It’s become a bit of a tradition of mine to compare the writing and publication of each book to throwing a large party. This particular bash has been a particularly long time in the planning and there are, therefore, an army of people behind the scenes who have helped plan the playlist and the menu and all those other things that make a party go with a swing and become something that, hopefully, people will come to, enjoy, and leave feeling happy or at least satisfied – and maybe even a little tipsy.
As often seems to be the way with my books this one started with a lunch at The Cumberland Arms, around the corner from my agent’s office, where the holy trinity of Alice Saunders, Mark Lucas and Peta Nightingale listened to my vague outlining of various potential stories including one about a pale man who appears shoeless on a desert road at which they unanimously said ‘That sounds great. Write that one.’ Alice deserves special mention here. She plucked my first book from the slush pile five years ago and has had to suffer my infuriatingly imprecise working process and constant blind optimism ever since. This book was particularly hard to write, for various reasons, and she never lost her patience or temper – at least not to my face – and managed to hold it together when I finally delivered a manuscript that was 60,000 words too long, three months late and needed another four months work – and a 60% re-write – to turn it into the thing you currently hold in your hands. I am very lucky to have her, though I’m pretty sure she would be much better off without me.
Equally patient and supportive, as usual, have been everyone at HarperCollins – both in the UK and the US. There are whole teams of very bright, very clever and very hard working people in both camps who design the covers, write the copy, supervise the edits and make sure each book is as good as it can possibly be. These people do not earn vast fortunes and could undoubtedly earn far more doing almost anything else but they work in publishing because they love books and love their jobs and we are all the richer because of it. Heading up these teams are the twin capos of Julia Wisdom in the UK and David Highfill in the US who have edited more books than I will ever write and bring all of that experience to the table each time we work together. I say ‘work’ but in truth it often feels more like fun, or it does to me at least.
I also owe a huge debt to everyone at ILA – my always enthusiastic and very hard-working international rights agents. It is they who invite the rest of the world to each new party and they also recently threw a really good one of their own on the event of their 50th anniversary – a real party, not a figurative one.
Other names I want to throw into my huge ‘Thank You’ hat – the various people who have helped, inspired or supported me in different ways through the course of writing this (and all the other books) – are Kate Stephenson, Lucy Dauman, Adam Humphrey, Kate Elton, Sarah Benton, Jaime Frost, Hannah Gamon, Emad Akhtar, Tanya Brennand-Roper, Tavia Kowalchuk, Kaitlyn Kennedy, Danielle Emrich, Andrea St Amand, Mark Rubinstein, Mark Billingham, Peter James, Paul Christopher, Brad Meltzer, Steve Berry, Kate at Wet Dark and Wild, Jackie at RavenCrime reads, Miles at MiloRambles, Matt at ReaderDad, Robin at Parmenion Books, Cristina-Maria Mitrea, Tracy Fenton at THE Book Club, Cheryl Dalton of (Secret World) Book Club, Mike Stotter, Barry Forshaw, Chris Simmons, Jake Kerridge, Shannon and John Raab at Suspense Magazine, Pam Stack at Authors on the Air, and all the other reviewers, authors and bloggers who have said lovely things about my previous books and helped bring them to a wider audience. To all you readers and Amazon reviewers and Tweeters and Facebook posters I thank you too. Writing a novel is a lonely business and the daily lift of new followers or likes or kind messages or nice reviews are like chinks of sunlight in the steady gloom. If you ever wonder whether you should contact an author, any author, to tell them you enjoyed their book the answer is always ‘Yes’. We all write for you and without the readers, the bridge of story falls down. So please say ‘hi’ – I always say ‘hi’ back.
A special thank you must go to Staff Sergeant Taron Maddux of the Bisbee PD who kindly walked me through local Arizona town law – though I eventually built my own town and wrote my own rulebook. In the light of that it must also be very clearly said that none of the police officers featured in this book are based on him or his colleagues and that the town of Redemption bears only a passing resemblance to Bisbee and is, in truth, based largely on other Arizona places and my own imagination. Also I want to thank Tania and Lou and all the staff at Cafe Marmalade in Brighton – where I work most days – for not seeming to mind that I can make a single cup of coffee last for three hours.
Closer to home I owe a massive thanks to my sister Becky Toyne who did a first pass edit and had to constantly jiggle her schedule and ultimately work unsociable hours due to my chronic lateness (note to reader: she’s a proper professional book editor, not just a relative with a red pen). Also a nod to my three children, Roxy, Stan and Betsy, who are just hilarious and brilliant and remind me that the stuff going on in my head is actually less important than the stuff going on around me. And finally, and always most importantly, to my wife Kathryn for making sure the children didn’t die and the house didn’t burn down while I disappeared into my head for long months. Only the partners of other authors know what a weird thing it is to live with someone who conjures fables for a living: I would often gladly get away from myself if I could and the fact that she actually can but chooses not to is nothing short of miraculous and I am, and forever shall be, lovingly grateful.
Simon Toyne
Brighton
8th April, 2015