The Dave Gurney series continues to benefit enormously from the crucial guidance and support of the best agent in the world, Molly Friedrich—along with her remarkable associates Lucy Carson and Nichole LeFebvre, who have done so much to make the series an international success. And I am once again indebted to my great editor, Rick Horgan, whose incisive comments and suggestions make everything I write so much better. Finally, a special thank-you to my good friend Porter Kirkwood for taking the time to read an early outline of this novel and to set me straight on some of the general legal issues involved in the plot. He’s responsible for whatever I managed to get right. Any errors in the final version of the story are mine alone.