Tommy shook his head like he was in slow motion.

Digging out his last ten, Jem said, “Go get something to eat.”

Then Jem headed back into the city, trying to figure out the best place he could get an asshole to buy him a drink.

Acknowledgments

My deepest thanks go out to the following people (in alphabetical order):

Justene Adamec, for helping me tie up the ending with the rental truck, for suggesting family and friends at the wedding reception, for being willing to chat about Chief Riggle, and for catching so many of my errors.

Kate Collopy, for pointing out areas that needed clarification, catching typos, and most importantly, introducing me to Edward Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and his criticism of pie charts (and giving me another great Hazard joke).

Austin Gwin, for his support and encouragement, for helping me think back and reconsider the extent of Mitchell’s injury in The Rational Faculty, and for helping me think about the ‘torture dungeon’ in terms of the Saw movies.

Steve Leonard, for checking on The Price is Right showgirls, suggesting the chapter break in the climax, helping me understand why he found characters suspicious—and why he didn’t—and for keeping track of Hazard’s missed phone calls.

Cheryl Oakley, for her extensive edits, for checking and double-checking the wedding ‘surprise,’ for feedback on which jokes to keep, and for doing all this while also re-proofing the first six Hazard and Somerset mysteries—and going through some big life changes of her own!

Carole Rubin, for being the first to point out that Princeton doesn’t have a law school and for suggesting how my mistake might be put to good use. This book, especially Darnell’s role in it, would have been very different without her input!

Tray Stephenson, for pointing out so many of my errors, for always being ready to offer a kind word, and for his emails of encouragement and support.

Dianne Thies, for her keen editorial eye, for giving me the wonderful idea of Dulac being proud of being a suspect (I still love it so much!), for helping me keep track of continuity errors (where is Hazard’s wallet?), and for helping me think about issues that needed resolved in this book—and issues that I’m going to carry over to Hazard and Somers’s next adventures!

Jo Wegstein, for her incredible attention to detail, for helping me realize that Hazard would never throw a wet towel in a hamper (twice!) and, in doing so, setting up the next domestic dust-up; for helping me think through the denouement and the elements I needed to include; for bringing the sheriff back into the story; and for keeping me from running my pudding cup joke into the ground!

About the Author

Learn more about Gregory Ashe and forthcoming works at www.gregoryashe.com.

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