Great Characters Quotes

“Sarah shook her head. Babysitting was a tough job. And having kids? Playing Lady Macbeth was a whole lot easier.”
― Theasa Tuohy, Mademoiselle le Sleuth

“What chilled my blood was a felt marker outline of a woman on the wall. Hands above the head, where there was a hook, then below the shape of the head, a neck strap. Then a waist strap, and two ankle clamps. The silhouette gave me no doubt that Gina had been confined here. But where was she now?”
― Grahame Shannon, Tiger and the Robot

“I envisaged a perfect detective’s assistant. She’d have long, wavy blonde hair, a short skirt, and curves in all the right places. She’d have a genius IQ, know how to hack and code, and be available at all hours. Now, make her into a robot. Sadly, I mentally removed her body, leaving a phone app.”
― Grahame Shannon, Tiger and the Robot

“Her firm belief was that things would be better in society if there was a periodic ‘social cleansing’ to eliminate those influences that are considered unsavory. She sounds like she’d be fun at parties,” the officer joked.”
― Kathleen Lopez, Thirteen for Dinner

“As the boat filled and capsized, the aluminum boom flew across the cockpit and hit the side of Tiger’s head.
The world was cold, blue, and shimmering. Thoughts swam through her mind like a school of tropical fish, moving in unison then darting off in all directions.”
― Grahame Shannon, Tiger and the Robot

“He was not a tall man, but he was wide. His face was the color and texture of old leather boots, and he was completely bald except for a gray walrus mustache that would have made Hulk Hogan jealous. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, even though it was chilly and wet. His arms were densely tattooed in style I didn’t recognize.”
― Grahame Shannon, Tiger and the Robot

“I slammed the door, floored the throttle, and reversed down the road as fast as the old car would go, which was not very. Then I spun the wheel and hit the brakes, backing off the road. I crunched the transfer lever into four-wheel drive and trundled off toward the water. Behind us, the pickup was backing and filling, trying to turn around on the narrow road.”
― Grahame Shannon, Tiger and the Robot

“Shuller was thankful they’d found sheets for those who had been killed, but just the knowing who was under the sheet ... well, he wasn’t sure if that was still a kindness or made it worse for the imagination.”
― Kathleen Lopez, Thirteen for Dinner

“Oh yes, how terrible for you. Having to have a staff wait on you, having the world for yours to take due to being born into privilege and being so unbelievably bored at the prospect of living a life of leisure thanks to the genetic lottery you won that you threw it all away for a pursuit of a career that, quite frankly, is not your strong suit, shall we say. Yes. Poor little rich girl. Everything you have now, everything you had lost and walked away from, is of your doing. You just had to maintain a life of decorum. Sorry if the expectations of being proper were unattainable for you. I hadn’t expected that to be outside of your reach.”
― Kathleen Lopez, Thirteen for Dinner

“Each time she glanced in his direction, she was struck with the fact that this measly slip of a man had had the power to destroy her husband’s career. Every bit of loathing she had for him was there on display for Willum to take in.”
― Kathleen Lopez, Thirteen for Dinner

“Ma’am.” The officer was already tired of the haughtiness of Ms. Headstrom. “You specifically sought out this particular group of people, who all had a particular criterion of being in the press for unfavorable reasons. Is that correct?”
“Well, not all of them were for unfavorable reasons,” she tried to rationalize. “Some were associated with an unfavorable reason. It was a themed party. That was the theme. That was the only reason. Why else would I have brought them all to the house for a dinner?”
“Exactly.”
― Kathleen Lopez, Thirteen for Dinner

“Each group seemed to be collected in front of two doors, each looking at the other, and no one looking at Mica. There was one person looking at Mica, but she was unaware that she was being watched.”
― Kathleen Lopez, Thirteen for Dinner

“Keira was surrounded by dozens of tiny orbs, each a unique shade of brilliant color. She was clasping her stomach with both arms, hunched over like she was freezing, trying to hold on to every bit of warmth she could. She looked up at Hoeru and her eyes were glowing with the light of all the magic she was struggling to contain.

“Hoeru, close your eyes,” she said through gritted teeth. The wolf spirit realized the threat she posed and snapped its jaws at her. It probably saved Hoeru’s life.

Keira exploded.”
― Rick Fox, Fate's Pawn

“It appeared to be from behind us. We were all turned and listening to Barry as he was in the midst of a rant and had all our attentions. The gun shot seemed to come from the area of the foyer.”
― Kathleen Lopez, Thirteen for Dinner

“Weird grey forms came pouring out of the woods. They were only about three or four feet tall, but they were covered in taut muscle. Their heads were wider than their shoulders and their mouths, bristling with teeth, stretched from ear to ear. They chattered as they came, shrieking in voices that were at once guttural and chirruping.”
― Rick Fox, Fate's Pawn

“You got a plan?” Raziel said, his heart hammering his chest like it wanted to push its way out and take its chances on its own.

“Don’t get eaten.”

Raziel bared his teeth and laughed.”
― Rick Fox, Fate's Pawn

“And I’m a sheriff,” Shuller jumped in. Willum’s demeaner faltered for a moment. It was so minor that it could have been missed by most, but Shuller caught it. The ever-so-slight blanching at the mention of law. Shuller was able to perceive the slight discomfort which concerned him. It was not a good sign to Shuller when someone bristled at the idea he was a sheriff. It never boded well for the type of person he was dealing with if the fact he was a man of law was what made them act oddly.”
― Kathleen Lopez, Thirteen for Dinner

“Eggbeast!” Raziel shouted, his voice finally coming back to him. Hoeru turned, looked at the eggbeast just a few feet away and then back to Raziel.

“Yes. That is the eggbeast.”

There was a moment of almost silence, the only noise being the wet sloppy sound of the eggbeast’s mouth falling open and its absurdly large tongue falling out of its mouth as it panted happily.

“Oh right. I guess no one told you. Kusa convinced it to help us.”

“Oh. Thanks. That’s good to know,” Raziel’s words came out stilted as he tried to get his panic and irritation with Hoeru under control.

“Sure.”

The eggbeast let out a chuffing sound. Hoeru turned his head towards the beast, and it mewled to him, a sound like a squeaky door made for giants. Hoeru nodded.

“It also says sorry for trying to eat you.”

“You… speak eggbeast?”

“Well no. But we both speak squirrel.”

“You know, it’s really hard to tell when you’re joking.”
― Rick Fox, Fate's Pawn

“It's a dangerous thing, going out your front door.”

“Because the road might sweep you off on some adventure without time for breakfast?”

“Well… I was thinking more of the monsters, but yes, that too.”
― Rick Fox, Fate's Pawn

“Oh, you’re reading your secret book. Sorry,” he said. Though his face didn’t show any contrition Raziel knew he meant it. Hoeru was close to Raziel’s age and they’d been roommates for years, ever since Dominic brought the changeling in. He was probably Raziel’s closest friend. Reading the changeling could be difficult but Hoeru was always candid with his words.

“Secret book?”

“Is it not a secret?”

“No! I just don’t like people knowing about it.”

Hoeru narrowed his eyes and cocked his head.

“Isn’t that what a secret is?”

“No. Well… yes. Kind of. It’s complicated.”

“Everything human is complicated. So what’s in your not-secret secret book?”
― Rick Fox, Fate's Pawn

“It wasn’t that big a deal.”

Raziel sat up. He stared hard at Keira until she had no choice but to meet his eyes. He could still see doubt and uncertainty there.

“Stop that. If you did what you say you did, you pulled off a hell of a thing. Several hells of things. Or something like that. I’m not sure how to make that plural. The point is...” Raziel had to stop for a moment to figure out what his point was. She was looking at him with curiosity now, the self consciousness somewhat faded. “The point is thank you.”

“Thank… you?”

“Yeah. You got me away from Alban. You came to help Kusa. You risked your life to keep me and my friends alive. Thank you.”

“You… you…” She struggled for words. “You are so weird.”
― Rick Fox, Fate's Pawn

“Everybody in St. Mary Mead knew Miss Marple; fluffy and dithery in appearance, but inwardly as sharp and as shrewd as they make them.”
― Agatha Christie, 4:50 from Paddington

“Even so, it was difficult to quantify what he was feeling. Or maybe hearing. Touching? Raziel finally settled on sensing, but none of the words he could put to the sensation felt right. It was a presence, that much he was sure of. He’d felt that type of thing from his grandfather when they practiced magic together and faintly from people further away. But this was different. Slower. His grandfather had, at the time, seemed to be something solid and unmovable as a cliff face, but compared with this, he was just a leaf in late fall, holding its shape but crumbling at the lightest touch.

It was, of course, the tree at his back that Raziel was sensing. Being struck by its awesome and awful enormity, the realization came to Raziel slowly. And, as he put a name to the presence in his mind, something changed. The smallest of ants, marching across unfamiliar terrain, looking up and seeing the great eye of the human whose arm was the continent on which it walked, might have felt something similar to what Raziel felt as the tree took notice of him.”
― Rick Fox, Fate's Pawn

“They were all sweating from the exertion, and that concerned Hoeru. It was certainly possible that they’d be found by something that could track them by their scent. But then they were humans, and humans smelled so much more than they ever realized.

“So Hoeru. What’s next?” Keira asked between breaths.

“Thinking maybe a bath.”

She gave him a sidelong look.

“I know you were stuck in that room for a while, but I don’t think we have time for that.”

The wind shifted and Hoeru was treated to a noseful of human. Still. She wasn’t wrong.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
― Rick Fox, Fate's Pawn

“All of the combat was stirring up the magic.
It filled the air like steam. But that wasn’t all. There was magic in the trampled grass of the courtyard, in trees surrounding the fort like sentinels, and in the moon and starlight streaming down from the sky. It was all swirling down into the courtyard and down into the earth. There was more magic available than Raziel could have possibly taken in. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t try.
Raziel drew in everything he could, pulling magic from every direction. It was like trying to continuously inhale without exhaling. He burst into sweat as his whole body began to burn with the effort of containing the magic. The air around him was swirling, turbulent and constantly shifting directions. Soon it felt like his veins were filled with liquid fire and thunder pounded in his head.
When he couldn’t take anymore, he began to force the energy up his shoulder and down his arm into his right hand. Everywhere the magic left felt like it was freezing, but his arm felt like it was being dipped in molten metal.
Raziel opened his eyes to find his hand engulfed in a blazing ball of blue light. Hoeru was transfixed by it. There were a few gremlin bodies on the ground nearby, but they weren’t attacking anymore. They were running from the light Raziel held.”
― Rick Fox, Fate's Pawn