Tense Quotes

“The Alchemy Scroll works on the heart,” he said. “It plants words as I plant stones. The Scroll-maker is my brother. He paints the mysteries of God while I, guided by the Mother, built the new Hall as a door to heaven,” he said.”
― Susan Rowland, The Alchemy Fire Murder

“Mary stared at the dreamlike happenings on the page. Human figures faced each other; the man’s head was a golden ball with rays reaching up to huge stars and out to the distant mountains; the woman’s silver head was sickle-shaped and surrounded by birds like eagles with white beaks. Some of the black letters glowed because they had tips like tiny flames.”
― Susan Rowland, The Alchemy Fire Murder

“We’re so very sorry about this latest murder. Ignore Simon’s levity.”
― Susan Rowland, Murder on Family Grounds

“  Mary fought a savage impulse to slam the door on the couple. But they were too interesting to ignore in the circumstances of the murder. She caught sight of Richard spitting out a mouthful of hair.”
― Susan Rowland, Murder on Family Grounds

“Josh's heart soared as he got a taste of the power and endurance in his elk body.”
― Lisa Kaniut Cobb, Down in the Valley

“Mary tried to look reassuring. “It’s a house party, he said,” she directed at the Falconers, “Sir Viktor’s holding a house party for the convenience of the police. It’s like an old-fashioned mystery novel.”
― Susan Rowland, Murder on Family Grounds

“Legends were mostly bullshit, even his own, but they sometimes could be useful.”
― William Kely McClung, Black Fire

“Victor's tortured eyes blazed down at her, and for a moment she was afraid.  Then he leaned down and dissolved into tears in the arms of Celena who was only six.”
― Barbara Sontheimer, Victor's Blessing

“Nearing the Riefler's big red brick house he could see the yellow light spill out on the galerie Yvonne had insisted her German husband wrap around the house.  There was a tightening in Victor's chest.  It happened to him whenever he got close to the Riefler's house, or church on Sunday- anytime he thought he might catch a glimpse of Celena.”
― Barbara Sontheimer, Victor's Blessing

“I'm afraid!" She cried breaking free from his embrace.
But this time, he refused to let her go.  "No, no, no, you're not afraid of me!  What am I...a foot and half taller than you and out weigh you by 130 pounds, how could you possibly be afraid of me!" He laughed.”
― Barbara Sontheimer, Victor's Blessing

“There’s no point in fighting me on this. Wherever you go, one, or both of us will be with you. Period. Get used to it. Short of actually sleeping on your doorstep, I’m going to follow you everywhere. I’m going to be so close that if you turn your head for a breath I’ll be there to give you mouth-to-mouth. So, you may as well just give in and take me with you. It’ll save us both a lot of time and frustration.”
― Lotchie Burton, Gabriel's Fire

“Life was better than he expected with his new Italian family inheritance, and it felt good to take a deep breath without fear of someone attacking him or his family.”
― Carolyn M. Bowen, Legacy of Shadows: An International Crime Thriller

“If he could blush through his fur, he would have.”
― Lisa Kaniut Cobb, Down in the Valley

“Oh, so now I'm getting in trouble for things I didn't tell anyone I didn't know?”
― Lisa Kaniut Cobb, Down in the Valley

“The telegram was sealed – an old-fashioned touch, I thought, but then I’d never had a telegram before. I took my time opening it. I said nothing.”
― Michael Wyndham Thomas, The Erkeley Shadows

“With Finn, Vic, and Maeve shooting darts at him, Buster thought better of bellyaching and took off down the street with Finn.”
― A.G. Russo, The Cases Nobody Wanted

“She knew how people slipped through cracks—not all at once, but in layers.”
― D.L. Maddox, The Dog Walker: The Prequel

“It was the tone of a woman who wrapped needles in silk.”
― D.L. Maddox, The Dog Walker: The Prequel

“t felt like stepping into a spa, or a dream, or a memory she hadn’t known she missed.”
― D.L. Maddox, The Dog Walker: The Prequel

“Her name wasn’t Jane. Not legally. But she wore it now like a uniform: plain, practical, invisible.”
― D.L. Maddox, The Dog Walker: The Prequel

“Miranda's reward to herself, after a chief investigator dubbed her "the Eloise of four-year-old detectives," was to stretch her age.  She’d now taken to informing people that she was four- and-a-half-and-three-quarters. She didn't seem to grasp the concept of almost-five.”
― Theasa Tuohy, Mademoiselle le Sleuth

“It was time to start thinking of darker things.”
― William Kely McClung, Black Fire

“The caption reads, “Emperor Andon-Roon enjoys a surge in popularity after brokering a peace deal with Caderyn after twelve cycles of war.” For some reason this evokes strong emotions in her—deep sorrow, anger—and she stares at the screen transfixed, as if straining to find herself in the story.”
― Stephen Alder, Deehabta’s Song

“Alexandra Malkovic woke out of the nightmare that had bedevilled her sleep for days. She sat up, shivering, her heart thumping. For a few seconds she could not recognise her surroundings, then the outlines of the sparse furnishings of the room solidified in the faint moonlight coming through a gap in the curtains. This was her room in the house they had commandeered in Bihac, the city Tito’s Partisans had captured after a bitter battle a few weeks before Christmas – a battle in which she had played an important part. This was safety, an end to the long weeks on the march, sleeping on the hard ground, alert always to the sound of movement in the surrounding forest and the distant howling of wolves. So why could she not sleep in peace?”
― Holly Green, A Call to Home

“Saskia.” A hand covered hers.
Saskia frowned. It was irritating enough that she only had one hand to work with. She didn’t need to have the movement of that one impeded as well. “I’m in the middle of – Oh! Tania! What – I thought you were in Canberra.”
“I was yesterday. I returned this morning.”
“Yesterday?” Saskia turned from staring at Tania to staring at her computer and the table. A half-empty mug of something sat next to a partly eaten sandwich and a mostly empty glass of water. “Oh,” she sat back in her chair. “I do this sometimes. I get caught up in things.”
Her gaze fell on the lines and boxes on the monitor’s screen. She sat forward, her surroundings disappearing from her awareness again. “Tania, I think I’m close to figuring it out.”
Tania’s hand, still on Saskia’s, squeezed gently. “Good. But now you need to take a rest.”
“No. I can finish this. I’m on a roll.”
“Yes. You can roll again later.”
“Look! I think I’ve almost worked it out.” She tugged her hand from under Tania’s and pointed to her computer screen, which showed a bank statement. “Look at these transactions. I can match them to –”
Tania peered at the screen. “Whose statement is that?”
― Miriam Verbeek, The Forest: A thrilling international crime novel

“Counselor Bingham and I looked inside, then looked at each other. He counted. Then I counted. There were thirteen mobile phones in the box, two of them were Android. The rest were all iPhones.”
― Behcet Kaya, Uncanny Alliance

“Flipping through, the first thing she came across was a restaurant menu featuring animals and rodents in a reference to the starvation of residents during the Siege of Paris of 1870-71 − horse soup, dog cutlets, ragout of cat, roast ostrich, fricassee of rats and mice? The French and their obsession with food presentation.”
― Theasa Tuohy, Mademoiselle le Sleuth

“Swamp.”
“Yeah, Hiker?”
“What’s bothering you besides this new case?”
I looked at him. How did he know? My recollections of my days at the naval academy came flooding back.
“Bothering me?”
“Yeah. Don’t make me repeat myself.”
― Behcet Kaya, Uncanny Alliance

“This was simply the beginning of a long nightmare. I wondered how I’d get through the night. Frankly, I was concerned about making it through the next five minutes. ”
― Steven Decker, INNOCENT AGAIN: A LEGAL THRILLER

“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