Murder, She Said Read online

The Moving Finger

  ‘I always find it prudent to suspect everyone just a little. What I say is, you really never know, do you?’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘The common-sense explanation. I’ve found, you know, that that is so often right.’

  Sleeping Murder

  ‘Money … is a very powerful motive.’

  The Body in the Library

  ‘You say crime goes unpunished; but does it? Unpunished by the law perhaps; but cause and effect works outside the law. To say that every crime brings its own punishment is by way of being a platitude, and yet in my opinion nothing can be truer.’

  ‘The Four Suspects’

  ‘From what I have heard and read, a man who does a wicked crime like this and gets away with it the first time, is, alas, encouraged. He thinks it’s easy, he thinks he’s clever. And so he repeats it.’

  A Caribbean Mystery

  ‘It is always the obvious person who has done the crime.’

  The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

  ‘There are many ways we prefer to look at things. But one must actually take facts as they are, must one not?’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘Nemesis is long delayed sometimes, but it comes in the end.’

  Nemesis

  ‘It’s always interesting when one doesn’t see … If you don’t see what a thing means you must be looking at it the wrong way round, unless of course you haven’t got full information.’

  The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

  ‘One must provide an explanation for everything. Each thing has got to be explained away satisfactorily. If you have a theory that fits every fact – well, then, it must be the right one.’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘It’s not a question of what people have said. It’s really a question of conjuring tricks.’

  They Do It with Mirrors

  ‘One does need so much tact when dealing with the young.’

  A Caribbean Mystery

  ‘You wouldn’t like my opinion, dear. Young people never do, I notice. It is better to say nothing.’

  ‘Ingots of Gold’

  ‘Children feel things, you know … They feel things more than the people around them ever imagine. The sense of hurt, of being rejected, of not belonging. It’s a thing that you don’t get over, just because of advantages.’

  The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

  ‘I remember a saying of my Great Aunt Fanny’s. I was sixteen at the time and thought it particularly foolish … She used to say: “The young people think the old people are fools; but the old people know the young people are fools.”’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘If a young man had made up his mind to the great wickedness of taking a fellow creature’s life, he would not appear distraught about it afterwards. It would be a premeditated and cold-blooded action.’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘A young girl needs her mother’s knowledge of the world and experience.’

  A Caribbean Mystery

  ‘Life is more worth living, more full of interest when you are likely to lose it. It shouldn’t be, perhaps, but it is. When you’re young and strong and healthy, and life stretches ahead of you, living isn’t really important at all … But old people know how valuable life is and how interesting.’

  A Caribbean Mystery

  ‘Young men are so hot-headed and often prone to believe the worst.’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘None of these young people ever stop to think. They really don’t examine the facts. Surely the whole crux of the matter is this: How often is tittle tattle, as you call it, true! And I think if, as I say, they really examined the facts they would find that it was true nine times out of ten!’

  ‘A Christmas Tragedy’

  ‘Old people can be rather a nuisance, my dear. Newly married couples should be left to themselves.’

  Sleeping Murder

  ‘Clever young men know so little of life.’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘Murders can happen anywhere … and do.’

  The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

  ‘Murderers always find it difficult to keep things simple. They can’t keep themselves from elaborating.’

  A Caribbean Mystery

  ‘To commit a successful murder must be very much like bringing off a conjuring trick.’

  The Moving Finger

  ‘Many murderers have been delightful and pleasant men and people have been astonished. They are what I call the respectable killers. The ones who would commit murder for entirely utilitarian motives.’

  Nemesis

  ‘To commit a murder, I think you need bravery – or perhaps, more often, just conceit.’

  They Do It with Mirrors

  ‘Murders so often are quite simple – with an obvious rather sordid motive.’

  4:50 from Paddington

  ‘Murder – the wish to do murder – is something quite different. It – how shall I say? – it defies God.’

  At Bertram’s Hotel

  ‘One is always inclined to guess – and guessing would be very wrong when it is a question of anything as serious as murder. All one can do is to observe the people concerned – or who might have been concerned – and see of whom they remind you.’

  4:50 from Paddington

  ‘When anyone has committed one murder, they don’t shrink from another, do they? Nor even from a third.’

  The Body in the Library

  ‘I dare say it has nothing to do with the murder. But it is a Peculiar Thing. And just at present we all feel we must take notice of Peculiar Things.’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘Murder isn’t a game.’

  A Murder is Announced

  ‘The one thing I do know about murderers is that they can never let well alone. Or perhaps one should say – ill alone.’

  4:50 from Paddington

  ‘If they tried once, they’ll try again. If you’ve made up your mind to murder someone you don’t stop because the first time it didn’t come off. Especially if you’re not suspected.’

  A Murder is Announced

  ‘I’m very ordinary. An ordinary rather scatty old lady. And that of course is very good camouflage.’

  Nemesis

  ‘Any little secret is quite safe with me.’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘When one thinks of things just before going to sleep, quite often ideas come.’

  Nemesis

  ‘I am a noticing kind of person.’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘If I get stories told to me rather often, I don’t really mind hearing them again because I’ve usually forgotten them.’

  A Caribbean Mystery

  ‘If you expect me to feel sympathy, regret, urge an unhappy childhood, blame bad environment; if you expect me to weep over him, this young murderer of yours, I do not feel inclined to do so. I do not like evil beings who do evil things.’

  Nemesis

  ‘I’ve never been an advocate of teetotalism. A little strong drink is always advisable on the premises in case there is a shock or an accident. Invaluable at such times. Or, of course, if a gentleman should arrive suddenly.’

  The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

  ‘There’s no point in saving at my age.’

  Nemesis

  ‘I’m afraid I am rather romantic. Because I am an old maid, perhaps.’

  4:50 from Paddington

  ‘One is alone when the last one who remembers is gone.’

  A Murder is Announced

  ‘My nephew Raymond tells me (in fun, of course and quite affectionately) that I have a mind like a sink. He says that most Victorians have. All I can say is that the Victorians knew a good deal about human nature.’

  The Body in the Library

  ‘My hobby is – and always has been – Human Nature.’

 
The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘It is true, of course, that I have lived what is called a very uneventful life, but I have had a lot of experiences in solving different little problems that have arisen. Some of them have been really quite ingenious, but it would be no good telling them to you, because they are about such unimportant things that you would not be interested.’

  ‘The Thumb Mark of St Peter’

  ‘I always believe the worst. What is so sad is that one is usually justified in doing so.’

  A Pocket Full of Rye

  ‘I look every minute of my age.’

  They Do It with Mirrors

  ‘I don’t know why you should assume that I think of murder all the time.’

  The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

  ‘I have no gifts – no gifts at all – except perhaps a certain knowledge of human nature. People, I find, are apt to be far too trustful. I’m afraid that I have a tendency always to believe the worst. Not a nice trait. But so often justified by subsequent events.’

  A Murder is Announced

  ‘I take an interest in everything.’

  The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

  ‘When I am in really bad trouble I always say a little prayer to myself – anywhere, when I am walking along the street, or at a bazaar. And I always get an answer.’

  ‘The Thumb Mark of St Peter’

  ‘So many people seem to me not to be either bad nor good but, simply, you know, very silly.’

  ‘The Tuesday Night Club’

  ‘People’s memories are very short – a lucky thing, I always think.’

  ‘The Thumb Mark of St Peter’

  ‘The most nervous people are far more brave than one really thinks they are.’

  ‘The Blue Geranium’

  ‘A lot of people are stupid. And stupid people get found out, whatever they do. But there are quite a number of people who aren’t stupid, and one shudders to think of what they might accomplish unless they had very strongly rooted principles.’

  ‘The Four Suspects’

  ‘There’s such a thing as a secret inside a secret.’

  ‘Strange Jest’

  ‘Everybody is very much alike, really. But fortunately, perhaps, they don’t realise it.’

  ‘The Thumb Mark of St Peter’

  ‘There is nothing you can tell me about people’s minds that would astonish or surprise me.’

  ‘The Thumb Mark of St Peter’

  ‘Most people – and I don’t exclude policemen – are far too trusting for this wicked world. They believe what is told them. I never do. I’m afraid I always like to prove a thing for myself.’

  The Body in the Library

  ‘The trouble is … that people are greedy. Some people. That’s so often, you know, how things start. You don’t start with murder, with wanting to do murder, or even thinking of it. You just start by being greedy, by wanting more than you’re going to have.’

  4:50 from Paddington

  ‘It’s just perseverance, isn’t it, that leads to things.’

  Nemesis

  ‘Observing human nature for as long as I have done, one gets not to expect very much from it. I dare say the idle tittle-tattle is very wrong and unkind, but it is so often true, isn’t it?’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘People with a grudge against the world are always dangerous. They seem to think life owes them something.’

  A Murder is Announced

  ‘So many people are a little queer, aren’t they? – in fact most people are when you know them well. And normal people do such astonishing things sometimes, and abnormal people are sometimes so very sane and ordinary.’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘Weak and kindly people are often very treacherous. And if they’ve got a grudge against life it saps the little moral strength that they may possess.’

  A Murder is Announced

  ‘People are highly credulous … they believe what they are told … We’re all inclined to do that.’

  A Caribbean Mystery

  ‘Whenever there is a question of gain, one has to be very suspicious. The great thing is to avoid having in any way a trustful mind.’

  A Pocket Full of Rye

  ‘Human beings are so much more vulnerable and sensitive than anyone thinks.’

  The Body in the Library

  ‘Most people … have a sense of protection. They realise when it’s unwise to say or do something because of the person or persons who are taking in what you say, and because of the kind of character that those people have.’

  The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

  ‘The depravity of human nature is unbelievable.’

  ‘Strange Jest’

  ‘It really is very dangerous to believe people. I never have for years.’

  Sleeping Murder

  ‘Cleverness isn’t everything.’

  A Murder is Announced

  ‘Life is really a One Way Street, isn’t it?’

  At Bertram’s Hotel

  ‘Human nature is much the same in a village as everywhere, only one has opportunities and leisure for seeing it at closer quarters.’

  ‘The Companion’

  ‘It’s not impossible, my dear. It’s just a very remarkable coincidence – and remarkable coincidences do happen.’

  Sleeping Murder

  ‘One never can be quite sure about anyone, can one? At least that’s what I’ve found.’

  The Murder at the Vicarage

  ‘It’s important, you know, that wickedness shouldn’t triumph.’

  A Pocket Full of Rye

  ‘One so often looks at a thing the wrong way round.’

  ‘Greenshaw’s Folly’

  ‘The children of Lucifer are often beautiful – And as we know, they “flourish like the green bay tree”.’

  At Bertram’s Hotel

  ‘I have had too much experience of life to believe in the infallibility of doctors. Some of them are clever men and some of them are not, and half the time the best of them don’t know what is the matter with you.’

  ‘The Thumb Mark of St Peter’

  ‘One cannot go through life without attracting certain risks if they are necessary.’

  Nemesis

  ‘The worst is so often true.’

  They Do It with Mirrors

  ‘I always find one thing very like another in this world.’

  ‘The Blood-Stained Pavement’

  ‘Money … can do a lot to ease one’s path through life.’

  A Murder is Announced

  ‘The way to a cook’s heart, as they say, is through her pastry.’