Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For the historical details of Mercy (and Mary) Brown’s stories I used the referenced Providence Journal newspaper articles and Michael E. Bell’s wonderful book Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England’s Vampires. There are scores of Internet resources about Mercy as well, but from what I could tell, they all cited Michael’s comprehensive book.

Thank you, Lisa, Cole, and Emma, as always, for being understanding and supportive. A huge chunk of this book was written while we were in the teeth of pandemic lockdown (I finished a first draft almost to the day of my second vaccination shot in mid-April 2021), and there was no way I would’ve been sane enough to write this book without them. Extra thanks to Emma for drawing the floating vampire dresser.

To be clear, Art Barbara is and isn’t me. Well, fine, he’s mostly me. But! The other characters in the book are fictional characters. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for allowing me to continually fictionalize you both in ways big and small. I love and admire you more than you could know.

Thank you, John Langan for always being the ear that listens, and the friend on which I can lean. I still owe you a terrible fictionalization. It’s coming.

Thank you to friends and first readers Stephen Barbara, Lydia Gittins, and Sarah Langan. Your feedback and encouragement were invaluable.

The teams at William Morrow and Titan Books went above and beyond with this book, helping it to be and look the best it could be. Thank you to my editor Jennifer Brehl, who got me to wrestle this unruly thing into shape (I cut about thirty pages from the draft I’d turned in). Thank you, the tireless team of editors, copyeditors, designers, and marketing/publicity (and sorry, the next book will be easier to deal with. I mostly promise?): Nate Lanman, Mumtaz Mustafa, David Palmer, Pam Barricklow, Rachelle Mandik, Leah Carlson-Stanisic, Andrew DiCecco, Miranda Ruoff, Elina Cohen, Ryan Shepard, and Camille Collins.

Thank you, friends and family for the encouragement and support. Extra thanks to Michael Coulombe for coming with me on the visit to Mercy’s grave. I wasn’t too afraid to go by myself, I swear.

Thank you to all the musicians mentioned in the book who helped me to get through high school and beyond, and who continue to inspire me. Extra thanks to Andy Falkous who helped with some of the gear talk.

Special thanks to Rachel Autumn Deering for designing the rocking flyer.

Thank you, kind reader. And bless your delicious heart.

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR