You are not writing properly unless someone is bleeding, probably you.

The act of shopping for what he needed, and of setting up the bare necessities for himself, had lulled Strike back into the familiar soldierly state of doing what needed to be done, without question or complaint.

There are always loose ends in real life.

Women liked Strike—she had come to realize that over the months they had worked together. She had not understood the appeal when she had started working for him. He was so very different from Matthew.

The whole world's writing novels, but nobody's reading them.

A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.