Crime Thriller Quotes

“Your little buddy just gave me the greatest
   Christmas gift I've ever gotten.”
― Kyle Keyes, Under the Bus

“Donde, he offered a piece of candy to a little
   boy.”
― Kyle Keyes, Under the Bus

“We're selling vacuum cleaners.”
― Kyle Keyes, Under the Bus

“I can smack a ball-bearing between your abusive fiancé’s eyes before his wingtips hit the sidewalk.”
― M.S.M. Barkawitz

“Yet, all armor—from a lobster’s shell to a Navy SEAL’s
flak jacket—ultimately reveals the same truth. All armor highlights
vulnerability. It trumpets the fact that below that hard exterior lies
an interior that is soft, fragile, and in need of protection.”
― J.K. Franko, Eye for Eye

“Recollections of a loved one often trigger feelings of
nostalgia. But, sometimes, the loss is just too raw. The pain too
bitter. And recollection triggers nothing but heartache and despair.
A pain that burns the soul.”
― J.K. Franko, Eye for Eye

“Darling,’ she said. ‘Darling, darling, Jack…,’ she repeated. It had an echo chamber quality. I felt dizzy and the room began turning. I grabbed the edge of the table thinking I needed to hold on to something. It felt like I was being thrown out of a swing. Then, everything went black.”
― Behcet Kaya, Treacherous Estate

“The heater spits a chorus of steam, his bones no longer brittle and cold. The ice man melted, a new form waiting to emerge once all the crystals get shaken away.”
― Lee Matthew Goldberg, The Ancestor

“A detective in love with a breathtakingly beautiful stripper, who also is a major criminal: “Among her coterie of supplicants was Joe Fucci, a senior detective on the Laughlin force. Joe regarded himself as handsome, and he was. If he went without shaving for three days, a John Deere was required to cut through the growth. No electric razor created by man stood a chance in that tangle of growth.”
― John M. Vermillion, Pack's Posse

“There should be multiple yous," Grayson says, outlined by the moonlight, a blue phantasm. "So you can help solve all of our problems. So you can help solve the world's problems.”
― Lee Matthew Goldberg, The Ancestor

“In contrast, Anderson was trying hard not to show his brimful-teary eyes. He felt his face heating. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his handkerchief and blew his nose. At the same time, anger began to grow in the pit of his stomach.”
― Behcet Kaya, Murder on the Naval Base

“So why not a woman, too—if I was dating her?”
― M S M Barkawitz, Feeling Lucky

“Some characters and situations are fictitious. Others are only too real.”
― M S M Barkawitz, Feeling Lucky

“From The Other Side, Uncle Roscoe was still exercising his Second Amendment rights. Protecting me from my stalker? Or was his gun going to get me killed?”
― M S M Barkawitz, Feeling Lucky

“The events unfolded with such speed and efficiency that Anderson found himself in a state of shock. His anger with Bevin and McPhearson was quickly replaced with a sense of impending doom. An unbelievable stream of events had taken place since his training exercises in the Pacific.”
― Behcet Kaya, Murder on the Naval Base

“But I couldn’t help thinking—Who the hell eats bats? Probably nothing.”
― M S M Barkawitz, Feeling Lucky

“I sat in my brown-belted gi at the painted metal table outside of Einstein’s and Peet’s with Mr. Ho, my Kenpo Karate instructor in his black-belted gi, and my bronze, canine psychologist, wearing his/her Lacoste eyeglasses.”
― M S M Barkawitz, Feeling Lucky

“I licked my lips where I could still taste their glove's fabric. Bitter leather and sweat. The taste of being alive.”
― Lee Matthew Goldberg, Stalker Stalked

“Under fire, trying to get a fugitive out of Honduras: “Their pilot hopped out of the cockpit to allow them entry room. Pack sent Keto [Belgian Malinois K-9] up first. Then he dragged Triandos up. The prisoner’s head pinged off every step on the way up. His head struck the bulkhead as Pack flung his bulk into the cabin. ‘I know there’s a protocol,’ Pack thought, ‘but whoever wrote it was never in this situation.”
― John M. Vermillion, Pack's Posse

“Sometimes abiding by the strictest rules is folly. Give me flexibility, imagination, and audacity over caution any day.”
― John M. Vermillion, Pack's Posse

“I don’t have an impressive life master plan. I often don’t know where I’m going fifteen minutes from now. I just try to understand right from wrong, and to follow what my mother, pastors, and coaches taught me.”
― John M. Vermillion, Pack's Posse

“I focus on doing my duty within the bounds of the US Constitution and my conscience. As long as I’m doing my job, I don’t worry about much else.”
― John M. Vermillion, Pack's Posse

“With the support of a flesh-and-blood weapon named Major, a wondrous Belgian Mal named Keto, and a retired Judge named Shandy, Pack ripped apart the scandalous enterprise. That episode had culminated in the modern equivalent of the Gunfight at the OK Corral.”
― John M. Vermillion, Pack's Posse

“Is Cade a criminal, a sinner, or a biblical purveyor of justice? Your answer is your own. I cannot say whether or not you made the correct choice.”
― John M. Vermillion, Awful Reckoning: A Cade Chase and Simon Pack Novel

“He wasn’t a reader of anything serious, but he had set himself the task of reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, after which he entertained the idea of committing himself to a stay on the subcontinent in a hermitage to learn about Indian religions. He could find a yogi to give him the spiritual insights he sought. That would get him away from his boring wife and kids for a year at least, and who knew, maybe he could finagle a way never to come back.”
― John M. Vermillion, Awful Reckoning: A Cade Chase and Simon Pack Novel

“Jerry Laws, former smokejumper and now high school district superintendent: “We’re making changes in this district. Teachers teaching, not proselytizing, preparing students for life. No social promotions. Good order in every classroom. They must earn what they seek.”
― John M. Vermillion, Pack's Posse

“Then she saw the animal, a German Shepherd, from the looks of him at this remove. He probably belonged on one of the farms out here, where owners don’t feel obligated to pen or chain their animals. Suddenly she saw he was coming without surcease directly toward her. He was still a long way off, but she was now terrified.”
― John M. Vermillion, Awful Reckoning: A Cade Chase and Simon Pack Novel

“He said to the big fellow with the taffy hair, “Before we finish off this operation, I need to hit you up with some ideas.” At that moment, Cade noticed how physically similar Preston was to Merlin Olsen, the NFL great, actor, and all-round good man. He marveled at Preston, the man who couldn’t be happier, as he twirled his head from monitor to monitor, adjusting joysticks and pressing buttons in this claustrophobic workspace.”
― John M. Vermillion, Awful Reckoning: A Cade Chase and Simon Pack Novel

“Pack had decided how he could help. But he could not fully explain himself to Cade. No way. There are problems, and there are big problems. This was a big problem. Big because it was risky, and big because Pack now confronted a moral dilemma. Were he not to assist Cade, there was a good chance the young woman might die, or be subjected to antifa brutality.”
― John M. Vermillion, Awful Reckoning: A Cade Chase and Simon Pack Novel

“Julie was cold and miserable. The wind whipped up, soughing through the grasses, making mournful music. Now the fog had thickened from broth to gruel between her and the little-traveled farm road.”
― John M. Vermillion, Awful Reckoning: A Cade Chase and Simon Pack Novel