“Few secrets can escape an investigator who has opportunity and license to undertake such a quest and skill to follow it up.”

“The really essential factors of success in any undertaking are money and opportunity, and as a rule, the man who can make the first can make the second.”

“I wasn't thinking all of them—just Zed and Victor. Zed as the seventh son has a touch of most of our skills and can hold us together when we do a joint investigation. He’s a pain in the neck but a useful one.”

“So are we stalking your ex-husband?”“I’m a licensed private investigator,” I said. “I’m licensed to stalk.”“Really?”“In most cases.”“What about this case?”“In this case,” I said. “We’re stalking the hell out of him.”

“The World is pretty much divided between the weak of mind & the strong- between those who can act & those who cannot, & it is the bounden Duty of the Capable to let no opportunity of being useful escape them.”

“As readers, we have gone from learning a precious craft whose secret was held by a jealous few, to taking for granted a skin that has become subordinate to principles of mindless financial profit or mechanical efficiency, a skill for which governments care almost nothing.”