As Eric Walters likes to say, he who goes fastest, goes alone; those who go farthest, go together. Stories and books are seldom purely solitary creations, and this one was no exception. I think we traveled a long way.
Many people deserve credit for the good bits; anything you didn’t like should come straight back to me. First off, my thanks again to Eric Walters for the initial series idea and for generously inviting me to take part. I’ve had a fantastic time with this. Also, my thanks to Richard Scrimger and John Wilson, who got together with me over a beer one night (imagine the three of us hovering over one bottle) as we came up with the themes of espionage and dubious loyalty that drive this second series. While he’s still hovering, further thanks to Richard for his ingenuity and enthusiasm in again linking our stories. Hats off also to Norah, Shane and Sigmund for their willingness to share ideas and companionship on the road as we promoted the first series and got this one up and running.
As always, my thanks on the home front to Margaret and Will for their patience, good humor and advice as they listened, read, reread, hand-held and gently suggested things far too sensible for me to ever think of on my own. Sometimes I think I only write so I can listen to their input.
Then there’s the Sanders family (to whom I owe a gramophone and ski tips), Muskoka expert Frank Rolfe, Ed Greenwood, who can conjure a DVD of The Ipcress File and Bond trivia with equal aplomb, and the nameless owner of the crocogator/grow op establishment reported in the Toronto Star. You can’t make up stuff like that.
Coda is intended to be an affectionate spoof of classic espionage tales. A number of writers and titles are name-checked in the story, particularly Len Deighton, whose words also provided part of the epigraph for this book. My thanks to all of them for countless hours of reading pleasure.
And I can’t wait a moment longer to thank Sarah Harvey, my editor. Her keen eye and ear, humor and willingness to thrash out a plot point or character gave me confidence that it would all work out in the end. Kudos and a medal for perseverance (and bravery) to Sarah as well for editing all of the Seven titles, and to the folks at Orca who work so hard on the series.
Finally, I’d like to thank you, the reader, not only for hanging in all the way through a long set of acknowledgments, but for supporting Seven. You make all the difference.