Acknowledgments

I’ve learned to depend on every person in my village as I’ve brought Anastasia Phoenix to life. First and foremost, thank you to Lawrence Martin-Bittman, otherwise known as Agent 006.5, for the espionage inspiration that led to the creation of Department D and its specialty—disinformation. When I wrote the first draft of Book 1, Proof of Lies, disinformation was not a word I’d ever heard before. Now, fake news is everywhere. Thank you, Larry, for being ahead of the times.

Thanks to my agent, Taylor Martindale Kean, for your editorial feedback, which has made this series so much stronger, and for your support as you’ve championed every step of this publishing process. To my editor, Alycia Tornetta, you’ve helped me grow Anastasia so she’s both strong and caring, snarky and sympathetic. Without you, her story wouldn’t be the same.

I am grateful to all the people my husband and I met during our travels, who gave us advice and local information that has added depth to my international settings. Specifically, thank you to our lovely B&B host in Lewes, England, Angela Wigglesworth, for welcoming us into her home on Bonfire Night; the doorman at the NeoBankside Apartments in London, England, Clio Asolfi, for letting me sneak up to the penthouse floor for a peek at Julian’s view; and to the dread-locked twenty-something guy we met at a bar near the Tate Modern, for recommending we go out to Zone 2 and visit the “best Irish pub outside of Dublin” and the old cemetery across the street. My British scenes wouldn’t have been the same without you.

Special thanks go out to Ric and Leticia Ochman for hosting the most amazing wedding at the Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I don’t know how this book would have ended without you. And thanks again, Leticia, for all the help promoting Proof of Lies.

I am indebted to everyone who helped market this series through their personal and professional networks, specifically: Jenee Chizick, Riley Londres, Tom Gailey, Eric Smith, Jennifer Rodriguez, Ben Reynolds, and Marissa Nicole Rodriguez. I love visiting schools, and I am grateful to all of the teachers, librarians, and administrators who have allowed me to speak to their students. It’s always a blast. Special thanks to Harvard Professor Dani Rodrik for speaking to me about the conspiracies and crimes in the Turkish government, so I could plausibly insert my characters into those events.

A shout-out to my talented friend and photographer Chris Klock for taking all of my author photos, and special thanks to those who have offered their homes for quiet writing retreats, including Cristina and Matt Wallach, Paula and Larry Wallach, and Marguerite and Mike Sheehan. Without those weekends away from my little people, my books would not be written.

To my friends and family who traveled from all over to celebrate the launch of Proof of Lies, thank you for making the party so awesome! It’s a night I’ll always remember. Without my Ridley Girls, BU friends, and neighbors, I’d have a lot less laughter in my life.

I have fantastic in-laws who not only lend me their homes to write, but also do some serious copyediting. Thank you to Paula and Larry for catching all those typos.

I am who I am because of my Rodriguez Family. Our relatives struggling in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria showed us what family really means. I am now positive that if I am ever trapped in a collapsed building, one of you will find a congressman to email a nonprofit who will call a colleague who will somehow get me out. So to Lou, Natalie, Nicole, and Prao, thank you for being such caring and generous people. And to my parents, thank you for encouraging me every step of the way since the first day I told you I got an agent. Every time you show up at my events, I feel less nervous. Thanks!

To my husband, Jordan, you believe in me more than I believe in myself. You make my writing dream possible, by not only supporting me, but by being an excellent, calm, creative, there’s-always-a-way husband and father. We’ve taken this journey together, literally around the world, and I love you for that.

To Juliet and Lincoln, showing you Proof of Lies on the shelf of a bookstore meant more to me than you realize right now. I can’t wait for you to one day read these novels, just not for another ten or twelve years.