“I love history, any kind of history, and even better if it’s hidden, secret, or underground.” Those are words time-traveler, Saira, says in book one of my Immortal Descendants series, Marking Time, and they speak directly to my soul. I can spend days down internet rabbit holes, researching historical facts to suit my stories, and my favorites are the anomalies that pop up between sources – those become the mysteries that my characters solve in my books.
The history of the Gardner heist, as presented by D (the reporter), and Crystal and Amber (museum docents) is, according to my research, accurate. I’ve never been to the Gardner museum in person, but I found the blueprints for it on the Library of Congress website, and with those I tracked down the annex and the hidden door. The photo of the crime scene, showing the open panel, is real, the music gigs and parties the guards held were real, and I found one blog post that mentioned the game of avoiding the motion sensors the night guards used to play throughout the museum, which I dubbed sensor tag. There was also one mention, buried deep in another post, about the Madame Auguste Manet having been out of the Blue Room for restoration on the night of the heist – thus, a plot was born.
My friend Christi flew to Boston specifically to visit the Gardner museum for me, and we spent an hour on Facetime as she walked me through the museum, finding the answers to questions I fed her through her headphones. As she approached the Blue Room, I spotted the decorative metal hook above it, which gave me a plausible way in for the thief. She’s also the one who mentioned that there seemed to be fascinating little stories in the arrangements of art, so I gave them back to the character I named after her. Christi has my deepest gratitude for her generosity and willingness to listen to me babble in her ear as I worked things out.
Thank you to Agnes for inspiring Sophia, to Anna for inspiring herself, to Jen and Mahyad for their extraordinary generosity, and to my editors, Angela and Rebecca – there aren’t enough languages in the world for me to thank you as thoroughly as you both deserve. Without you two and my husband Ed (who fed me and kept our family running), this book would not have been possible.
And finally, thank you Penny Reid, for your trust, your patience, your generosity, and your friendship. You’ve created a family with Smartypants Romance, and it’s a sisterhood of support, laughter, connection, and love that stems from the stand you’ve taken in our community. You, and the readers who found you, are extraordinary.