MANY THANKS TO CAROLYN MAYS, MY EDITOR AT Hodder & Stoughton. Also thanks to Abby Parsons for all her assistance and to Justine Taylor for clear and clean copy-editing. At McClelland & Stewart, I would like to thank Ellen Seligman, and at William Morrow, my editor Daniel Mallory and assistant editor Marguerite Weisman. I would also like to thank my wife Sheila Halladay, who read the manuscript when I thought it was ready to submit and found even more room for improvement.

Thanks to my agents Dominick Abel and David Grossman for their continuing encouragement and support. Also thanks to the publicists—Kerry Hood at Hodder, Ashley Dunn at McClelland & Stewart, and Megan Schumann at Morrow.

Thanks to Nicholas Reckert for the interesting walks that somehow always seem to suggest a possible crime scene. In this book, he is by no means responsible for Wytherton Heights, which is entirely of my own imagining.

As far as research is concerned, I want to give special thanks to Jenny Brierley, ICT Archivist at the West Yorkshire Archive Service, for her invaluable help in tracking down old police records.

I feel it might also be useful to mention three books I found particularly useful when researching the themes of my novel: In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile by Dan Davies; Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith by Simon Danczuk and Matthew Baker; and Violated by Sarah Wilson.

Last but not least, thanks to the sales teams who make the deals and set up the special promotions, to the reps who get out on the road and sell the book to the shops, and to the booksellers themselves, without whom you wouldn’t be holding this volume in your hand. And thanks, of course, to you, the reader.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

One of the world’s most popular and acclaimed writers, PETER ROBINSON grew up in the United Kingdom, and now divides his time between Toronto and England. The bestselling, award-winning author of twenty-three books in the Inspector Banks series, he has also written two short-story collections and three standalone novels. Among his many honors and prizes are the Edgar Award, the CWA (UK) Dagger in the Library Award, France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, Sweden’s Martin Beck Award, and the Danish Palle Rosenkrantz award.

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ALSO BY PETER ROBINSON

GALLOWS VIEW

A DEDICATED MAN

A NECESSARY END

THE HANGING VALLEY

PAST REASON HATED

WEDNESDAY’S CHILD

FINAL ACCOUNT

INNOCENT GRAVES

BLOOD AT THE ROOT

NOT SAFE AFTER DARK

IN A DRY SEASON

COLD IS THE GRAVE

AFTERMATH

CLOSE TO HOME

PLAYING WITH FIRE

STRANGE AFFAIR

PIECE OF MY HEART

ALL THE COLORS OF DARKNESS

FRIEND OF THE DEVIL

THE PRICE OF LOVE AND OTHER STORIES

BAD BOY

BEFORE THE POISON

WATCHING THE DARK

CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION

IN THE DARK PLACES

CREDITS

Cover photograph © Axiom Photographic/Corbis

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

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