ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Once again this book represents a collective endeavor. So thank you, first and foremost, to my agent Euan Thorneycroft at A.M. Heath and to my tirelessly enthusiastic editor Ruth Tross at Mulholland. As I see the series move from success to success their faith now seems prophetic. A big thank you to Kerry Hood at Hodder, who has worked miracles to catapult me into mags, newspapers, radio and TV – a veritable one-woman publicity machine.

I am grateful too to others who helped improve the original manuscript. Thomas Abraham and Poulomi Chatterjee at Hachette India; Amber Burlinson, copy-editor, and Justine Taylor, in the role of proofreader.

I would also like to thank Ruth’s team at Mulholland, Naomi Berwin in marketing, Laura Oliver in production, Dom Gribben in audiobooks, and Ruth’s assistant Cicely Aspinall. In the US thanks go to Devi Pillai, Ellen Wright, Laura Fitzgerald and Lindsey Hall, and also Jason Bartholomew at Hodder. Similar thanks go to Euan’s assistant Pippa McCarthy, and the others at A.M. Heath working hard to sprinkle the magic of this series far and wide. A thank you to Satish Garewal for voicing the audiobook.

Yet more kudos to Anna Woodbine who designed and illustrated the novel’s cover, once again bringing the story to life with a flourish of her wand.

Lastly, I’d like to thank those who have helped me research this work. My wife Nirupama Khan, my friends from Mumbai, and my colleagues at UCL who not only crack me over the knuckles when I make a mistake in Chopra’s crime-solving methods but have been unflagging in their support for the whole endeavor. A special thank you to my colleague Kati Carter who baked me an Inspector Chopra cake complete with icing sugar Ganesha (though his ears have subsequently fallen off – sorry, Kati!). Lastly a mention for Khurram Khan, who many years ago, when a rabid computer had swallowed an entire manuscript of an early novel – engendering in me suicidal thoughts of quitting this writing business altogether – typed up the paper draft, so that I could, and would, carry on.