To the world’s best literary agent, Dorian Karchmar— it’s a gift to have you on my team and in my life. I’m grateful to be the beneficiary of your immense creative skills, your keen judgment— about all the things— and your boundless empathy. Sincere thanks to the lovely and dedicated Anna DeRoy for all your hard work and your belief in me. My appreciation also to Matilda Forbes Watson, James Munro, Alex Kane, Jessica Spitz, Christina Lee, Megan Pelson, and everyone else at WME. Thank you for all your efforts on my behalf.
Thank you to my beloved lawyer and law school bestie Victoria Cook— such a gift to always have you in my corner. Thanks also to the ever-fabulous Mark Merriman. To Katherine Faw, my own personal savior, I have absolutely no idea what I’d do without you— so I’m afraid you can never leave. Thanks also to Claudia Herr, Darren Carter, Deena Warner, Brendan Kennedy, and Harris Davis.
To my best friends and beautiful beta readers— Megan Crane, Cara Cragan, Elena Evangelo, Heather Frattone, Tania Garcia, Nicole Kear, and Motoko Rich— thank you for always dropping everything to read and then finding a way to be both truthful and kind. I’m so lucky to have you all in my life. An extra thank-you to Tara Pometti and Jon Reinish, who not only served as early readers, but tracked down experts for me. Huge thanks to Parky Lee for taking my out-of-the-blue call and helping with such generosity and warmth. Thank you also to Joe Daniels, Teresa Maloney, David Fischer, D. Ann Williams, and Zhui Ning Chang. And remember everyone: only the good parts of this book are about my friendships with all of you.
To my amazing experts without whom I would be hopelessly lost— thank you for so patiently answering my endless questions about how art is sold, how guns go off, how many plastic gloves you actually use at a crime scene and whether you really can pull an IV out your own arm. Bless you: Stanley Dohm, Dr. Ora Pearlstein, Jim Reinish, and Professor Linda C. Rourke. A special thank-you to retired detective Peter Frederick for combing through the manuscript in detail, for always being there to consider even my most outlandish follow-up queries, and for being kind enough to make me laugh while telling me I got things totally wrong.
As always, thank you to the miraculous Nike Arowolo for everything you do and much gratitude to Martin and Clare Prentice for your unfailing support.
Thank you Tony, Harper, and Emerson for allowing me the space to write this book in an insane lockdown world— when space was precisely what none of us had to give. I can only imagine how hard it was. And I will be forever grateful.