"The detective story (perhaps I had better call it that, since the English formula still dominates the trade) has to find its public by a slow process of distillation" (The Simple Art of Murder, p. 4).

"The story is this man's adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. He has a range of awareness that startles you, but it belongs to him by right, because it belongs to the world he lives in" (The Simple Art of Murder, p. 19).

"He was lying back in a padded blue office chair. A cigar had gone out in a tray with a bronze greyhound on its rim. His left hand dangled beside the chair and his right hand held a gun loosely on the desk top" (Spanish Blood, p. 21).

"Nothing changed in McKim's face. Not...