Huge thanks to my editor Shana Drehs and the team at Sourcebooks for their support, encouragement, and enthusiasm. I’ve always dreamed of being published in the States and you made that dream come true. I’m very proud to be working with you.
Massive thanks to Madeleine Milburn for supporting me every step of the way. You kept believing, even when my own belief faltered, and that marks you out as a very special agent indeed.
A big thank-you to my friends and family—particularly my parents Reg and Jenny Taylor and my brother and sister David and Rebecca—for continuing to ask “how’s the novel?” even when the answer was little more than a sigh. And lots of love to Suz, Leah, Sophie, LouBag, Steve, Guinevere, Angela, Ana, Nan, and Granddad.
Grateful thanks to everyone on Twitter and Facebook who helped me out with research—particularly Andrew Parsons for his hospital procedure/drug expertise and Kimberley Mills for sharing her experience of caring for a coma patient. Thank you—and sorry—to Emily Harborow. The video research footage you surreptitiously filmed for me ended up on the editing room floor, but I’m sure I’ll be able to use it in another book.
Big thanks to Jim Ross for taking my lovely new author photos and to Rebecca Butterworth for doing my makeup.
A huge thank-you to my writer friends. Writing can be such a lonely business and you keep me company (and watered with booze). Special mention must go to Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Sally Quilford, Leigh Forbes, Helen Hunt, Helen Kara, Karen Clarke, Rowan Coleman, Miranda Dickinson, Kate Harrison, Julie Cohen, and Tamsyn Murray for being particularly lovely.
Lastly, and by no means least, all my love and thanks to Chris and Seth. I wrote this book while I was on maternity leave—not because I had a very sleepy baby and lots of time on my hands, but because I thought I was going to go mental from sleep deprivation and writing was the only thing that kept me sane. I couldn’t have done it without you, Chris. Thank you for pushing the baby around town at 5:00 a.m. so I could sleep, thank you for taking him to visit your relatives so I could write, and thank you for telling me, over and over, that I could do it. It looks like I did.