Simon Kernick > Quotes

“Contrary to popular belief, most detectives couldn't detect a heartbeat on a speed addict, but you never know when you might be up against the next Ellery Queen.”
― Simon Kernick, The Business of Dying

“Chapter 1

I was sitting in Tina's Sunset Restaurant, watching the outriggers shuffle lazily through the clear waters of Sabang Bay, when Tomboy took a seat opposite me, ordered a San Miguel from Tina's daughter, and told me someone else had to die. It was five o'clock in the afternoon, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and up until that point I'd been in a good mood.

I told him I didn't want to kill people anymore, that it was a part of my past I didn't want to be reminded of, and he replied that he understood all that, but once again we needed the money. 'It's just the way the cookie crumbles.' he added, with the sort of bullshit 'I share your suffering' expression an undertaker might give to one of his customer's relatives. Tomboy Darke was my business partner and a man with a cliche for every occasion, including murder.”
― Simon Kernick

“Dennis, please. I don't know what-"
"Shut the fuck up, and stop playing me for an idiot. And secondly, and more importantly, I've unearthed some disturbing information about you which I want to discuss in more detail before I fill you with holes.”
― Simon Kernick, The Business of Dying

“You're never so alive as when you're on the verge of death.”
― Simon Kernick, Siege

“I came very close to saying no, and I often wonder how things would have turned out if I had. I'm being honest when I say I truly never wanted to become a murderer.”
― Simon Kernick, The Payback

“It was the members of the public who didn't seem to care what was happening on the streets around them, who hurried on by when they saw crimes being committed, too cowardly to intervene. Sometimes it seemed like the 'them' was everyone, and the 'us' was simply me, a lone copper engaged in a one-man battle against the injustices of the world.”
― Simon Kernick, The Payback

“The day it all went wrong for me was 11 August 1989. That was the day I killed a man for the first time.”
― Simon Kernick, The Payback

“Always expect the unexpected. Never get too when things are going well, because otherwise the fall will be a lot harder.

dinosaurs: triceratops and stegosaurus.

Weather forecasters are like prison visitors. Nice people but usually misguided.

The answer was yes, no, and maybe all rolled in one.

She added that she hoped she might see him again. Not if I catch sight of you first, he thought.

But like anything in life, you can never quite tell. People you know always have the ability to shock you.
The label said it was "just like the mama used to cook" but if that was the case mama had obviously long since been banned from the kitchen.

He wasn't work-shy. He was work-allergic.

The problem these days is that gangsters, whether they be small time drug dealers with guns and attitude or wannabe urban godfathers like Nicholas Tyndall, have no qualms about using serious violence and the treat of it to get what they want, because they know that neither the judicial system nor the police service have the wherewithal or the powers to protect those who speak out against them.

English prisons are roughly on a par with English traffic, English weather and English hospitals. In other words, fucking terrible.

The striation marks on a bullet are the microscopic scratches caused by imperfections on the surface of the interior of a gun's barrel that are unique to each individual firearm, and act as its calling card.The same striation marks will appear on a bullet every time a particular gun is fired.

'The last time I spent quality time with you was Heathrow last week and five people ended up shot'

The thing with me is that I am pessimist who's constantly trying to be optimistic, but can't quite manage it. Experience gained through years of policework doesn't allow for that sort of naivety.

They say its a grand life if you don't weaken and for so long I've tried to live my life like that, but at that moment in time, weakness felt so tempting that I almost open my arms to greet it.

'And the whole time I couldn't wait to leave. And you know what, thy were the best years of my life.”
― Simon Kernick, The Crime Trade

“you don’t win prizes without buying tickets.”
― Simon Kernick, The Business of Dying

“For a long time, she’d truly loved her husband. The fact that he was a soldier had never been ideal. Gina had never fancied herself as an army wife. She’d grown up in a loving family home within the same small Bedfordshire town, with both parents present, and had wanted the same for herself. But you can’t choose who you fall in love with. It just happens. And Jones had just happened. She’d met him in a wine bar in the West End while he’d been on leave and out with friends, and things had just clicked. He was tall and rangy, with model good looks, and eyes that were alive with promise. Even her mum, who’d never been keen on her previous boyfriends, announced that Jones had a really positive aura about him.”
― Simon Kernick, Ultimatum

“wet with it. In that same moment the room beyond the doorway was”
― Simon Kernick, The Bone Field

“ofher.”
― Simon Kernick, Die Alone

“and”
― Simon Kernick, The Hanged Man

“wouldn’t”
― Simon Kernick, Ultimatum

“bed”
― Simon Kernick, You All Die Tonight