To trust someone is to take the greatest risk of all. (180)

40 Words for Sorrow is brilliant-one of the finest crime novels I've ever read. Giles Blunt writes with uncommon grace, style and compassion and he plots like a demon. This book has it all-unforgettable characters, beautiful language, throat-constricting suspense.

Optimism is denial for chumps with no life experience". "What's pessimism?" I said. "Religion without God.

Government is like junior high. Your status depends upon whom you're able to persecute.

Time spent researching varies from book to book. Some novels require months, even years of research, others very little. I try to do most of my research before I begin but inevitably questions emerge during the writing.

Life is like a prism. What you see depends on how you turn the glass.

His experience and training should have taught him that families are the cauldrons in which violence is brewed. (144)