“The best crime novels are all based on people keeping secrets.”

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.

Playing well with others isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

No Time For Goodbye is a deliciously smart thriller, full of surprises and perfect pacing. I’m jealous I didn’t write it.

I can’t have composite characters. I can’t attribute dialogue to someone based simply on my memory and not based on notes taken at the time that the words were spoken.

After going through a lot of procedures and spending a lot of money … the doctor said, ‘Look, based on what we’re seeing here, I just don’t think this is going to happen for you.’

You come to see that everything you think you know about yourself, everything you think you know about the world, is based on assumptions, beliefs, and opinions-things that you believe because you were taught or told they were true.

All delusions begin in the mind. All delusions are based on various ways we’re talking to ourselves and then believing what we are saying.

When you stand in your own authority, based in your own direct experience, you meet that ultimate mystery that you are. Even though it may be at first unsettling to look into your own no-thingness.

Christina and Isabella, and the true friendships I have in my life that are based in being real with each other and mutual love and support.

To me, my favorite comic book movies were the ones that were never based on comic books, like Unforgiven.

A change based on justice, built with love, and which will bring us the most anxiously desired fruits of peace.