Have you ever noticed that getting married is like trying to collect a debt from a dead guy?

(Steven Brust, Tsalmoth, 2023)

The woman stood in the far corner of the dimly lit room, hiding in shadows like a fish in gray water.

(Robert Crais, The Promise, 2015)

.
Reveillie was not the best thing to have reverberating through one's skull after a night of too much and too little in various combinations.

(Tanya Huff, Valor's Choice, 2000)

Mrs. Whitaker found the Holy Grail; it was under a fur coat.

(Neil Gaiman, Chivalry, 1993)

Debbie talked to the dead.

(Peter James, Wish You Were Dead, 2021)

"Do you remember," said Leonard McCoy, "when I stole your cadaver?"

(Diane Duane, Doctor's Orders, 1990)
.

The thing that surprised him most about dying was how very much it hurt.

(Diane Duane, The Door into Sunset, 1991)
.