Dear Reader,

The Thief, as well as the other books in the Hope Chest series (The Mesmerist by Pam McCutcheon, The Lawman by P.J. Bishop, The Prince by Karen Fox, and The Pinkerton by Maureen McKade) were all born around a restaurant table covered with butcher paper. Armed with purple and orange crayons, we plotted like mad and came up with The Chesterfield, Major Payne, Rupert and most of the secondary characters. Then, each of us began to shape our own stories within this framework. Of the five books, The Thief underwent the greatest transformation from initial idea to finished book. But one element never changed during the metamorphosis—the character of Delgatto.

Astute watchers of television, more specifically of Xena and Hercules,might notice some similarities between the character of Delgatto and that other “King of Thieves,” Autolycus. Rest assured, this was no accident. As a lifelong lover of television, I can’t resist the urge to cast my books—albeit mentally—with actors. In this case, from the very first moments the story started to coalesce in my mind, I knew that my King of Thieves would share the same “heart of gold” as that other royal rogue, Autolycus as portrayed by Bruce Campbell. To that end, I have not-so-cleverly included some Autolycus/Ash/Brisco lines in this book.

Did you find them?

E-mail me at suspense@suspense.net and let me know.

And don’t forget to get Maureen’s book and find out what Miss Sparrow is up to next. . . .

Laura Hayden