Acknowledgments

Many people don’t bother to read the acknowledgments section, so if you’re reading this, the first thanks belongs to you.

Thank you for choosing this book from among the millions of stories and other media clamoring for your attention. I deeply appreciate you spending your valuable time with Hiro and Father Mateo, and with me.

Thanks to my agent, Sandra Bond, for so many things that it would take me pages to list them all. You were the first to believe in Hiro and Father Mateo, and you continue to be their constant champion (and mine), as well as an eagle-eyed editor who ensures that Hiro (and I) always appear at our very best on the page. Thank you for being the best business partner, and friend, an author could hope to have.

Thanks to Dan Mayer, my editor, for giving Hiro and Father Mateo a home at Seventh Street Books and for the thoughtful, attentive editing that makes the stories better than I could ever hope to make them on my own.

Thank you to Heather Webb, Kerry Schafer, Rae (R.F. James), Corinne O’Flynn, and all of the other friends who have been such an enormous help and support. As iron sharpens iron, one person sharpens another, and I am grateful for the way you keep my heart full and my skills at a katana’s edge. To each of you, and to all of my other friends: I love you, and I could not do this—or anything else—without you.

Last, but certainly not least: thank you to my family. Michael and Christopher, Paula, Spencer, Robert, Lola, Anna, Matteo, Gene, Marcie, Bob, and Spencer (III): words alone are not enough. I love you deeply and appreciate your support, not only now, but in the many years before this crazy dream became reality.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you again for reading this page—and this book—to the end. If you like this novel, or any other, I hope you’ll consider telling a friend about it. Your praise and your recommendation are the greatest rewards an author can receive.