James R. Benn > Quotes

“There it was, a sign above a shop that said 221B BAKER STREET. My mouth hung open. I looked around at the ordinary street and the white-painted buildings, looking clean in the morning rain. Where were the fog, the streetlights, the gray atmosphere? The horses pulling carriages, bringing troubled clients to Watson and Holmes? I had to admit I had been impressed with Big Ben and all, but for a kid who had devoured the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, this was really something. I was on Baker Street, driving by the rooms of Holmes and Watson! I sort of wished it were all in black and white and gray, like in the movies.”
― James R. Benn, Billy Boyle

“If prayer flew as quickly as gossip, all the saints in heaven could not keep up with it.”
― James R. Benn, Death's Door

“They do not comprehend where they are going," Kaz said, whispering his words to the wind.
I knew he didn't mean a particular place. There were no map coordinates to mark the location. He meant that point in time and space where bullet meets bone, where grown men cry rivers of tears; the point you can never return from, even if you live to be ninety.”
― James R. Benn

“Everything changed, and eleven months later, here I was in the middle of the night with a gungho major, playing secret agent, hoping some Frenchie didn't put a bullet in my skull before I gave the Germans and Italians their chance.”
― James R. Benn, The First Wave

“Except for a roll of Harding's eyes, everyone ignored me, which is the way I liked it when I had to hang around with senior officers. They had a way of thinking up ideas that got you killed and them promoted.”
― James R. Benn, The First Wave

“I kicked off my shoes, tossed my jacket onto the chair, loosened my tie, and closed my eyes for about half an hour. Catnaps and spy chasing are my specialties.”
― James R. Benn, Billy Boyle

“Words do nothing against them in the short term, so we bow to the storm winds and wait. We wait, and we have faith.”
― James R. Benn, Death's Door

“Kaz drifted off, lured by the thought of a book he hadn't yet met.”
― James R. Benn, Road of Bones

“Nervous? Why, Lieutenant Boyle, whatever for? We're just about to leave on a six-hundred-mile trip through enemy infested waters, with a big, fat low-pressure system just sitting over us, dumping buckets of rain and churning up waves taller that houses, in order to land you alone in Nazi-occupied Norway, just south of the Arctic Circle, and leave you there. Why should you be nervous?”
― James R Benn

“He always said the best chance for a hands-on killer to leave a clue was at the last moment of contact, when the deed had been done. Before that, the murderer was likely on high alert, conscious of every move, waiting for the moment to strike. Then, with the victim dead or dying, the killer might let down his guard if he was overconfident or relieved. Who knew what a guy who’d just knifed a kid and twisted the blade felt? Or a woman?”
― James R. Benn, Blue Madonna

“I looked like a million bucks. An unarmed million bucks, which isn't necessarily the best combination.”
― James R. Benn, The Devouring

“Remember who you are, I wanted to say. You’re not what somebody did to you, you’re not what happened to you.”
― James R. Benn, Blood Alone

“villains.”
― James R. Benn, A Blind Goddess

“File cabinets were closed with determined thuds like mortar rounds going off, and the rapid chatter of typewriter keys sounded like machine guns strafing the paper into submission.”
― James R. Benn, Billy Boyle

“Just like I was hooked the first time I worked a homicide. I knew then that I was different from everyone else, set apart from the concerns of everydy life that swept everyone else forward, on a river of errands, work, dates, drinking, eating, and sleeping. I was going in a different direction, toward revelation and retribution, and here were damn few of us headed that way.”
― James R. Benn, Billy Boyle

“uncomfortable truth. “Our fair ladies are quite enough themselves,” Edgar said, rejoining the group and handing Big Mike a drink. “Don’t”
― James R. Benn, The Rest Is Silence

“Watching Dad figure things out was like watching an artist paint a picture. He used to say an investigation was a lot like art, just a blank canvas and a whole lot of different colors in little jars. All the clues were there, just like a painting was already in those little jars of paint. But you had to mix them together and put them on the canvas right, so it all made sense.”
― James R. Benn, Billy Boyle

“I don’t care what her name is, I want peace and quiet on this base so we can get on with the war.”
― James R. Benn, The White Ghost