Nell Goddin > Quotes

“hors d’oeuvres: gougères, little cheesy puffballs; pissaladière, an onion tart; and brandade au morue, which was salt cod whipped with cheese and potatoes, ready to be scooped up with slices of toasted baguette.”
― Nell Goddin, The Prisoner of Castillac

“And do you still not understand that in France, there is nothing more important than a meal? Nothing!”
― Nell Goddin, The Château Murder

“I think of them as tools,” said Ned. “Each one has its role. The slipper, the running shoe, the hiking boot—you want to wear a shoe that’s made for the specific activity. Multipurpose shoes are sad little things: jacks of all trades, masters of none.”
― Nell Goddin, The Prisoner of Castillac

“A stack of books stood on a small table by an armchair. An empty teacup by the books.”
― Nell Goddin, Murder for Love

“and blotted it with special blotting papers. It occurred to her, not for the first time, that some music might be pleasant to listen to while she made her preparations, but the record player had broken decades ago and she had no wish for anything ugly and modern in the house. Finally, with a spritz of perfume, Josephine Desrosiers was ready to greet her nephew. She was spry for her age and she had no trouble with the stairs. She nearly hummed to herself as she descended, but stopped herself because she thought humming was a low-class pursuit. Her nephew, chewing on a fingernail, was”
― Nell Goddin, The Luckiest Woman Ever

“Bostonian”
― Nell Goddin, The Château Murder

“cocktails in Ibiza”
― Nell Goddin, The Third Girl

“Evil doesn´t necessary pay much attention to setting.”
― Nell Goddin, The Third Girl

“It stands for Appellation d'origine contrôlée. It just means some agricultural product that is special to a certain terroir, or place. Like—Roquefort cheese,”
― Nell Goddin, An Official Killing

“But we—and I include myself, of course—go through our lives as though that central fact about being a human on this earth is not really real. And then when someone dies, we are not only sad but surprised that the event could possibly have taken place, we feel as though all the rules of nature have suddenly been upended, when it is exactly the opposite.”
― Nell Goddin, Seven Corpses All in a Row

“attend”
― Nell Goddin, The Third Girl

“The menu was ambitious: lavender spritzers, toasted slices of baguette spread with goat cheese and duxelles, camembert and fig tartines, frisée salad with lardons and a mustard dressing, ratatouille, duck confit, and profiteroles covered in birthday candles for dessert.”
― Nell Goddin, Murder for Love

“If you try to make everything free of stress you end up with nothing! No existence at all that anyone would want!”
― Nell Goddin, Death in Darkness

“coeur à la crème from the counter. A mixture of goat cheese, cream cheese, honey, and cream—shaped like a heart thanks to the ridiculously expensive mold she had bought that morning—and surrounded by a sauce of strawberries and vanilla. With a soupçon of peppercorns, cinnamon and cloves tossed in just to make things interesting.”
― Nell Goddin, The Prisoner of Castillac

“Often we think we want something new, when in fact, what our soul yearns for is something familiar, something from our past.”
― Nell Goddin, Death in Darkness

“expressions as they sketched. Molly walked up and sat on the rim, people-watching until she remembered the éclair and went off to look for a pâtisserie in earnest. She had loads of work to do; the cottage on her property was nowhere near ready for guests, and she had her first booking coming in a matter of days. She should have been shopping for sheets and pillows, and giving the place a good scrubbing instead of wandering”
― Nell Goddin, The Third Girl

“Life was good, if sometimes annoying and never perfect, and she sat back and watched people going about their errands and stopping to have long conversations with their friends and neighbors. It felt so much less busy here, somehow, even though she had plenty to do. Or maybe it was simply that she felt less rushed, less like everything had to be done yesterday.”
― Nell Goddin, The Third Girl

“gîte”
― Nell Goddin, The Third Girl

“Then she was struck with an idea. “Monsieur Nugent, I’m wondering—just how difficult is it to make an almond croissant? It’s just puff pastry and almond paste, right? Not too many ingredients?”
― Nell Goddin, Murder for Love

“I have been feeling a bit ‘under the weather’—a maritime expression, as you probably know, taken from a seasick person going below decks on the ‘weather side,’ where the storm is hitting—”
― Nell Goddin, An Official Killing

“considered. She did like to enter a restaurant and see the people she knew jump up to come say hello. But on the other hand, the tiresome service! The expense! She had lost her appetite for food years ago, and she didn’t see the point in spending that much time and money on something she wasn’t especially interested in. “If you would make me my usual,” she said. Michel sighed inwardly and went to a sideboard. He took a dangerously fragile”
― Nell Goddin, The Luckiest Woman Ever

“You do know that after a certain age, fluency in a non-native language is no longer possible?”
― Nell Goddin, The Prisoner of Castillac