Acknowledgments

Many, many thanks to the following for their kind and gracious aid in the writing of this novel; they either helped track down facts, read the manuscript, or shared memories of living under Nazi occupation: Jean-Loic Bagot, Neil Barber, Ann Byle, Ray Byle, Terry Crowdy, Katherine Dance, Brooke Dekkinga, Ryan Dekkinga, Rebecca Eerdmans, Marthe Forbes, Chris Freeman, Debby Green, Jean Groot, Rick Harmon, Jason Hill, Alison Hodgson, Melissa Huisman, Louise Lindemulder, Gerri Pipping, Jim Pipping, Jason Porter, Sergeant First Class Matthew Scherbinski, Beth Steenwyk, Jay Stone, Karen VanderVelde, Lauren Wedge, Mark Worthington, the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum, the Michigan Company of Military Historians and Collectors, and the Pegasus Memorial Museum of Normandy.

Thanks to my beloved Guild, sisters in writing crime: Cynthia Beach, Shelly Beach, Angela Blycker, Ann Byle, Sharron Carrns, Lorilee Craker, and Alison Hodgson.

Thanks to my core competencies Kathy Helmers, Dan Raines, and Meredith Smith from Creative Trust, who, one fine day in Tennessee, were all kinds of mean to me.

Thanks to the entire team at Tyndale, including Stephanie Broene, Karen Watson, and especially Kathy Olson, who shows me all over again how impoverished a novel is without a fine editor.

Special thanks to my personal American hero, Colonel Walter B. Forbes, USAF, who graciously gave hours of his time to relate firsthand accounts and details about WWII and about a certain P-47 called The Gal from Kalamazoo. This Bronze Star and Legion of Merit recipient flew missions on D-Day, was shot down over France, and had a heck of a dogfight over Germany—and the boy was just getting started. He flew a total of seventy-two missions in WWII and went on to a long and distinguished career in the Air Force.

Thanks to my kids, Evan, Becca, Gray, and Riley, for caring about what I do, and to Riley for helping with research: he cheerfully dangled from a broom handle, all trussed up, so Mom could get a visual on Tom’s situation in the A-frame. Thanks, Riley. Don’t call Social Services. Remember the ice cream.

Finally, thanks to Jack, my unflagging, cheerful, and indefatigable aide-de-camp in countless hours of research in the States, France, and England. Any errors belong completely to him.

Just kidding. Any errors belong to my kids.