“Nearly half of all murders were committed by friends, neighbors, and casual acquaintances.”

Political thriller? International thriller? Financial thriller? Whatever you call it, The Ascendant is smart, edgy, fast-paced storytelling at its best.

In our system, we leave questions of fact to a jury. But to render a verdict, a jury must know the law. For this, we rely upon jury instructions.

Its unlikely hero, Garrett Reilly, reminded me of a young Jack Reacher as a tech-sa What I said: “Political thriller? International thriller? Financial thriller? Whatever you call it,

According to FBI statistics for 2008, only 22 percent of murder victims were killed by strangers.

More than 30 percent were slain by family members, boyfriends, and girlfriends.

All lying – you may think a lie is harmless, but you put them all together and there’s a calamity.

Apparently, an undocumented side effect of dope is a gross overestimation of one’s own intelligence.

Drew Chapman is a debut novelist to watch.

Apathy is grossly undervalued and never there for me when I need it.

Its unlikely hero, Garrett Reilly, reminded me of a young Jack Reacher as a tech-savvy bond analyst.

Anyone who’s had a shower and hasn’t ingested illegal narcotics within a couple of days stands out on a bench in the courthouse.

Instructions are supposed to translate the law into lay terms that the jury can apply to the facts as they determine them.

The Ascendant is smart, edgy, fast-paced storytelling at its best.

Nothing worse than reading a love scene written by your father.

They were asked to listen to the facts and apply the law to the best of their ability in a case the world was watching.

Dopers become convinced they’ve hidden their stash so well a cop won’t find it. They’re always wrong.

Of new acquaintances one can never be sure because one likes them one day that it will be so the next. Of old friends one is sure that it will be the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.

Nearly every season, I make the acquaintance of one or more new flowers. It takes years to exhaust the botanical treasures of any one considerable neighborhood, unless one makes a dead set at it, like an herbalist.

It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. Acquaintance with grief turns out to be one of the more unusual prerequisites of architectural appreciation. We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before buildings can properly touch us.

Acquaintances are always abundant; friends are always scarce!

Acquaintance I would have, but when it depends; not on number, but the choice of friends.