Acknowledgments

This was a complicated book and I was pulled to safety several times by my incredible agents, Annelise Robey and Andrea Cirillo. Thanks also to the whole team at the Jane Rotrosen Agency—Chris Prestia, Danielle Sickles, Donald Cleary, Julianne Tinari, Michael Conroy, Sabrina Prestia, Hannah Rody-Wright, Ellen Tischler, and Gena Louque.

To Jennifer Enderlin, queen of editors, who guided me toward the best version of this story with patience and vision, to you my constant gratitude.

Thanks to the excellent team at St. Martin’s Press, especially Rachel Diebel, who so ably makes things happen. And to Lisa Senz, Young Lim, Jordan Hanley, Brant Janeway, Lisa Davis, Clare Maurer, and Matie Argiropoulos.

To Carol Edwards, copy editor par excellence, who, as always, saves me from embarrassing myself. Thank you.

Tom Dresser introduced me to Dogtown and this book would never have been conceived without his history, Dogtown: A Village Lost in Time. Kathy Schad of Gloucester was incredibly helpful with getting a flavor of life on Cape Ann. Dagmar Lewis gave me some insights on the puppy training program in New York prisons. Thank you all.

I am deeply indebted to the Rev. Cristina Rathbone, who provided me with a view into the lives of women in prison. Any veracity in this book I owe to her.

Lastly, thank you Shelley Brown, Brenda and Leon Brathwaite for lending me your names.

This book has lived large in my imagination for a long time, and it is exactly that, a work of my imagination. Whereas I wanted to create a believable universe, it may be somewhat flawed. That’s the joy of writing fiction.