First up, a big thank you to Ashling Carroll for giving me the idea for this novel (sorry that your Year 6 yearbook was such a disaster, but silver linings, etc.). Thank you Nic Herrmann and Merran Harte for dusting off your high-school yearbooks and giving the idea legs!
Thank you to my early readers, Petronella McGovern, Rob Carroll, Conor Carroll, Erin Downey, Kimberley Atkins and Ann Riordan, whose excellent feedback helped shape the novel into what it is.
Thank you to my last-minute readers, John Newson and Christina Chipman, who read the edited manuscript at lightning speed to reassure me it all still made sense (my brain was so muddled at that point, I couldn’t really tell!).
A particularly heartfelt thank you to Helen Watson, Jess Wootten, Donna Heagney, Melissa Millar and Aaron O’Driscoll for your technical assistance and for answering my annoying questions. (Confession: there are a few instances where I have stretched the truth with regard to police, medical and legal procedures for the sake of the story.)
Thank you to fellow authors and wonderful friends Dianne Black-lock and Liane Moriarty, whose advice and support have been constant throughout all the ups and downs of writing this novel.
Thank you to my agent Brian Cook, from The Author’s Agent. It’s been eighteen years and nine novels since our first phone call! As always, your support has been phenomenal.
Thank you to everyone at Profile Books and Viper, in particular Miranda Jewess for believing in this novel and making such insightful editing suggestions (and for not laughing at my colour-coded spreadsheet!).
Thank you to my family (Rob, Conor and Ash) and the extended Downey and Carroll clans for your unwavering support and for providing endless writing material over the years (life is never boring in big families!).
Finally, but most of all, thank you to my readers. I am just like you – I’m always talking about books, swapping books with friends (although I get very annoyed when they don’t return them), and I can’t think of anything worse than not having a book to read. Words cannot express how grateful I am to have my books read, swapped and talked about by fellow book lovers.