Mar Preston > Quotes

“He had once waited for Ginger outside the yoga studio and surreptitiously watched through a window. She and her friend Caroline had twisted themselves into positions that made him hurt just to watch.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“Okay,” Mason said, feeling a surge of hope. The protocol now was to force the hostage- taker to make decisions about trivial things like the kind of getaway vehicle he wanted. The object was to get the hostage-taker so worn out and emotionally dependent on his negotiator that he gives up without a fight. That was the way it was supposed to go–in theory anyway.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“interrupted, he would fall silent, then began his sentence again in exactly the same place to tell it in his own way, at his own speed.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“dirt lane ran behind these old double lots built for beach cottages early in the last century. Back then not every house had flush toilets. A honey wagon came around at nights to maintain the outhouses. Now transients tracked through the old lanes trash-picking and collecting recyclables from the dumpsters.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“She crossed her arms and frowned. “He doesn’t care about her. That’s what I think. Nobody cared about that girl. She was exploited. I’ll bet they just treated her like a servant.” “They’ve already got a servant.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“Time to check in with Sgt. York, his boss. Unlike Delgado who had trained him and become a friend over time, York kept an aloof distance.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“He crowded down the surge of feeling that distracted him from the task at hand.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“Mason’s thoughts went to what he’d do if his own nine-year-old were seventeen. If Haley needed a ride home, and somehow he couldn’t pick her up, he’d get a buddy to do it. Hire a babysitter to go get her in a taxi. She’d hate that, but young girls weren’t safe on the bus, not safe anywhere now, even in white bread Santa Monica.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“Mason was looking hard at the men of the Safak family, but they’d alibied out—so far. Even the hottest case went cold without a new lead. Soon Burroughs would be pulled off to work with other teams on other cases.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“He thought of the kittens his cat Spike had birthed in his linen closet. Spike was the cat he’d thought was a fixed male. He’d made mother and kittens a box on his kitchen floor and liked watching them.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“He slowed down at Santa Monica Boulevard, edging around a bedraggled old lady who wore a pink Afro wig and a long skirt dragging the pavement behind her. She turned to hiss at the police car and rattle the shopping cart heaped with plastic bags that she was stealing from the nearby Whole Foods market. What lady? What’s your problem?”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“All’s we need to do is ask for what we need. Right?” Delgado said, shifting his heavy body in a chair, looking skeptical.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“If you start to worry over this, you’re like the millipede that wakes up in the morning and dithers so long over which leg to move first that he falls into the ditch because he just can’t decide.”
― Mar Preston, Plotting Your First Mystery: A practical guide to plotting your first mystery and all its twists and turns

“Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.” Simone Weil”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“At this Bagatur hurled himself to the floor, prostrated himself, and began to pray, a high-pitched babble of pleading. It wasn’t English. He was so frightened he pissed himself. Mason watched a dark stain thread its way down the leg of his pants. A little pool of urine shone on the blue industrial carpet. Ross sat back in his chair, looked at Mason. Mason lifted his hands in a What now? gesture.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family

“That raised Mason’s eyebrows and gave him something different to think about as he headed in for his meeting. He was hardly above enjoying a good piece of gossip. Law enforcement everywhere thrived on it.”
― Mar Preston, On Behalf of the Family