ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks are in order: once again to Stanley Haskins and Nancy Thomas-Haskins for their endless favors and faith in the project, and especially to Nancy for her careful proofreading and many valuable suggestions; to Terry C., The Hud, The Rabbi, Steve Black, Captain Jack Dean, Jim Graham, George and Sallie Wier, Connie Vaughan, Alice Alexander, Lise Horton, Patty Howe, and to all the fine folks on my Southern Noir crime forum, to Bill Montgomery and Margie Crisp, Seth and Arlene Montgomery, Gus Ramirez, and to Joan Hallmark of KLTV here in Tyler. All of these folks have kept the faith and have, through their unstinting encouragement, bolstered my sometimes fragile confidence enough that I could keep plodding onward.

A special thank-you to my old friend from high school Carol Kerr DiGangi for giving me my first computer and refusing to get off my back until I gave writing a shot. And to Dorothy Davis, the first person outside the industry to read one of my manuscripts. These two ladies’ early enthusiasm meant more to me than I could ever convey.

And lastly to Kat Brzozowski, Thomas Dunne, and Ron Goldfarb, who are respectively my editor, my publisher, and my agent. They, too, have kept the faith.