Alex Smith > Quotes

“You think it’s okay to leave them?” he asked as they crossed the hall. “What if they try and microwave a saucepan or something?” “Or blow up the fridge,” added Billie. “Or worse,” said Kett. “Put peanut butter on my toast.” “The horror,” said Billie with a laugh.”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“He’s evil. You have no idea. You say Willy was burned?” “After he’d stabbed himself, yeah,” said Kett. “I’ve seen Chuckles do that to a man before,” said Luke. “Out at sea. Tied him to a boat and set fire to it, watched him burn to death, watched him scream until his throat…”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“it was shaped with several outwardly curved segments?”
― Alex Smith, Sweet Briar Rose

“It’s out. We got lucky, there was barely any fuel in the tank.” “Arson?”
― Alex Smith, Sweet Briar Rose

“It was almost seven, and he thought about Billie and the kids, about his own family waiting for him to come home. How many times had his late nights led to an argument with his wife? How many times had she told him, in the heat of the moment, that there wasn’t room for her and the girls in his head alongside the madness of the job?”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“Oh, ignore him,” said Cairns.”
― Alex Smith, Every Mother's Son

“for, sir?”
― Alex Smith, Stone Cold Dead

“of Norwich, and being back here made him feel weirdly heavy, as if the gravity beneath this city was greater than anywhere else on Earth. That thought made a strange kind of sense. London was home to eight million people, but how many had there been before that? The countless dead lay beneath the streets, and it was the weight of them, their sheer mass, that made the city pull so hard. He sat back, scrubbing his face with his hands. They had blood on them, he noticed when he returned them to his lap. The young woman’s blood. He tried to pick it from beneath his nails, itching like Macbeth. The copper in the front wasn’t interested in conversation, his wary eyes appearing in the mirror every minute or so. Kett tucked himself into the corner, pulling Billie’s phone from his pocket. It felt so strange”
― Alex Smith, Three Little Pigs

“enough.”
― Alex Smith, Unholy Saints

“Where are your plates, Frank?” “Plates?” he said. “In the kitchen. What’s that got to do with anything?” “Number plates, for the car.” “On the fucking car!” he said.”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“The”
― Alex Smith, Three Little Pigs

“It was terrifying because she knew how fragile these things were, how prone they were to fracturing, or dissolving, or burning up. Love was so hard to build, but so easy to destroy, a fact that the Jack Valentine case had made clearer than ever—she could still see Darcey tumbling over the edge of the roof in search of a quick death rather than be without Will. She could still see the mangled, scorched forms of Gregg and Alan as they’d fought to the death, and Grant Dankworth’s smug smile as he talked about all the times he’d cheated on his wife. Wasn’t it easier to never fall in love at all?”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“And now she’d never see him again, never hear his voice, his goofy laugh, never feel his strong arms around her. She’d never be safe again, she’d never be loved again. The pain of it was worse than anything she’d ever felt.”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“Well bloody go then, Zipper,” said Clare. “What are you arsing around here for?” “You…” Kett shook his head, realising it was pointless.”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“like”
― Alex Smith, Bad Dog

“Oh, no, I get it,” she said. “I’ve seen it a million times. Two people whose relationship is so empty they have to find ways of keeping themselves together. It’s not usually murder.”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“who work here.”
― Alex Smith, Cold Iron Kills

“Somebody beaten? Probably the Heiligs. Somebody dead? You tell a lie that big, it swallows you. You have to live inside it for the rest of your life.”
― Alex Smith, Unholy Saints

“She hurled her mug at the wall so hard that Porter flinched. It hit hard but didn’t break, recoiling with a peacock tail of tea. Only when it struck the wooden floor did it give up, shattering. “Cath!” Audrey said, shocked. “I’ll get it,” Blake said, grateful for the chance to get out of his seat. The boy ran to the side of the room, down on his knees as he picked up the pieces.”
― Alex Smith, Stone Cold Dead

“Where are your plates, Frank?” “Plates?” he said. “In the kitchen. What’s that got to do with anything?” “Number plates, for the car.” “On the fucking car!” he said. “Hey, what’s he doing?”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“all”
― Alex Smith, Sweet Briar Rose

“We do our best to help,” she said. “But there’s an ocean of cruelty out there. It’s bigger than anything, and nothing will ever stop it. Only a fool thinks he can stop the tide. We’re fucked.”
― Alex Smith, Knock Knock

“looking as tired as her”
― Alex Smith, King Rat

“Ignore the fact that this bastard zombie is singing a bloody song?” he said. “It’s ongoing putrefaction,” explained the pathologist. “Unfortunately, once a body has been removed from the water, decomposition occurs at an advanced rate. Gases are formed and then released.” As if to confirm this, the body farted. “Christ,”
― Alex Smith, A Long-Dead Thing

“mostly”
― Alex Smith, Whip Crack

“arresting”
― Alex Smith, Paper Girls

“If you kill your wife, you don’t concoct a tall tale about somebody locking you in a van and making you fight to the death. You do it discretely, you hide the body, you claim innocence.”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“Of course I didn’t. Why do we settle? Why do we think we’re not worth something more, eh? One life we get here, one chance at happiness, and how many of us spend it with somebody we don’t love? Somebody we don’t even like? It’s madness. Is he dead?”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“That’s the trouble with being you, though, isn’t it? Sooner or later, the job puts you on everyone’s radar.”
― Alex Smith, Truly Madly Deadly

“lamb instead, and she took you”
― Alex Smith, Knuckle Bones