“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.

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

We can observe gravity in daily life. If we could throw an apple to the edge of the universe, we would observe it accelerating.

They’re all a huge influence on me. For me, just following rock history and watching Darkness On the Edge of Town and realizing that’s it’s okay to be obsessed with a snare sound because Bruce Springsteen was obsessed with a snare sound.

Humourists lead… an existence of jumpiness and apprehension. They sit on the edge of the chair of Literature. In the house of Life they have the feeling that they have never taken off their overcoats.

Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness.

For secrets are edged tools, And must be kept from children and from fools.

And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know that I can do it.

At the edge of madness you howl diamonds and pearls.

Such innovations have given Dubai a competitive edge and an accelerated growth rate that few could match.