Rachel Abbott

“She searched her mind for a single day when it had felt good to be alive. There must have been one, surely?”

— Rachel Abbott

“Why were people always driven to be something they were not, spending their early years wanting to look older and their later…

— Rachel Abbott

“A radio was playing quietly. Nobody was listening. It was there to drown out the silence.”

— Rachel Abbott

“think children need that joy in their lives. If they exist in a world where they are forever watching their parents tiptoeing…

— Rachel Abbott

“Each time he came he would twist my defenceless body into a different pose, as if I were his very own doll”

— Rachel Abbott

“One of the women was a natural bitch – all women recognise them, but men rarely do.”

— Rachel Abbott

“The waiting – the uncertainty and the frustration of being unable to do anything – is unbearable.”

— Rachel Abbott

“now. Put the past behind you and think of it as somewhere you once visited, and possibly didn’t like very much. “Do”

— Rachel Abbott

“of sorrow and distress, or something else”

— Rachel Abbott

“It was as if she would never be whole until the secrets of the past were exposed.”

— Rachel Abbott

“When shame is your own, it’s hard enough to bear. When other people are witness to it, it becomes intolerable.”

— Rachel Abbott

“Today is the day after my wedding. And nothing is the way I expected it to be.”

— Rachel Abbott

“Even those we’ve loved all our lives are highly unlikely to be perfect.”

— Rachel Abbott

“Has there been in an accident?”

— Rachel Abbott

“Have you ever looked obsession in the face, Chief Inspector? Strip away the mask of normality, and it’s a hideous, contorted serpent…

— Rachel Abbott

“The quiet but inexorable breaking down of self-esteem is much more sinister - it’s violation of the soul.”

— Rachel Abbott

“lie; secrets and deceit will ultimately undermine a relationship’s stability, durability, and longevity. Friedrich”

— Rachel Abbott

“things out about”

— Rachel Abbott

“But nobody was there; nobody was even looking.”

— Rachel Abbott