The Galton Case
Critique • Quotes

First publication
1959
Literary form
Novel
Genre
Mystery, crime
Writing language
English
Author's country
United States
Length
Approx. 84,000 words
Notable lines
The law offices of Wellesley and Sable were over a savings bank on the main street of Santa Teresa. Their private elevator lifted you from a bare little lobby into an atmosphere of elegant simplicity. It created the impression that after years of struggle you were rising effortlessly to your natural level, one of the chosen.
— First lines
The bright speck stood like a nail in my brain. It wouldn't let me let go of the room. I curse it, but it wouldn't go away. It wrote little luminous remarks on the red pounding darkness. This is it. You take a stand.
Then it was a light surging away from me like the light of a ship. I swam for it, but it rose away, hung in the dark heaven still as a star. I let go of the pounding room, and swung from it up and over the black mountain.
...I came to early next morning in the accident ward of the Reno hospital.
John turned his head to listen. Even the dead men seemed to be listening.
— Last line
Critique • Quotes