A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice and nothing else.

Love interest nearly always weakens a mystery because it introduces a type of suspense that is antagonistic to the detective's struggle to solve a problem.

They write them long because they can't write them short.

At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.

The boys with their feet on the desks know that the easiest murder case in the world to break is the one somebody tried to get very cute with; the one that really bothers them is the murder somebody only thought of two minutes before he pulled it off.

Some days I feel like playing it smooth. Some days I feel like playing it like a waffle iron.

It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.