I’d like to thank all the people who helped make Catacombs happen. Tony Ain did his usual scour of the manuscript, and you would not believe the number of unclosed quotes, errors of fact, plot holes, unclosed parentheses, and omitted punctuation marks that I can leave in a manuscript that I think is pretty close to finished. This wouldn’t have been the same book without him.
My children—Michael Garmon, Rachel Broughten, and Amanda Evans—also offered their insightful commentary.
This was my first book featuring a significant FBI presence, and I am hugely indebted to Angela Bell with the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs for patiently answering many question that, truth told, were a bit odd. When FBI agents in Catacombs behave as FBI agents in real life do, it is due to her experience and expertise. When they do not, it is either due to my failure to ask her the right questions or to the necessity of bending reality to fit the needs of a good story.
I’d also like to thank Raymond Melton and Derek Johnson with Oklahoma City’s Department of Public Works for helping me imagine the world beneath the feet of everyone who walks through downtown Oklahoma City. And I’d like to thank Lieutenant Medley of the Oklahoma City Police Department for believing me when I told him that I did not ask Public Works for information on moving around under the city because I had any intention of doing anything untoward down there. I’ve been writing crime novels for more than fifteen years now, and this is the very first time that my quirky questions have triggered a call from law enforcement. I feel oddly proud.
I’m grateful to Ember Ahua for helping me get a feel for my Nigerian American FBI agent and for telling me about egusi soup with bitter leaf, because it is just the kind of sensory detail that brings stories to life. She was so helpful that I gave my FBI agent her beautiful surname.
Cully Mantooth’s first name owes a debt to Leroy Cully, my friend and the maker of my beautiful cedar flute that I don’t play very well. His flutes were the inspiration for Cully Mantooth’s career as a musician and composer. If you see me wearing a cowboy hat with a beautifully beaded band, know that the band was a gift from Leroy. His daughters Kelley Morrow and Vinci Cully Barron have also been very generous with their knowledge of tribal issues and of Oklahoma.
As always, I am grateful for the people who help me get my work ready to go out into the world, the people who send it out into the world, and the people who help readers find it. Many thanks go to my agent, Anne Hawkins, and to the wonderful people at Poisoned Pen Press, who do such a good job for us, their writers. For Catacombs, I’m proud to add the wonderful people at Sourcebooks to my list of folks to thank. I’m happy to be a part of the Sourcebooks team and I’m excited by the synergy that will help Sourcebooks and Poisoned Pen Press get Faye’s adventures to a new audience. Because I can trust that my editor, Barbara Peters, and the rest of the hardworking Poisoned Pen Press staff will ensure that my work is at its best when it reaches the public, I am free to focus on creating new adventures for Faye. I’m also grateful to the University of Oklahoma for providing the opportunity for me to teach a new generation of authors while continuing to write books of my own.
And, of course, I am always (always!) grateful for you, my readers.