If poisons were ponies, I'd put my money on cyanide.

I'm at that age where I watch such things with two minds, one that cackles at these capers and another that never gets much beyond a rather jaded and self-conscious smile, like the Mona Lisa.

To be most effective, flattery is always best applied with a trowel.

Not very good with death? Father was a military man, and military men lived with death; lived for death; lived on death. To a professional soldier, oddly enough, death was life.

I had thought for years, probably 30 or 40 years, that it would be a lot of fun to try my hand at a classic English mystery novel... I love that form very much because the reader is so familiar with all of the types of characters that are in there that they already identify with the book.

Compared with my life Cinderella was a spoiled brat.

Although it is pleasant to think about poison at any season, there is something special about Christmas, and I found myself grinning.