Saoirse shared the address with her, and Morgan returned to the high-top table, extracting a book from her backpack, nestled next to her Bart Simpson doll. The cover was softened and it had a few more tears than when she’d bought it at a bookstore in London to read on the train to Paris. Setting the copy of Fight Club on the table, she ordered two pints of Guinness and two shots of Jameson, and waited for Hudson to walk through the door.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

“What happens to them after?” I asked.

The sunlight streamed in through the living room window, creating a gauzy effect around my friend’s silhouette. My fingers hovered over the keyboard as she paused in thought, and said, “In a lot of cases, victims of abuse will continue to be victims … or they will become the perpetrators of it.”

It was this thread that began knitting the story of The Widowmaker. I would like to thank Sergeant Sarah Zupke of the Racine Police Department for sharing her knowledge as a former Sensitive Crimes investigator. Her insight helped shape Morgan and Hudson in ways I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish otherwise.

In fact, there are many people without whom this book wouldn’t exist. Sharon Pelletier, for one, who is my wonderful literary agent and voice of reason. Her confidence gives me confidence, and without her, I would never have connected with my fearless editor, Leslie Gelbman. Not only did Leslie take me on during one of the most unprecedented times in history, she championed this book on the sheer belief that I could write it, and she didn’t run for the hills when, after being left to my own devices, a first draft popped up in her inbox that was simply “too dark and too weird”—a critique I adored so much I had it made into a neon sign.

St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books have been incredibly collaborative and supportive. Thanks especially to Kayla Janas and Joseph Brosnan for connecting me with exciting opportunities, Lisa Bonvissuto for her keen eye and ability to tug on the right threads, and David Baldeosingh Rotstein for absolutely killing it with the cover design for The Widowmaker as well as Hello, Transcriber.

I’d like to thank my fellow authors who shared a quote and who, over the past couple years, have shown me that people who write murder mysteries are some of the nicest, most genuine humans on the planet.

Thank you to Allied Authors of Wisconsin. Not only did we survive a global pandemic, I’d say we thrived with the introduction of virtual hangouts. And to my longtime critique partner, Alissa Stormont: I’m so glad we met in the slush pile all those years ago.