This book is dedicated to Dr. Maurice Heiner, a thoracic physician par excellence who achieved the impossible task of convincing my recalcitrant husband, Michael Hume, that if he did not give up smoking his tenure on life would be measured in months. That he was successful is a measure of Maurice’s professional ability and the personal qualities that Michael admires in all of his friends.

Michael has survived to continue his adventurous life for twenty-three years after coming under Maurice’s care, twenty-three years of leaping (small) buildings at a single bound and only tripping on rare occasions. He hasn’t touched a cigarette, not for fear of the Grim Reaper, but for the sole reason of not wanting to fail Maurice’s confidence in him.

In many respects, Maurice is probably responsible for all of my books being written, for Michael is the renowned bully who frog-marched me into becoming a novelist. Without his “pushy” manner and his unsurpassed ability as an editor, my writing career wouldn’t have happened.

M. K. HUME