I’d like to acknowledge my friends and family for their encouragement and sage advice: Deborah Michel, who helped me around more than a few plot points, more than a few times; my sister, Linda Kandel; Didi Dunphy; Elizabeth Hayt; Bonnie Grossman; Deborah Brown, for sharing her legal expertise; and Tristin Tzimoulis, the best next-door neighbor a person could have. Maja Thomas and Susan Sayre Batton will never know how much their support meant to me, especially early on.
Special thanks go to my tenacious agent, Sandra Dijkstra, and to Joel Pulliam from her office; and to my editor, the clear-sighted Carolyn Marino, as well as Jennifer Civiletto.
Unlike Cece, I am not a biographer. The following sources helped me look a little more like one: Dorothy Hughes’s definitive Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Real Perry Mason (William Morrow, 1978); Erle Stanley Gardner’s own nonfiction work, The Court of Last Resort (William Morrow, 1952); and Richard Senate’s invaluable Erle Stanley Gardner’s Ventura: Birthplace of Perry Mason (Charon Press, 1996), illustrated by John Anthony Miller. My appreciation goes out to Senate and Miller, who have devoted themselves to keeping the Gardner flame burning.
Finally, I’d like to thank the people I live with: my daughters, Kyra and Maud, for all their sweet, funny ways; and my husband, Peter Lunenfeld, for everything, and a whole lot more besides.