While in some cases I’ve drawn from actual events, ultimately this is a work of fiction, and the people are entirely imaginary. Characters who misuse their authority are not representative of their real-world counterparts, or the institutions themselves.
I’ve taken slight liberties with the geography of downtown Vancouver, in the hope of more accurately reflecting the city’s character, or what’s left of it.
In writing this book I consulted the findings of the Kwantlen University College Student Association’s forensic accounting investigation, made public by the KSA. Don Pentecost’s Put ’Em Down, Take ’Em Out!: Knife Fighting Techniques from Folsom Prison told me all I wanted to know about stabbing someone and more. Kim Bolan and Nick Eagland from the Vancouver Sun took the time to answer questions about Abbotsford crime, and Jerry Langton’s The Notorious Bacon Brothers: Inside Gang Warfare on Vancouver Streets also provided important details. Thanks also to David Swinson, retired police officer and author of the terrific novel The Second Girl, for some procedural advice.
I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my agent Chris Bucci of The Cooke McDermid Agency, and my editors, Craig Pyette at Penguin Random House Canada, and Amelia Ayrelan Iuvino at Quercus USA. All three made important contributions to the book, and I’m indebted to them.
Thanks to the publishing teams at Penguin Random House Canada and Quercus USA for their support. Nathaniel Marunas, Amanda Harkness, Elyse Gregov, Patricia Kells, Anne Robinson, Nick Seliwoniuk, and Anne Collins, among many, many others.
Thanks also to my brothers Dan and Josh and my parents Al and Linda; Sook Kong and the staff at Coquitlam College; Jade, Anne, Amber, Sam, Jenna, and Mark at the Vancouver Public Library; Alex Kennedy, Bruce Lord, Mike Stachura and Nicole Fauteaux for accompanying me during my wrestling “research”; my fellow Vancouver crime writers Linda Richards, Sheena Kamal, Ed Brisson, Dietrich Kalteis, Robin Spano, Owen Laukkanen, E. R. Brown, and Tricia Barker; as well as Mercedes Eng, Mel Yap and Mako Morris-Yap, Chris Brayshaw and the staff at Pulp Fiction Books, John McFetridge, Ashley Looye, Brian Thornton, Paul Budra, Torsten Kehler, Cecilia Martell, Neil Kennedy, Charles Demers, Benoit Lelievre, Janie Chang, and the late Brad Dean.
And thanks to you for reading this.
Sam Wiebe
Vancouver