To Donald J. Sobol, Clifford B. Hicks, Louise Fitzhugh, Robert Arthur Jr., Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams, Doug Wildey, Daniel Pinkwater, and all the writers who worked under the names Victor Appleton Jr., Carolyn Keene, and Franklin W. Dixon: Thank you for planting the clues and fueling the jetpacks. You opened magic doors for me when I was a kid. I am grateful for all the time I’ve spent on the other side of them.

To Daryl Gregory, Elizabeth Hand, Ross Helford, Ian Tregillis, Gregory Veeser, and Ben H. Winters, thank you for reading the manuscript that would become this book, and for all the edits and the advice. You only made it better.

Thanks to Howard Mittelmark, who edited and proofed this book, and Jennifer Jones and Killian Design Group, who formatted and designed it. The illustrations are by the very talented and patient Mike Dubisch. The map of Middleton is by Eric Almendral, who brought my imaginary town a little more fully into the world. The cover is by Rafael Andres. Mayrav Saar helped with the jacket copy and editing. Any errors that remain are mine.

I’m grateful to Austin Goldstein, Jacob Liszt, and Chason Samuel, who filled out forms as the warrior princess, the boy genius, and the young magician. And thanks to Brooke Williamson and Nick Roberts, who answered my questions on chef’s knives.

Thank you again to Dr. Jonathan Hayes, who advised me on the gruesome business of suicide and murder, and who will hopefully forgive me for the places where I ignored what he told me.

Thank you to Glenn Gaslin, Tod Goldberg, Will Kozicki, Bradley Marques, John Rember, the legendary Beau Smith, Lavie Tidhar, Ian Tregillis, and Antoine Wilson for general moral support.

To Jean and Caroline and Daphne, thank you for being my reason why. To Caroline, thank you for the edits and for lending your hand to Carrie Keene. To Daphne, thank you for the inspiration for the scene with Marianne the babysitter and for all your brilliant ideas.

And, always, my unlimited love and gratitude to Jean, who is my first and best reader, and who did not let me give up.

Finally, I will be eternally grateful to the late Kathy McNally Curtis, who let a second-grade kid write whatever he wanted.

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