Whether I wanted to know about tripping dachshunds or human corpses, forensic pathologist Dr Frank Glenewinkel of Cologne answered all my questions with humour and patience. Michael Breiter of the Cologne Criminal Investigation Department gave me all the information I needed on searching for missing persons. Child and youth psychotherapist Elke Wieczorrek enlightened me on the psyches of adolescent bullies and their victims.
Stephen G. Martin took me to the loons in Canada. Underwater photographer Norbert Wu’s photo book Splendours of the Seas (Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1998) fired the imagination of my character Tim Rinker; the music of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Susheela Raman, Friend ’n Fellow and Tori Amos fired my own.
The book Call of the Loon by ornithologist Dr Paul Strong was a great help to me, as was a scholarly article by Professor Michael Wink, from which I was given kind permission to quote (Michael Wink et al., ‘Ein Eistaucher, Gavia immer, bei Düren – Fundgeschichte und erste genetische Herkunftsuntersuchungen’, Charadrius 38.4, 2002).
I would like to thank my friend and proofreader Katrin Busch who always said or asked exactly the right thing at the right moment, my friend Christina Horst for philosophical evenings and insight into everyday life in a school in 2006, and my esteemed colleagues at Sisters in Crime.
Very special thanks go to my husband Michael for our many rewarding conversations about this book – and for being at my side, even though life with a crime writer can at times resemble a crime novel.
Gisa Klönne
PS. This is a novel. All characters and the story are my own invention, as is the town of Cozy Harbour and Bertolt Brecht Grammar School.