All the motives for murder are covered by four Ls: Love, Lust, Lucre and Loathing.

What mattered at fifty-eight was what had mattered at eighteen: breeding and good bone structure.

Her aunt and uncle worked fifteen hours a day in their desperate attempt to keep the corner shop in profit, and their Sundays were marked by exhaustion. The moral code by which they lived was that of cleanliness, respectability and prudence. Religion was for those who had the time for it, a middle-class indulgence.