

“When Booker first started working for her a few years ago and was living in their home, she saw him cower with apprehension every time she snapped a new order or made him redo tasks more than once, twice, or three times. Now, she knew that he understood her ways better, her need for order, cleanliness, and strict attention to details. She felt he was beginning to realize just what this fifty-seven-year-old Yankee schoolteacher expected of her thirteen-year-old house servant and pupil. He began to appreciate the books from which she taught him after his morning chores were completed. She gave him a few to start his own library and found he stored them in old dry goods boxes in his bedroom.”
― The Viola Factor
― The Viola Factor

“If the Agency could become a container for something neither Anna nor Mary had known before: a family. Now, without Caroline depending on her, Anna was alone. It did not taste good. There were voices inside: I am risking everything; I could lose everything.”
― The Alchemy Fire Murder
― The Alchemy Fire Murder

“Whither be the heart of Justice?
Lo, in stone, child. Lo, in stone.
Whither be the heart of Justice?
Lo, tis fast in stone.”
― Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master
Lo, in stone, child. Lo, in stone.
Whither be the heart of Justice?
Lo, tis fast in stone.”
― Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master

“He says it was tourists being careless, where I see a fiendishly clever murder attempt.”
“Mr. McCarthy, you’d better explain.”
“Patrick, please. You’ll be tempted to laugh. It was a banana skin.”
― Murder on Family Grounds
“Mr. McCarthy, you’d better explain.”
“Patrick, please. You’ll be tempted to laugh. It was a banana skin.”
― Murder on Family Grounds

“Well, the baby can teach us. What you’ve undertaken here in Cutter Gap in your schoolroom isn’t a state of perfection to be arrived at all of a sudden. It’s a walk, and a walk isn’t static but ever-changing. We Friends say that all discouragement is from an evil source and can only end in more evil. Wallowing in self-condemnation or feeling sorry for yourself is worse than falling on your face in the first place. So—thee fell into a temper! So Thee is human. Thank God for thy humanness.”
― Christy
― Christy
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