by M. W. Craven
And last on the editorial side, Angie Morrison, my beta reader. Although your enthusiasm for Poe & Tilly is limitless, your advice is still measured and considerate. It’s also invariably correct. Brian Price and James Grieve (Emeritus Professor in Forensic Medicine) must get a mention for explaining the science behind ‘vital reaction’ – how a pathologist can tell if a finger has been amputated pre-or post-mortem. You guys are gross, by the way.
Andy Atkinson (who I suspect will be getting acknowledgements in all future books, as well, and who is almost certainly regretting ever meeting me), for his advice on how someone might go about hosting a website anonymously. I’m sure he loved explaining the difference between the deep and dark web, firewalls, single-board computers, logging systems and how bitcoin works … We speak different languages, Andy, but you found a way to dumb it down enough for me to understand it.
Fiona Sharp, bookseller extraordinaire. You have the energy of no one else I know, and I know David Headley. I’m sure if you badger Beth long enough, you’ll get your #TeamTilly tote bag eventually. Let me know if you want her home phone number …
Paul Musgrave and Mike Conefrey, Public Health Cumbria, for their insight into what the county’s response might be if a game like Blue Whale or Black Swan took hold up here. Scary stuff.
L.J. Morris gets a nod. I killed him off in the previous book but he was still good enough to help me out with some of the technical details of how submarines are built and their contracts managed. Sorry, Les, I do of course mean Ships Submersible Nuclear Ballistics: Dreadnought Class … Dork.
Bob and Carol Bridgestock, the awesome R.C. Bridgestock, helped enormously with the legality of grabbing evidence out of dustbins. Thanks, guys.
And so to the whinging b******s, those people who insist on being thanked, even though they did jack s**t. In order of decreasing relevance they are:
Ted Montague, who thinks lending his surname to a fictional island near where he lives is more than enough to get an acknowledgement. It isn’t, Ted, it really isn’t. You’re actually in here because our shared love of sarcasm made those dull probation managers’ meetings go that little bit faster.
Stuart ‘I’ve been your friend for forty years’ Wilson is in here because I can’t be bothered to listen to him whine for a whole year. Yes, I know you carefully explained the difference between Swaledale and Herdwick sheep, but that nugget of gold didn’t survive the first draft due to how mind-numbingly dull it was. If you want a real acknowledgement, come up with something more interesting. I’ll see you in the pub.
Likewise, Crawford Bunney, who seems to think that getting an advance copy of every book somehow entitles him to get his rather silly name in the back. It shouldn’t. And I’ll see you in the pub too.
My niece, Katie Douglass, got a mention in Black Summer as she’d helped with a science issue. For some reason, that means my other nieces (and one nephew) think they should have had a mention as well. I keep telling them, become a nerd like Katie and one day you might be able to help me with something. So Sam, Joe, Rosie and Chloe, not a chance, I’m afraid.
My Uncle John gets a mention for leading with ‘What’s happening with the TV stuff?’ EVERY SINGLE TIME he phones. And for buying more of my books than my entire family put together (if there are any authors reading this, tell him your book might become collectible – he’ll buy hundreds of copies), despite never having read a single page.
See you all in a year.
Mike