"Major Pettigrew was still upset by the phone call from his brother's wife and so he answered the doorbell without thinking." (Chap. 1, p. 3)

"She drove like a man, aggressively changing gear into the turns, accelerating away, swinging the tiny Honda over the hills with relish." (Chap. 1, p. 13)

"The major found himself loitering in the hall, unwilling to face what was inevitable upstairs." (Chap. 2, p. 23)

"He had been many decades, as man and boy, in the village of Edgecomb St. Mary, and yet the walk down the hill to the village never ceased to give him pleasure." (Chap. 3, p. 35)

"He had been puzzled, as had Bertie, when Tewkesbury took in Mortimer Teale as an associate." (Chap. 4, p. 49)

"It had been obvious soon after Bertie's marriage that Marjorie had no intention of playing the dutiful daughter-in-law and had sought to separate the two of them from the rest of the...