Detective Quote by P. D. James

“I like a good detective story," he said. "But, you know, they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. But the murder is the end. The  story begins long before that—years before sometimes with all the causes and events that bring certain people to a certain place at a certain time on a certain day.”

— Agatha Christie

“Being a homicide detective can be the loneliest job in the world. The friends of the victim are upset and in despair, but sooner…

— Anonymous

I once started a detective story to make money—but I couldn't get the murder to take place! At the end of three chapters I…

— Mary McCarthy

Detective stories keep alive a view of the world which ought to be true. Of course people read them for fun ... But underneath…

— Dorothy L. Sayers

If there was one overarching theme to 'True Detective,' I would say it was that, as human beings, we are nothing but the stories…

— Nic Pizzolatto

“Perhaps this is the purpose of detective investigations, real and fictional -- to transform sensation, horror and grief into a puzzle, and then to…

— Kate Summerscale

Traditional murder mysteries are interesting because they're ostensibly about a horrible thing - murder - but underneath that, they're about restoring order to a…

— Malinda Lo

I think the detective story is by far the best upholder of the democratic doctrine in literature. I mean, there couldn't have been detective…

— Rex Stout

Oooh I like to read murder mystery. I like to know the killer isn't me.

— Erasure

The best crime novels are not about how a detective works on a case; they are about how a case works on a detective.

— Michael Connelly

A detective story is just the premise for conflict, as a Western is.

— Lorne Greene

In ordinary detective novels you never see the consequences of what happens in a story in the next book. That you do in mine.

— Anonymous