Private Detective Quotes

“Most investigators don't even know what the word means. You stop the cops from using informants and the only crimes they'd ever solve would be those by deranged postal workers who come to work once too often.”
― Andrew Vachss, False Allegations

“Shouldering the duffel bag with the Marine Corps bulldog, Old Man knocked Jan's photo off the bed table. He turned to stone staring down at the photo. His face then splintered into hurt. Tears seeped into his eyes. He grappled for the nearest bedpost and slumped forward on extended arms. His shoulders jerked and head sagged a little while his heart broke. Old Man cried the mute cry of men of his generation.”
― Ed Lynskey, The Blue Cheer

“There was nothing like the cold, heavy steel of a gun, the soft moan of an appreciative woman or the sharp burn of a good single malt to make a man grateful to be alive. Tonight, with his gun gone and his sex life a wasteland, Dash had to settle for whiskey.”
― Amy Andrews, Limbo

“It was a dark, dismal afternoon, like they all seem to be
these days, when I got this call. I could hear the rain
battering the windowpane of my office when the phone rang.”
― C.S. Woolley, The Kevin Metis Saga

“As the man continues to stare at his mobile phone, his yellow safety vest loosens itself up and flaps wildly in the breeze, hitting him in the face. I watch him swat away at the vest, taming it under control aggressively. Pulling down the vest, he presses the Velcro back together and flattens it against his zip up brown jumper.”
― Susan L. Marshall, Adira and the Dark Horse

“I stop in my tracks, turning to face Girl. She is limping across the grass.

I can do this!

Reaching out, I lift her in both my arms. She straddles her legs around my waist and leans her head against my left shoulder.

Girl is heavy but I seem to manage. Finding my inner strength, I support her weight in my arms. My feet continue to pelt across the grass and onto the cement
of the car park.”
― Susan L. Marshall, Adira and the Dark Horse

“My heart is beating furiously but I harness my strength. Grabbing the Chief’s hands
from around my back, I twist around and free myself. “Don’t move,” I say, grasping
him firmly around the neck in a tight headlock. “Or I will strengthen my grip.”
― Susan L. Marshall, Adira and the Dark Horse

“I always wonder what hope I will find across the terrain. It changes
all the time. Right now, the wind plays with it, tossing its dirt in the air, challenging the terrain to ground itself. I remind myself that in fierceness, there is also a delicate beauty. You just have to look in the right place to find it.”
― Susan L. Marshall, Adira and the Dark Horse

“From Chapter 1:

The main rub was the lack of RnR and I burned out. Three years and three stripes later, I ejected from the MP Corps, vowing I'd never do police or criminal investigative work again. Instead, I returned home when I should've learned better.”
― Ed Lynskey, Pelham Fell Here

“P.I. Cassie Cruise--You don't have to like her, but you damn well better respect her”
― S.L. Ellis, Lane Changes

“You do know I’m not psychic, right?’
Dash looked down at her. ‘Joy...you do know that normal people don’t see ghosts, right?”
― Amy Andrews, Limbo

“Dash shoved his hands on his hips and looked down into the bowl. ‘You gave my fish pink rocks?’ he said as he turned to face her.
Joy shrugged. ‘I didn’t really look at the colour I just grabbed the nearest bag.’
‘It had to be pink?’
‘There’s some blue as well.’
He looked into the bowl again. ‘Not really.’
Joy couldn’t believe she was having a conversation about pink rocks when the bigger question of what the hell he’d found out about the robberies was still unanswered.
‘You think it’s going to turn Ralph gay?’ she asked sweetly.
‘Given that he’s living his life out solo it’s kind of a moot question, don’t you think?’
‘You’re right, I think he needs a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend.’
‘With those rocks? I think he needs Fishtank Barbie in there.’
‘Is your masculinity threatened because your fish has pink rocks?’
Dash folded his arms. ‘He’s a bloke. He doesn’t do pink.’
Joy glanced at the bowl. ‘It works,’ she said. ‘It...blends.’
‘He’s orange,’ Dash said. ‘Since when have pink and orange gone together?”
― Amy Andrews, Limbo

“He was too young to deserve a weight of the world sign like the one he expelled.”
― Mickey Spillane, Max Allan Collins

“I'm a very smart guy. I haven't a feeling or a scruple in the world. All I have the itch for is money. I am so money greedy that for twenty-five bucks a day and expenses, mostly gasoline and whiskey, I do my thinking myself, what there is of it; I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops and of Eddie Mars and his pals. I dodge bullets and eat saps, and say thank you very much, if you have any more trouble, I hope you'll think of me, I'll just leave one of my cards in case anything comes up.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep

“You're a private detective.”
"That's right.”
“What do you detect?”
“Right now? Subtle condescension.”
― Dann McDorman, West Heart Kill

“You’ve piqued my suspicions that her death wasn’t a tragic accident, as the authorities claim.”
― ed lynskey, Nymph

“He held my gun in his delicate, lovely hand. He held it pointed at my chest.

'I could teach you,' he said in his soft voice. 'But to what purpose? A dirty little man in a dirty little world. One spot of brightness on you and you would still be that. Is it not so?' He smiled, so beautifully.

I swung at his smile with everything I had left.”
― Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely

“Our job involves looking at things that people usually can't see.”
― Fuminori Nakamura, Evil and the Mask

“MacMillian steepled his fingers on the head of his cane. Anticipation rose in his chest. Lena and Cyrus Alan might have an advantage over him when it came to hunting ghosts, but this was where he excelled. This part of the game was all about patterns. He saw patterns. Always had.”
― Laura Oliva, A World Apart

“A woman could do a lot of crazy things for a pair of fine-looking dimples.”
― Amy Andrews, Limbo

“Tailing someone is like maintaining a relationship: you keep at it until they give you the slip, or until they confirm everything you suspect them of.”
― Mark Crutchfield, The Last Best Gift: Eye Witnesses to the Celebrity Sabbath Massacre

“What was she doing here? Private detectives were for insecure housewives, parents of troubled teens, bent old ladies who'd forgotten where they parked. She was none of the above. She was a sane, stable, capable adult. Yet here she was.

Desperate times, and all that.”
― Laura Oliva, Season Of The Witch

“Georgia gulped as the entire doorway suddenly filled with a man she didn't recognize. She'd been expecting Jesper MacMillian.

This was definitely not Jesper MacMillian.

This man had a rich black complexion. His head was bald- whether by nature or design, she couldn't be sure. Tiny studs flashed in his ears. He wore a beautiful black suit, painstakingly tailored to fit his massive shoulders. Dark tattoos curled just above his pressed white collar, and down below the edges of his cuffs.

His face was neither kind nor unkind. He studied her with vague disinterest, his eyes quiet and guarded beneath solid brows.”
― Laura Oliva, Season Of The Witch

“It wasn't every day a witch came to see him.

Darius deCompostela gave up on the paperwork he'd been trying to fill out and leaned back in his chair. Semantics. Technically, Georgia Clare hadn't come to see him. She'd come to see MacMillian. Most people did, often with barely a sideways glance in his direction. Usually, that chafed.

Not this time. For one thing, her reluctance to speak with him didn't seem to have anything to do with, well, him.

For another thing, he didn't do witches.”
― Laura Oliva, Season Of The Witch

“Ever since he could remember, he'd people-watched to pass time. When he was younger, everyone told him it was rude. He hadn't stopped; merely perfected his technique.”
― Laura Oliva, Season Of The Witch

“Some lines you just don't cross. Not in my business."

"Your business?" Georgia rolled her eyes. "You mean the private detective business? I wasn't aware you guys had such ironclad rules about making out with clients." She ignored the choking sound he made. "Seriously, have you even seen The Maltese Falcon?"

Darius' face heated. "This isn't some movie, Ms. Clare. You're not Mary Astor, and I'm sure as hell no Humphrey Bogart. Here in the real world, there are rules.”
― Laura Oliva, Season Of The Witch

“The leg was sent to Robin,' Strike reminded him. 'There's as much chance that she's seen this woman previously as I have. She's my partner. We work the same jobs.'

Robin glanced sideways at Strike. He had never before described her as his partner to somebody else, or not within Robin's hearing. He was not looking at her. Robin switched her attention back to Wardle. Apprehensive though she was, after hearing Strike put her on equal professional footing with himself she knew that, whatever she was about to see, she would not let herself, or him, down.”
― Robert Galbraith, Career of Evil

“CHANDIGARH: To check the illicit sex assurance tests being led in privately-run ultrasound focuses in Punjab, the state government has chosen to take assistance from private detective organizations.

The choice was taken by Health Minister Surjit Jayani at a meeting of the State Supervisory Board where significant choices were taken to get the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act or PNDT Act actualized viably in Punjab.

Tending to the meeting, the Minister said that all the Civil Surgeons have additionally been coordinated to watch out for the exercises of all the ultrasound focuses being privately keep running in the state and have been made a request to make prompt move against any infringement of the PNDT Act.

He likewise said that the state government had been intense with unscrupulous proprietors of these focuses, thus of which the male female sex proportion in the state has enhanced significantly.

The male - female sex proportion in 2011 was 846, while in 2001 it was 798.

The legislature additionally climbed the money honor to Rs. 1 lakh from Rs. 20000 to any individual giving data about any ultrasound focuses enjoying illicit sex identification in Punjab.”
― Detective

“Cheated spouses didn’t get their happily ever after, swindlers didn’t their comeuppance and missing people didn’t want to be found. His business dealt with dishonesty and infidelity, shysters and criminals, the crazies, the addicts and every loser in between, and Jacob knew it was taking a toll.”
― SDW Hamilton, Blood on the Broadcast

“Final Destination for any Information with Evidence....”
― Sanjeev Deswal