“It’s always better to tell a half-truth than a half-lie.”
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 13, “Autumn Leaves” (p. 277)
Quotes from book
Moon Over Soho
BODY AND SOUL The song. That’s what London constable and sorcerer’s apprentice Peter Grant first notices when he examines the corpse of Cyrus Wilkins, part-time jazz drummer and full-time accountant, who dropped dead of a heart attack while playing a gig at Soho’s 606 Club. The notes of the old jazz standard are rising from the body—a sure sign that something about the man’s death was not at all natural but instead supernatural. Body and soul—they’re also what Peter will risk as he investigates a pattern of similar deaths in and around Soho. With the help of his superior officer, Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, and the assistance of beautiful jazz aficionado Simone Fitzwilliam, Peter will uncover a deadly magical menace—one that leads right to his own doorstep and to the squandered promise of a young jazz musician: a talented trumpet player named Richard “Lord” Grant—otherwise known as Peter’s dear old dad.
“It’s no fun looking down on people if you can’t let them know you’re above them.”
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 13, “Autumn Leaves” (p. 273)
“Have you noticed that about journalists—all they really want to talk about is themselves.”
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 13, “Autumn Leaves” (p. 273)
“Anything that can go wrong with armed men in the light can go twice as wrong in the dark.”
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 12, “It Don’t Mean a Thing” (p. 265)
“First law of gossip—there’s no point knowing something if somebody else doesn’t know you know it.”
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 11, “Those Foolish Things” (p. 239)
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 9, “The Forcing House” (p. 194)
“I’m an old-fashioned copper–I don’t believe in breaking the laws of thermodynamics.”
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 7, “Almost Like Being in Love” (p. 141)
“The difference between stripping and burlesque, as far as I could tell, was class.”
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 6, “The Empress of Pleasure” (p. 121)
“Ghosts, I was thinking, memories—I wasn’t sure there was a difference.”
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 5, “The Night Gate” (p. 97)
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 4, “One-Tenth of My Ashes” (p. 64)
“When you’re a musician free is a magic number.”
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 3, “A Long Drink of the Blues” (p. 45)
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 1, “Body and Soul” (p. 19)
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 1, “Body and Soul” (p. 1)
“Men have died for this music. You can’t get more serious than that.”
Epigram —Dizzy Gillespie
Source: Moon Over Soho (2011)
