I also need to thank the wider team at Andrew Nurnberg Associates and Johnson & Alcock for their support and for helping the book find new readers both here and abroad. Thank you also to my foreign publishers for believing in the story and wanting to bring it to your readers.
I would also like to thank the wonderful Stuart Gibbon for his detailed and always brilliant help with police procedure and terminology and for putting up with my endless questions. Any factual inaccuracies in police procedure are either my error or to fit the story.
Secondly, an enormous thank-you to my wonderful friends for their support for my writing and for cheering me on every step of the way. I haven’t seen as many of you as I’d have liked thanks to lockdown, but your ongoing kindness means the world. Equally to all those who follow and connect with me on social media, readers and booksellers alike, who don’t just support me, but show what a positive place social media can be. Your comments and messages have more impact than you know.
Thank you also to my local booksellers for your support, with a special mention to Emily and Tanya in Waterstones Torquay—your displays of my books are really something else and your ongoing kindness and enthusiasm throughout my writing journey has been everything an author could dream of!
I am blessed by the best family you could wish for and want to say a huge thank-you to them （thankfully nothing like the family in the book!）。 We were tight-knit before the pandemic （some people say scarily so!）， but this challenging year for our family has only brought us even closer. I don’t know what I’d have done without our daily （sometimes twice-daily） chats and your support.
Finally, thank you to my daughters and my husband. This novel was written in lockdown while we were juggling homeschool, family illness, and just about everything in between, but you kept me sane and provided me with endless cups of decaf. Thank you also to my two cats, Elsa and Anna, for always being at the end of the bed when I’m tackling a tricky plot point—I love how you seem to fall asleep best to the sound of me tapping on my keyboard. I don’t know what I would do without you all. Once again . . . FTB.
About the Author
Sarah Pearse grew up in Devon, England, and studied English literature and creative writing at the University of Warwick before completing a postgraduate diploma in broadcast journalism. The Sanatorium, her debut, was an instant New York Times bestseller and a #1 Sunday Times bestseller, and was selected as a Reese's Book Club Pick. The Retreat is her second novel.