Acknowledgements

As usual, my thanks go to many people, because although an author’s life is solitary in the conception of the child that is a book, it takes a village to raise it.

So I am grateful to my agent Jo Bell for being in my corner, to my editors Kit Nevile and Miranda Ward for their keen eye and to all at Canelo for their hard work in bringing the adventures to a wider audience.

Also to my author friends Caro Ramsay, Theresa Talbot, Gordon Brown, Michael J Malone and Denzil Meyrick who are always available for support and advice. Gratitude also goes to those authors who read and commented on the previous books, including Ian Rankin, Ambrose Parry, SG MacLean, James Oswald, Marion Todd, DV Bishop, Craig Russell, the aforementioned Denzil Meyrick (he gets everywhere), David Gilman, Alison Belsham, Paul Doherty, Neil Broadfoot, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Anna Mazzola, Chris Lloyd, Mark Ellis, Candace Robb, Michael Jecks, Alis Hawkins.

And huge thanks to the festival organisers, bloggers, reviewers, librarians, booksellers and, of course, the readers, without whom these words would be little more than fading shadows on a page, unread, unloved, unlived.

Finally, my thanks to Sarah Frame, who has made life so much better.