"He was a big man, but not much more than six feet five inches tall and not wider than a beer truck." (Chapter 1, page 1)

"His smile was as cunning as a broken mousetrap." (Chapter 3, page 15)

"I hadn't had any business in a month. Even a no-charge job was a change." (Chapter 3, page 15)

"1644 West 54th Place was a dried-out brown house with a dried-out brown lawn in front of it." (Chapter 5, page 20)

"A couple of frayed lamps with once gaudy shades that were now as gay as superannuated streetwalkers." (Chapter 5, page 21)

"The women had good legs and displayed their inside curves more than Will Hays would have liked. But their faces were as threadbare as a bookkeeper's office coat." (Chapter 5, page 25)

"Yet it was a very ordinary face and its prettiness was strictly assembly line." (Chapter 5, page 27)

"It was Malloy, all right, taken in a strong light, and looking...