- Naomi Inkpen: I find your manner and your insinuations extremely offensive.
- DCI Tom Barnaby: [after a pause in which he measures his reaction] And I have to say, I'm not entirely overwhelmed by the courtesy of your reply.
- Daniel Bolt: [Troy questioning the contents of a bottle in the greehouse] Insecticide!
- Sergeant Gavin Troy: [after smelling it] Insecticide? How does it kill? Alcohol poisoning?
- Naomi Inkpen: [to her daughter and granddaughter] You have about as much 'noblesse oblige' as a fishwife in a brothel!
- Joyce Barnaby: Inkpens have been here since the Reformation.
- DCI Tom Barnaby: They've had long enough to organize a decent car park, then.
- [at a meeting in the village hall]
- Naomi Inkpen: If you were a *gentleman* you'd move to allow my daughter and I to sit together.
- Augustus Deverell: If you were a *lady* I shouldn't hesitate.
- Susan Millard: There *are* still some seats further back, Mrs Inkpen.
- Naomi Inkpen: Further back? I have not sat "further back" in my entire life.
- Hilary Inkpen: [showing her daughter and romantic rival a flower] Daniel just gave me this. Apparently you were making some kind of point about aging mothers. Well, you know what they say, dear, the old variety smells sweetest.
- Sergeant Gavin Troy: [talking to Barnaby about the dead body in the garden] ... I'd say a heavy blow with a blunt instrument. She's been dead overnight, stiff as a board and covered with snails.
- Elspeth Inkpen-Thomas: Maybe you're just keeping your options open?
- Daniel Bolt: What options?
- Elspeth Inkpen-Thomas: Well, there must be someone in the village you haven't slept with yet!
- Charles King: Morning, Mrs. Inkpen. I hear even more changes are afoot at the family seat.
- Naomi Inkpen: [after he leaves] . Odious little upstart.
- Joyce Barnaby: [as Daniel Bolt leaves] I was going to offer him a drink.
- DCI Tom Barnaby: I think he has some propagating to do elsewhere. Come on. I'll make you one. Is there any lawn left to sit on?
- Naomi Inkpen: What's the matter with you, seen a ghost?
- Hilary Inkpen: No...
- Naomi Inkpen: [superciliously] The dead don't walk, Hilary. They stay dead!