"Truth is discoverable. Truth wants to be discovered." (Chapter 1, p. 2)

"I have often wondered whether I have a character flaw, to be so drawn to deadly things." (Chapter 1, p. 3)

"It was a watershed moment for me, because for the first time McKern was treating me—I will not say as an equal, but very nearly as a colleague whose independent opinion he valued." (Chapter 2, p. 21)

"My laboratory room ... is a fleshless village of the dead, dry and silent save for the soft whirr of a dehumidifier under a table." (Chapter 3, p. 33)

"It is my belief that every set of remains deserves a certain minimum of respect. We owe them that." (Chapter 3, p. 45)

"When we consider that scarcely an active cemetery on the planet is more than a few hundred years old, we realize how short our undisturbed subterranean sleep can be." (Chapter 4, p. 46)

"I mean murder victims...