Yes, there is no such paper as The Dundee Herald. And there’s no such school as Bellview. Sometimes fiction writers have to invent stuff.
As ever, any errors in geography, continuity or any deviation from the real world are mine alone and made either through dramatic necessity or sheer stupidity on my part.
Anything that’s right in the book, you can thank the following:
The guys behind the guy
Al “Sunshine” Guthrie: World’s deadliest agent.
Ross Bradshaw: Scotman in exile, with some very sharp editorial suggestions.
John Schoenfelder: Taking McNee across the ocean in style.
The pushers
The cool kids at Waterstone’s, Dundee; the old Blue Shirts (and Church) from the Flatman days; the rapscallions at Waterstone’s, St Andrews; the crew at Murder By the Book and, indeed, booksellers everywhere who deserve far more credit for the job they do.
The enablers
Jen Jordan; Jon Jordan; Ruth Jordan; Linda Landrigan; Sandra Ruttan; Tony Black; Steven Torres; Donna Moore; Charlie and Anne Marie Stella; Robert Simon MacDuff-Duncan; Jim Smith; Dave White; Kerry Shearer; Bob Mike and Christine from Beiderbeckes.
The back up
Rebecca Simpson; Gary Smith; Tim Stephen; Jennifer McDowall; Steven Wicks; Karen “Civilian Ambulance” Whyte; Renate Hutton; Lesley Nimmo.
The family
Dot and Martin McLean, my mum and dad, as ever.
And of course, readers everywhere. Even the ones who don’t like bad language…