-Swifts

“There’s a lot of money to be made from war. Plenty of people would be happy if such suffering and instability were never to end.”
― Benedict Brown, The Castleton Affair

“six days and six nights,”
― Benedict Brown, The Christmas Candle Murders

“his mind was a place to marvel at, but never visit.”
― Benedict Brown, A Body at a Boarding School

“The whole garden was a fake, a fraud; a mirage of a verdant landscape created with wood, cotton and silk. I hadn’t questioned it at first, as I had no reason to do so, but I now saw the place for what it really was.”
― Benedict Brown, A Killer in the Wings

“In my book, modesty is tantamount to lying.”
― Benedict Brown, Death on a Summer’s Day

“Uncle Terry was at the front, pointing out beloved sights from his youth that were no longer there.”
― Benedict Brown, The Christmas Candle Murders

“don’t mean to sound unprofessional, but really! Whose favourite food is turnips?”
― Benedict Brown, The Christmas Candle Murders

“too”
― Benedict Brown, The Mystery of Mistletoe Hall

“from”
― Benedict Brown, What the Vicar Saw

“But grief comes differently to each person, and I wanted to keep my suffering all to myself as though I had a sentence to serve.”
― Benedict Brown, What the Vicar Saw

“Well, that’s more like it – though not the lack of ventilation. It’s becoming increasingly likely that we can exclude any stray students or wandering parents from our possible culprits and focus on four key suspects. The sooner we can speak to them, the more chance we have of finding the guilty party. I’d like to keep ahead of Blunt as much as possible. He can tie himself up interviewing the wrong man while we get to the killer.” His enthusiasm was infectious, and I found myself grinning as I counted off the suspects in my head. “So you’re confident it wasn’t Herbie then. That’s wonderful. With whom should we start?” “Who had the most to gain?” I had to think for a bit, but after some quick calculations, I went with, “Well, his wife. Celia Hardcastle would have inherited whatever money her husband”
― Benedict Brown, A Body at a Boarding School

“what I really wish to tell you is that, as we spend time with our families and loved ones tomorrow, we should spare a thought not just for the needy and downtrodden, but the cold of heart who will never know the joy we feel.”
― Benedict Brown, The Christmas Candle Murders