Acknowledgments

My deepest gratitude goes to Aaron Pomeroy for his insights into law enforcement. I also want to thank his wife, Heather, as well as their daughters Madison and Savannah, for their feedback, suggestions, and hilarious stories, which continually inform and enrich my own storytelling.

Thanks also to Ken and Lynne Davis for sharing with me their knowledge about guns and police work.

A special thank-you to my friend, fellow globe-trotter, and dog lover, Katerina Lorenzatos Makris, whose knowledge about our four-legged friends and dog rescue work worldwide boggles the mind. Thank you for your enthusiasm, energy, and invaluable feedback.

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Botros (Peter) Kemel and Wajiha (Jill) Nasrallah for teaching me about keeping bees and harvesting honey, and for fostering in me a love of beekeeping, which has resulted in the establishment of my own hives.

I want to thank Anne Marie Behan for her years (and stories about) working as a paramedic, and Abbie Serrano for her service in law enforcement and for inspiring my sleuth, who bears her name, albeit with a different spelling.

For her unwavering support of the Henny Penny Farmette and the vacant midcentury house she owns, which inspired threads of rising tension in this narrative, I extend a warm thank-you to Jeanne Lederer.

To my husband, Carlos J. Carvajal, and my son Joshua, I give my heartfelt thanks for your love, patience, and support throughout the writing of this book.

And finally, a hug and a kiss to my agent, Paula Munier, who tells me the truth, but always lovingly . . . and to my editor Michaela Hamilton, who saw promise in an untested novelist and took a chance.