My sixth psychological thriller (and ninth book!), completed. With each novel, the list of people to thank grows longer, and this time I want to begin by saying a huge thank you to booksellers. The thrill of seeing my books on actual shelves in actual shops will never, ever fade, whether it’s in the big supermarkets like Tesco and Asda, on the High Street in Waterstones, The Works, or charity shops, or in the brilliant small independent bookshops (with a particular mention for my favourite in Gloucestershire, The Cleeve Bookshop, run by the wonderful Will Williams – thank you so much Will, for all you do for local authors).
And while I’m talking about bookshops, I must also mention Foster Books, the oldest shop on Chiswick High Road in London, which inspired the fictional Meadow Bookshop, Heather’s workplace in this novel.
One of the joys of being an author is being invited to appear at literature festivals, the organisation of which is a huge task; in the past year I’ve had the pleasure of appearing at several, so special thanks to Crimefest, Evesham Festival of Words, Sandon Literature Festival, and Repton Literary Festival, among many others, for all you do to bring readers and writers together.
Back to this novel now, and thank you so much to IT expert Iran Burdine for the very useful advice about email hacking (for legal reasons I must stress that, obviously, he’s never done it himself!), and to my friend and colleague Stacey Lottes, who is such a big supporter of my novels and who appears in this one as Amber’s prison cellmate. (Sorry to make you a criminal, Stace, but she’s a nice criminal!) And on the theme of prisons, I’m also very grateful to the authors of a number of guides to life ‘inside’, which were invaluable for research, including ‘Prison for Newbies’ by prisonguide.co.uk.
And then, of course, there are all the people without whom I simply couldn’t produce my books. My brilliant literary agent, Clare Hulton – thank you for continuing to grow my writing career in ways I could never even have imagined. The amazing team at HarperCollins One More Chapter – I am so proud to be one of your authors. The fabulous Jennie Rothwell, who signed off the idea for this book, and came up with the title, before handing me back to my lovely editor, Kathryn Cheshire, now returned from maternity leave – I’m so happy to be working with you again. My copyeditor Lydia Mason – thank you as always for spotting those little (or sometimes very big) errors and always making me smile with your notes. My proofreader Simon Fox, for that final careful check that’s so very important. My super-talented cover designer, Lucy Bennett. The HarperCollins teams in the USA, Canada, and Australia, and the fantastic people at ILA who handle my other foreign rights. At the time of writing this novel, I also now have publishers in Spain, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Russia, Sri Lanka, and South Korea, something that still blows my mind.
The organisers of the Nielsen Awards – I am still stunned to have won a bestseller award last year, for sales of over a quarter of a million copies of my novel The Perfect Couple in the UK alone. Thank you so much. The award hangs in my downstairs loo, and I often go in there and just stare at it in amazement.
The book bloggers and reviewers who work so hard and give authors so much support – you are the best! And, of course, my readers. Your lovely messages and enthusiasm for my books are incredible, and I appreciate each and every one of you.
My husband, family, and friends – thank you so very, very much. Your genuine excitement and joy when good things happen in my book world means everything to me.
And finally, of course, my friend and colleague, Míceál Murphy, the man to whom this book is dedicated. You’ve had far, far more than your share of curveballs in this life – another huge one while I was writing this book – but your strength, positivity, and sense of humour are awe-inspiring; you are extraordinary. And reader, if you hate swearing, look away now, because I’m popping one more in, for Míceál.
F*** you, cancer.