“I was concerned about her love, because Lydia smelled so strongly of blood and cervelat.”

“Husband! she yells, I want to have sex! and gets out of the shower.”

“It is the first time my cell has ever dialed 911. By the time the ambulance comes a crowd has gathered.”

“That night he sleeps well, figuring if the police aren’t there by 12 a.m. they’re not coming at all.”

“‘I’m in the elevator with one other person,’ she said. One other person! As if Jonathan Franzen were just one other person!”

“Alyoshka was small, gaunt, and lop-eared (they stuck out like wings), with a big nose. The kids teased: ‘Alyoshka’s got a nose like a misshapen potato.’”

“He says he’s forgotten, but there’s venom in his eyes, thought Chervyakov, looking at the general with suspicion.”

“A teenager’s response to advertising, Lauren had found, has everything to do with how she thinks of herself.”

“Ain’t much of a job. You forget, I wasn’t hired by no church. The First Church of the Eternal Rapture is my own creation. I don’t receive no salary. I live on donations.”

“Sleuthing involved a lot of inter-personal contact, apparently, and it was making me uncomfortable. From now on, I decided, I would make my own coffee.”

“They cannot see the road or anything around them. It is as if they are traveling in a capsule through space. Hurtling on a mission into some vast unknown.”

“I ignore her, keep chomping dots. Surprisingly, I’m having a great game.”

“God,” Satan said, “How will you move your creation over the Deep?”

“She wore a silk sari, just like Ma, but it was cream-white, like Kwality’s Ice Cream.”

“The man listened to her zipper going down. And then he heard her pee. He turned around and grinned in the dark. ‘You did it,’ he said.”

“There are no kids in the lot at recess, just a few more cops milling around and taking notes. Everyone’s either kidnapped by Roger or kept home by terrified parents.”

“Deaths may be unexpected or peaceful or following lengthy illnesses and battles of the courageous sort. Deaths may be natural or tragic and senseless.”

“Even though she knew I probably shouldn’t have been climbing up on the roof at such a young age, she understood that this was my way of dealing with the grief, and that if she wanted to be left alone she’d better just go ahead and leave me alone as well.”

“Sometimes, after the cash was counted and the restaurant was closed, we would sit on the hood of her car and smoke for a while. “This fucking job,” Diana would say, shaking her head. I would nod, but I didn’t agree. I loved the work.”

“They rode uphill, a slight incline amidst sparse, crooked lamp posts, the road soft with dust—the ascent seemed infinite.”