I’d like to thank the people of Chippewa County, Michigan, for their hospitality,
and for their patience with downstaters like me. To anyone who hasn’t been there,
if you ever find yourself driving from Sault Ste. Marie to Paradise, don’t worry about
getting your car stuck in the snow. That’s not to say it won’t happen. If it’s between
November and March, it probably will happen. But the first person to come by will help you. You can bet on it, because
that’s the kind of people who live there. So if any local characters in this book
behave less than honorably, please believe that they’re nothing more than a product
of my overactive imagination.
Thanks, also, to my writing group—Bill Keller, Frank Hayes, Vernece Seager, Douglas
Smyth, Kevin McEneaney, and Laura Fontaine. Without you I’d still be promising myself
that I’d start writing again some day. Thanks to Liz Staples and Taylor Brugman for
your time and local knowledge. To Chuck Sumner and Alfred Schwab for your encouragement.
To Ruthe Furie, Bob Randisi, and Jan Grape from the Private Eye Writers of America.
To the incomparable Ruth Cavin, Marika Rohn, and everyone else at St. Martin’s Press.
For technical assistance, I need to thank Cheryl Wheeler from the Private Security
and Investigative Section of the Michigan State Police; Larry Queipo, former Police
Chief, Town of Kingston, New York; and Dr. Glenn Hamilton
from the Department of Emergency Medicine at Wright State University.
And most of all, thank you, Julia, my wife and best friend. And Nickie—you are my
perfect little boy, and always will be.