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a634871
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The fierce overhead strip lighting buzzed like the memory of a head injury.
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Christopher Fowler |
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afc3225
|
If any lesson from war is to be learned, John, it must be always to prepare for the unexpected and face the unthinkable.
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Christopher Fowler |
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4a1adac
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Tremble had a secret. Underneath his dreary exterior, he was quite interesting. When his penchant for investigating the area's past was indulged, a light shown in his eyes and he became almost passionate, which is why his wife kept a stack of local history books on her bedside table.
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dreary-exterior
stack-of-local-history-books
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Christopher Fowler |
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343c92e
|
I don't think you should make so many off-colour jokes about him becoming a cuckold. You're only getting away with it because he doesn't know what it means.' 'That's the beauty of the English language. One can wrap insults inside elegance, like popping anchovies into pastry.
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Christopher Fowler |
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b5879e1
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There are always regrets, of course. But you have to try and make a difference without hurting anyone along the way, so that you can reach a final state of grace without shame.
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Christopher Fowler |
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139d6fc
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Whenever the cadaverous Home Office security supervisor became involved in their affairs, babies cried, women cowered, innocence was punished and blame was wrongly apportioned.
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Christopher Fowler |
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909ced8
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I do not mind lying but I hate inaccuracy
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Christopher Fowler |
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3c08ee7
|
My life was never intended to be one long slow descent into respectability.
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Christopher Fowler |
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df9e1cc
|
Don't talk to me about sense. i've been alive for forty-seven years and I have absolutely no understanding of human nature whatsoever. I might as well be living with a completely different species, giant squids or perhaps some kind of insect colony.
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Christopher Fowler |
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a444cbe
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The gap between rich and poor was not just one of wealth but of accountability.
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Christopher Fowler |
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c8fac9f
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How could you begin to explain London? A city once the color of tobacco and carrots, now chalky stone and angled steel, but vivid chimney pots can still be glimpsed between slivers of rain-specked glass. Nine billion pounds' worth of Christmas bonuses have just been spent in the city's square mile.
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Christopher Fowler |
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b0f3f33
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Plastic carrier bags floated around the traffic lights at the end of the Strand like predatory jellyfish.
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Christopher Fowler |
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9b0af0d
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Artifice and reality, he thought, examining the photographs and drawings, they combine more easily than we realise. TV shows pretend to offer realism but they hide as much as they show. Fiction, on the other hand, can contain fundamental human truths. And sometimes it's possible to step back and forth between these two worlds just by opening the correct door, by finding the key that will unlock mysteries. So much of London is masked; unspok..
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Christopher Fowler |
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2d6d91a
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In 1939, London was the largest city in the world.
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Christopher Fowler |
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52e1eb5
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over four thousand people had been killed in blackout accidents during the first few months of the war.
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Christopher Fowler |
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5dc9a95
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eggs were
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Christopher Fowler |
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14d14c6
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trouser turn-up
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Christopher Fowler |
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2f77093
|
Yes, he wanted to do the right thing, but perhaps this time the right thing was something different.
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something-different
right-thing
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Christopher Fowler |
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82251be
|
Like all dancers, so much of her body fat had been converted to muscle that she needed to eat regularly.
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Christopher Fowler |
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c280b11
|
I wouldn't like to find out my GP was messing about with black magic. It would be like discovering that your bank manager was also a stand-up comic.
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black-magic
stand-up-comic
doctor
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Christopher Fowler |
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9b32cc8
|
Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. It makes people think you're dead.
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loss
humour
death
humor
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Christopher Fowler |
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c31ec96
|
It is said that the hallmark of a gentleman is that he is only ever rude intentionally. Arthur Bryant was no gentleman. His rudeness came from an inability to cloak his opinions in even the most cursory civility. He believed in good manners at the meal table and bad manners almost everywhere else.
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Christopher Fowler |
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b54a478
|
The fear of poverty is never far away from the working-class mind, and all the plasma TVs, PlayStations and iPhones are just talismans warding off that darkness.
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Christopher Fowler |
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c68c780
|
What is the point in consensual opinion?" Bryant asked, exasperated. "If you only discuss matters of interest with like-minded individuals you never learn anything new. Why would I want a peer group on Twitter? They're just going to agree with me."
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Christopher Fowler |
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f780dc7
|
May walked slowly around the body, studying it. Putrefaction had been halted in its advance, but the corpse's skin had turned green and black, producing an acrid odour. He found it hard to imagine that this man had recently been walking around, eating in restaurants, watching TV. He was someone's lover, someone's son, but there was almost nothing human left. Without a head his trunk bore an unsettling similarity to something you would find ..
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Christopher Fowler |
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36ad8c3
|
You can't pour a pint of bitter into a cocktail glass.
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Christopher Fowler |
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0c364a9
|
susurrant
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Christopher Fowler |
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9c52762
|
The clouds of night opened like ink blossoming in water.
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historical
london
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Christopher Fowler |
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c05ce56
|
Life is a very beautiful dream, he thought. I'm so glad I chose not to wake up from it just yet.
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life
thankful
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Christopher Fowler |
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8886b13
|
His new life required no great change in the patterns of his behaviour. It was merely an adjustment. He had always known how to make himself invisible.
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change
life
choices-in-life
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Christopher Fowler |
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dd9efb3
|
His unique skill had always been to absorb the talents and knowledge of others, use what he needed and discard the rest. He never allowed anyone to get to close. He kept the world at arm's length in order to look down on it.
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talents
skill
uniqueness
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Christopher Fowler |
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edd6ff7
|
The public house is virtually the country's last unassailable place, now that so many churches lock their doors. For hundreds of years it has occupied a unique position in our culture. What's the one thing every pub is supposed to have?' 'I don't know.' Land scratched at his chin. 'At least two brands of bad lager?' 'A welcoming hearth created by centuries of tradition. Wasn't it Hilaire Belloc who once said "When you have lost your inns dr..
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Christopher Fowler |
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fa0565f
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There can be no supernatural elements, no secret passages, no imaginary poisons, no Chinamen, no twins, no mystical intuitive powers, and the detective himself can't have done it. To them I would add several further moratoria: no more alcoholic policemen with dead wives, no autistic idiot-savant crime-scene specialists, no oppressed female detectives derided by sexist colleagues, no overweight computer nerds in dimly lit rooms, no erudite k..
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Christopher Fowler |
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bb99068
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The young detective possessed that peculiar ability more common to elderly men, which produces negative energy around electrical equipment, turning even the most basic appliances into weapons of destruction.
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Christopher Fowler |
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ff3f503
|
I suppose the worst thing isn't that there might be nothing after death, but that there might be nothing before it.
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life
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Christopher Fowler |
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635b311
|
Three deaths--by snakebite, by explosion, by razor. What next? Death by hot air balloon? Cannon? Trident?
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Christopher Fowler |
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63b922a
|
Bryant wanted to be outside digging up corpses and chasing (as much as his bad leg would allow) unscrupulous but fiendishly brilliant villains through the back alleys of the city. Instead he was meeting a clerk about forgotten bits of paperwork.
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forgotten-bits-of-paperwork
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Christopher Fowler |
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abe7397
|
They'll be working through until it's done, so Janice has gone to KFC for a bargain bucket. They're dining al desko.
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Christopher Fowler |
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748437f
|
Kogda vstretish' svoiu edinstvennuiu liubov', vse drugie - prosto illiuziia.
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Christopher Fowler |
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2f237ad
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He's got the charm of a rectal probe, and no social skills to speak of, so nobody wants to go for a drink with him. Let's face it, dogs have more to look forward to in later life--at least they can go to the park and roll in shit.
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Christopher Fowler |
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4b9fbfe
|
Gathered together in this fashion, Jerry could see that the Whitstables possessed certain common physical characteristics, including wayward teeth, large earlobes, and the sort of stress-related blotchiness usually found in cornered jellyfish.
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Christopher Fowler |
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0f97c78
|
It's hardly a wonder that they call London the most elusive city in the world. Its character changes from one street to the next. There's no rhyme or reason, no pattern to the place. You could take six people at random from the centre of town, ask them to write down all the places they visit regularly and find that their circles of movement don't overlap at more than one or two points. Each of them would see a different city.
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Christopher Fowler |
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e7ddc30
|
Do you want me to come to the hospital? she offered." Bryant's blue eyes widened. "Good Lord, no, why would you want to do that? I'll take a paperback. Reading a book is the finest way of attaining inner peace."
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Christopher Fowler |
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b5c6bdf
|
We're the police, we don't thump people.
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Christopher Fowler |