When I was in the seventh grade, the local high school, Wexford Collegiate, put on a performance of The Monkey’s Paw and invited surrounding elementary schools to attend. I would like to thank my teachers for taking our class to see the play. I would also like to thank author W. W. Jacobs for never showing me what stood behind that door. The gentle knock, knock, knock has echoed in my mind all these years.
I completed the first draft of this manuscript several years ago, and it’s not without the help and support of many wonderful people that it shifted and morphed and changed until it found its true shape.
A heartfelt thank-you to my first-draft readers—Valerie Sherrard, Martha Martin, Deborah Kerbel, Kathy Temean, and Jaime Cohen. Thank you to Alison Weiss, whose feedback led to valuable changes. Thank you to Caroline Carlson for helping me navigate the Pittsburgh area, and to Darlene Beck Jacobson for lending me her historical fiction eyes.
Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for your generous support of this work via the Writers’ Reserve Program.
Thank you to the very talented Nicoletta Ceccoli for the delightfully creepy cover and illustrations.
To my three wonderful children and to my amazing husband, Michael Cohen—your love and support mean the world to me. Always.
To my superhero agent, John M. Cusick—I’m so very lucky that something about this story snagged your attention all those years ago, and that you stuck with it and me on our long journey to this great place.
And last, but most important on this list, the biggest thank-you goes to the amazing team at Roaring Brook Press—to Anne Diebel for her wonderful design, to Karla Reganold and her copyediting team, who made sure all my “eyes” are dotted, and especially to my brilliant editor, Emily Feinberg, whose keen eyes, patience, and absolute dedication have made this book the very best it can be.