Amanda Martin, my editor. Thank you for your sharp editorial eye, sympathetic edits, and astute problem solving. Editing a mystery novel is like building a house of cards: one piece tumbles and the whole thing comes down. Editors are the glue that keeps the tower upright. I’m sorry about the joke about editors in Chapter 27. I wrote the chapter number here and not a page number just in case you have PTSD from the page numbers. While we’re on the topic, I’m also sorry about the page numbers.

Nerrilee Weir and Alice Richardson have done an incredible job of finding opportunities for this book to reach readers all around the world. I am in awe to think that I’m able to tell my story to so many people, and I am grateful for all the hard work, late nights/early mornings and Zoom meetings. Kelly Jenkins and Hannah Ludbrook in marketing and publicity, respectively, thank you for being such loud and enthusiastic voices for this book – any author would be lucky to have such champions of their work in their corner.

I am obsessed with the cover design by James Rendall. (I show it to people at parties the way people show photos of their dogs, and, just like those people, am often avoided.) Thank you for such fabulous inventiveness. Thank you to Sonja Heijn for your careful eye and to Midland Typesetters for the brilliant typesetting and interiors – again, sorry about the page numbers.

Pippa Masson, my agent, ably supported by Caitlan Cooper-Trent – thank you both for the encouragement and guidance, and for believing that I could get this book to the next level at every step. I couldn’t do any of this without you in my corner. Life-changing would be an understatement for your help in guiding my career. Jerry Kalajian, thank you for your enthusiastic championing of screen rights. I’d also like to say that agents, being equal parts counsellor and therapist, should really be eligible for Medicare rebates.

Rebecca McAuley generously donated to the RFS to aid in Australia’s bushfire recovery in return for a character name – thank you.

Thank you to my parents, Peter and Judy, my siblings, James and Emily, and the Paz family, Gabriel, Elizabeth and Adrian, for their support of all of my creative endeavours. James, sorry I keep killing the brother off. I swear I don’t mean anything by it. Also, no one in my family has actually killed anyone. To my knowledge, anyway.

And to Aleesha Paz. I promised you long ago my third book would be dedicated to you. Funnily enough, without you I don’t think I would have ever finished it. So this one’s yours. Who am I kidding – they’re all for you.