Thanks once again to everyone at St. Martin’s/Minotaur, including (but not limited to) Lily Cronig, Hector DeJean, Stephen Erickson, Nicola Ferguson, Meryl Gross, Paul Hochman, Kayla Janas, Andrew Martin, Kelley Ragland, Sarah Melnyk, and especially my editor, Pete Wolverton. And thanks also to the Art Department for yet another glorious cover.
More thanks to my agent, Ellen Geiger, and to Matt McGowan and the staff at the Frances Goldin Literary Agency for taking care of the business side of things so I can concentrate on writing.
Special thanks this time around to my Canadian accuracy consultants, Jane Burfield and Pam Thomson—anything I got wrong about Meg’s visitors must be something I forgot to ask them about. Thanks—for the umpteenth time—to retired police officer Mark Bergin, who takes time from his own crime writing to advise me (and so many of his friends) on police procedure.
I’d like to give a shout-out to David and Kristen Mittleman of Othram—I follow their cutting-edge forensic DNA work with a fascination that helped inspire part of the plot of this book. Anyone who wants to learn more about—or support—their work of solving crimes, can visit their website, DNA solves.com.
Many thanks to the friends who brainstorm and critique with me, give me good ideas, or help keep me sane while I’m writing: Stuart, Aidan, and Liam Andrews; Deborah Blake; Chris Cowan; Ellen Crosby; Kathy Deligianis; Margery Flax; Suzanne Frisbee; John Gilstrap; Barb Goffman; Joni Langevoort; David Niemi; Alan Orloff; Dan Stashower, Art Taylor; Robin Templeton; and Dina Willner. And thanks to all the TeaBuds for two decades of friendship.
Above all, thanks to the readers who make all of this possible.