by Elaine Viets
Thank you to the following: John Lentini, CFI, D-ABC, Scientific Fire Analysis, LLC, Islamorada, Florida. Retired death investigator Mary Fran Ernst, one of the authors of the training text Medicolegal Death Investigator. Death investigator Krysten Addison. Harold R. Messler, retired manager, criminalistics, Saint Louis Police Laboratory. Nurse and mystery writer Gregg Brickman, who helped with the medical information. Bill Hopkins, retired Missouri judge and author of the Judge Rosswell Carew Mysteries, who helped with the legal details. Detective R. C. White, Fort Lauderdale Police Department (retired) and licensed private eye, who provided boundless help about police procedure.
Thank you to my agent, Jill Marr of the Sandra Dijkstra Agency, and to my Thomas & Mercer team, including acquisitions editor Jessica Tribble, developmental editor Bryon Quertermous, author-relations editor Sarah Shaw, and Dennelle Catlett in Amazon Publishing public relations. I’m particularly grateful to the good catches by copy editors Haley Swan, Jill Kramer, and Elise Marton.
Many thanks to both Molly Portman and Alan Portman―Big Al the Pizza Dude―for their invaluable help on teen customs, pizza delivery, Snapchat, and tech info. Thanks to Will Graham, author of Spider’s Dance, and Nora E. Saunders of Saunders & Taylor Insurance, Inc., Fort Lauderdale. Joanna Campbell Slan, bestselling mystery author and Daphne du Maurier Award winner, and Jaden Terrell, author of A Taste of Blood and Ashes, also helped, as did Marcia Talley, author of the Hannah Ives mysteries, and editor and author Christina Wood.
Randy Rawls, former president of the Florida chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and author of the Beth Bowman and Tom Jeffries mysteries, advised me on drugstore-cowboy gear. Thank you, Donna Mergenhagen, Dr. Robin Waldron, Molly Weston, Dick Richmond, Susan Schlueter, and Mary Alice Gorman and Richard Goldman of revuzeit.com.
Some people gave me their names for this novel. Rene Sabatini is the owner of Azure Realty in Lighthouse Point, Florida. A generous donation to charity was made to have his name in this novel. Lin Kalomeris, a southeast Florida Realtor with Balestreri Real Estate, made a generous donation to have her name in Fire and Ashes. Sarah E. C. Byrne also donated to charity. She’s a lawyer from Canberra, Australia, and a crime-fiction aficionada. Jenny Carter is a retired computer geek who lives in Fort Lauderdale and, like her character, loves to walk everywhere in really high heels. Carol Berman is the manager of J. McLaughlin in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Laurie Hartig is the founder of Spread the Word Nevada, which helps at-risk children get the books they need. Mo Heedles is a mystery fan from New Hampshire. Jinny Gender, Montgomery Bryant’s office assistant, is actually a red-haired Saint Louis woman. Ann Burris and Dr. Bryan Berry live in Fort Lauderdale. Dr. Berry performs complex dental procedures and races Porsches, and the glamorous Ann is involved with a number of charitable organizations, through her own connections and her work in community relations for the Holland America Line. Ann made a generous donation to the Broward Public Library Foundation.
Thanks to Valerie Cannata, a former court reporter and horse lover who was part owner of the Thoroughbreds East Coast Express, American Hero, and Valerie’s Spirit. Thanks also to horsewoman Jennifer Christensen for her expertise.
Thank you, Femmes Fatales, for your encouragement and advice. Please read our blog at www.femmesfatales.typepad.com. My fellow bloggers at The Kill Zone have given useful and entertaining writing advice. Read us at killzoneauthors.blogspot.com.
And finally, thank you to my husband, Don Crinklaw, my first reader and true love, for his help and support.
Any questions or comments? I’d love to hear from you. Please e-mail me at [email protected].
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2013 Cristiana Pecheanu
Award-winning author Elaine Viets has written thirty-one mysteries in three series, including the bestselling Dead-End Job series, featuring South Florida private detectives Helen Hawthorne and her husband, Phil Sagemont. She also writes the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper mystery series and the dark Francesca Vierling mysteries. She has served on the national boards of the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. She’s a frequent contributor to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine as well as anthologies edited by Charlaine Harris and Lawrence Block. Viets has won the Anthony, Agatha, and Lefty Awards.
The Angela Richman, Death Investigator series returns the prolific author to her hard-boiled roots. Brain Storm draws on her personal experiences as a stroke survivor, as well as her studies in the Medicolegal Death Investigators Training Course at Saint Louis University’s School of Medicine. Fire and Ashes is the second novel in the series following Brain Storm.