Simon McCleave > Quotes

“When the sins of the father do visit us, we do not have to play host. We can banish them with forgiveness. August Wilson”
― Simon McCleave, The Harlech Beach Killings

“Ruth checked herself in the sun-visor mirror. Every time, she was still surprised not to see her twenty-seven-year-old self looking back at her.”
― Simon McCleave, The Harlech Beach Killings

“Underservedly, you will atone for the sins of your father. Horace”
― Simon McCleave, The Harlech Beach Killings

“propensity to catastrophise”
― Simon McCleave, The Harlech Beach Killings

“of the hills. Chapter 31 The wipers beat in time against the windscreen as we rolled south through the black of the valley. Rain came at us sideways, needled along by gusts that shoved the truck across the white lines. The next second the road was swallowed again, our headlights smearing across wet tarmac while thunder trudged after us. Annie had one hand flat to the dash to steady herself when the wind shouldered us. I leaned into the wheel, my eyes narrowed and focussed tightly on the rope of cat's eyes that stitched the road together. ‘Bloody weather,’ I muttered. Annie sighed in frustration as the rain bounced from the bonnet. ‘And this bloody case. We know how and why Suzie murdered Toby and Dan, but we can’t prove any of it. Kelly will listen, but the CPS will want something concrete.’ I nodded in agreement. ‘We’re a long way from the threshold where Suzie can be charged with murder. Or anything else. Which means that she’s going to get away with it.’ A dark, heavy silence. We climbed out of a dip and up a hillside. ‘If we could get her into court, I’ve presided over enough trials to know that juries are always deeply suspicious of coincidences,’ Annie stated. ‘But it’s getting her into court that’s the hurdle, and I can’t see that what happened to Toby would even be admissible in court anyway. The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death, so as far as any case against Suzie over Dan’s death, it’s completely irrelevant.’ Lightning flared and showed the shoulder of Cader Idris as Dolgellau’s lights flickered up ahead. We entered the town and headed back to Dolgellau police station. Annie’s phone buzzed in her lap. She glanced at the screen and stabbed at it with her thumb. ‘It’s Ethan,' she said, and put him on speaker. ‘Go ahead, Ethan. I’m here with Frank so I’ve put you on speaker.' ‘Hi guys.’ His voice sounded both confused and urgent – it was threaded within the crackle of poor reception. ‘I’ve been doing a deeper dive on Suzie Blain. Something strange has cropped up that I wanted to run past you.’ ‘We’re all ears, mate,’ I said as we eased around a high-banked corner. I wondered if he’d uncovered anything significant. ‘Right.”
― Simon McCleave, Fatal Love

“told me he was Liverpool’s answer to Elvis. And I looked at him”
― Simon McCleave, The Chirk Castle Killings

“There was a laziness to rain, he thought to himself. How raindrops obeyed gravity and just fell with no resistance.”
― Simon McCleave, The Harlech Beach Killings

“The worst were the Christians who would try to have ‘a quiet word’ with him before the meeting, trotting out the usual shit. They based the twelve steps of recovery on the Bible. He needed to say his prayers every morning. Fire and brimstone. Nothing worse than a converted alcoholic who then becomes a bullying AA zealot.”
― Simon McCleave, The Snowdonia Killings

“small Christmas tree placed apologetically in one corner.”
― Simon McCleave, The Dee Valley Killings

“Iechyd Da!”
― Simon McCleave, The Harlech Beach Killings

“Romans, Chapter 12, Verses 19-21. “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
― Simon McCleave, The Snowdonia Killings

“co-codamol.”
― Simon McCleave, The Harlech Beach Killings

“Alcohol wasn’t the problem. He was the problem. The pain, anguish and anxiety he felt needed to be masked, and alcohol was his medicine of choice. It did the trick. Or at least it used to.”
― Simon McCleave, The Snowdonia Killings

“were”
― Simon McCleave, The Snowdonia Killings

“She had made her way to Baker Street where the London Planetarium was situated. It was also the venue for that evening’s Secret Garden Masked Ball. The irony that she was only a stone’s throw from the home of the world’s most famous detective wasn’t lost on her.”
― Simon McCleave, The Solace Farm Killings

“Emma’s eyed moved”
― Simon McCleave, The Devil's Cliff Killings

“Coldplay is a band for people who don’t like music,”
― Simon McCleave, The Solace Farm Killings

“She claims that she knows where Rosie Wright it.”
― Simon McCleave, The Devil's Cliff Killings

“When he couldn’t sleep, he felt more comfortable looking out at the night sky. In Alcoholics Anonymous they called it his ‘Higher Power’. A spiritual connection to something greater than himself. It was less claustrophobic maybe? However, his Higher Power was failing him miserably at the moment and he needed a drink. It’s the first drink that gets you drunk. Not the fourth or the fifth. The first. But he knew that. He didn’t need self-righteous slogans reverberating around his head at this time of the morning. Already his body had tensed with anger.”
― Simon McCleave, The Snowdonia Killings

“on”
― Simon McCleave, The Llangollen Killings

“I can’t stand in judgement of my father. Not now. I guess that’s what you realise as you get older.”
― Simon McCleave, The Harlech Beach Killings

“Revenge is sweet and not fattening.’ Alfred Hitchcock”
― Simon McCleave, The Snowdonia Killings

“question.”
― Simon McCleave, The Devil's Cliff Killings

“detectives with her this morning,”
― Simon McCleave, The Devil's Cliff Killings

“They were virtually all the same size but what the owners had decide to grow varied wildly.”
― Simon McCleave, The Harlech Beach Killings

“The top button of his cobalt-coloured shirt was already undone, shirt sleeves rolled up and his navy-coloured tie unravelled on the desk. The shelves in his office carried the obligatory family photos, although he had removed any trace of Nell. They now mainly”
― Simon McCleave, The Dark Tide

“ragged cliff tops that peered warily over the smooth sands of Harlech Beach,”
― Simon McCleave, The Harlech Beach Killings

“would”
― Simon McCleave, The Dee Valley Killings

“The air around him smelled of dampness and the decay of fallen leaves. But the rain had also made it fresh and light.”
― Simon McCleave, The Snowdonia Killings

“the dark, incoherent scribble of seaweed.”
― Simon McCleave, The Harlech Beach Killings