The Fury(74)

Joking aside—if you’re reading this, then these are the words of a dead man. That’s the final twist. I didn’t get out alive, either. No one does, in the end.

But let’s not dwell on that.

Let us end, instead, as we began—with Lana.

She’s still here, you know. I haven’t entirely lost her. She lives on in my mind.

When I’m lonely, or afraid, or I miss her—which is all the time—all I have to do is close my eyes.

Then, I’m right back there—a little boy in the movie theater, in the fifteenth row.

And I gaze at her, smiling, in the dark.





Acknowledgments


It’s impossible for anyone to write a book like this without standing on the shoulders of giants who did it first and did it much better, so I feel I must begin by acknowledging the debt of gratitude I owe writers like Agatha Christie, Anthony Shaffer, Patricia Highsmith, and Ford Madox Ford, for inspiring me and The Fury. They say it takes a village—which was never more true than for this book. So many people helped me along the way. I had a lot of fun writing this story and exploring this world, but I got seriously lost in the woods a few times. My brilliant editors, Ryan Doherty at Celadon and Joel Richardson at Michael Joseph, and agent extraordinaire Sam Copeland always helped me find the path again. Thank you, my friends—you went above and beyond the call of duty.

I’d like to thank my U.S. and U.K. publishers for doing such an amazing job. Your tireless dedication and sheer talent bowls me over. At Celadon, I owe a huge thanks to Deb Futter, Jamie Raab, Rachel Chou, Christine Mykityshyn, and Anne Twomey. I’d also like to thank Jennifer Jackson, Jaime Noven, Sandra Moore, Rebecca Ritchey, Cecily van Buren-Freedman, Liza Buell, Randi Kramer, and Julia Sikora. Thank you, Will Staehle and Erin Cahill, for the fab cover. And in Production, thank you, Jeremy Pink, Vincent Stanley, Emily Walters, and Steve Boldt. And a big thank-you to the Macmillan sales team.

At Michael Joseph, I’d like to give massive thanks to Louise Moore, Maxine Hitchcock, Grace Long, and Sarah Bance. Also, Ellie Hughes, Sriya Varadharajan, Vicky Photiou, Hattie Evans, and Lee Motley.

At Rogers, Coleridge & White, I owe a big thank-you to Peter Straus, Honor Spreckley, David Dunn, Nelka Bell, and Chris Bentley-Smith. And extra-special thanks to the foreign rights agents, who simply are the best in the business—Tristan Kendrick, Katharina Volckmer, Stephen Edwards, and Sam Coates.

I would also like to thank Nedie Antoniades, for kicking the story around with me in its embryonic form, and for suggesting the character of Nikos. And for your incredibly helpful notes, which elevated the final drafts considerably, thank you to Sophie Hannah, Hannah Beckerman, Hal Jensen, David Fraser, Emily Holt, and Uma Thurman.

Thank you, Ivan Fernandez Soto, for your help and sound advice. Thanks, Katie Haines, for being such a star and always making everything so much fun. Thank you, Olga Mavropoulou, for lending me your wonderful name.

And finally, thank you to my parents, George and Christine Michaelides, and my sisters, Emily Holt and Vicky Holt, for all your support.