Huge thanks to Caroline Kirkpatrick for her support, help and insightful editorial skills. Caz, you helped shape The Missing into a book I’m truly proud of. A big cheer for everyone else at Avon, HarperCollins for all their hard work behind the scenes, particularly the sales and digital marketing teams, and to LightBrigade for their PR brilliance. A massive hug to Maddy, Thérèse and Cara at the Madeleine Milburn agency for your guidance, support and expertise. I’m so proud to work with such a fabulous group of women.
I’m indebted to the people who gave up their time so willingly to help me with my research. It’s important to me that my books are as accurate and realistic as possible and I couldn’t have written The Missing without you. Thanks to Stuart Gib for answering my enormous list of questions about police procedures, Dr. Jez Phillips for kindly giving up so much of his time to help me understand dissociative amnesia, DK Green for talking to me about counseling and ethics, Torie Collinge for giving me the low-down on life as a pharmaceutical sales rep, Andrew Parsons for pharmaceutical advice, Lee Stone for his train expertise, Dr. Charlotte McCreadie for answering my GP questions, Michael Jones for explaining paramedic procedure and to Joanna Purdue for being a mobile phone guru. Thank you Ray Wingate for answering my questions about CCTV—unfortunately those scenes didn’t make the final cut but I’m still very grateful for your time. I’d also like to thank Susannah Thomson who ferried me around in her car so I could research some of the Bristol settings in the book. The black bag we saw floating in the river made it into the Avonmouth scene!
A special mention goes to Pierre L’allier who won a mention in the acknowledgements as a result of his very generous bid in the Authors for Nepal Auction. Thank you too to Clare Christian who was equally as generous in supporting the Clic Sargent auction. She named the character Edie Christian. I hope your daughter enjoys the book, Clare.
So much love to my parents Reg and Jenny Taylor whose neverending support (and babysitting help!) make it possible for me escape from my desk so I can go out and about and meet my readers and other authors. You’re the best! Love too to my sister, Bec, and brother, Dave, for amusing me on WhatsApp and keeping me grounded. A massive hug to my extended family—Sophie, Rose, Leah, Suz, LouBag, Ana, Angela, Guin, Steve, Nan, Ali, Margaret, Sam and all my lovely uncles, aunties and cousins (there are a lot of us). Big kisses to my amazing friends—Rowan, Julie, Kate, Miranda and Tamsyn—for always being there. Love you girls. There are so many other people I’d like to thank but I’m running out of space so thank you to the CAN ladies, the Bristol SWANS, the Brighton mob (past and present), the Ellerslie Girls, Knowle Book (Wine) Club and all my lovely writer friends.
And finally . . . all the love in the world to Chris and Seth. You have my heart.