Charity's Burden

by Edith Maxwell

  the end

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks as always to editors Amy Glaser and Nicole Nugent and the Midnight Ink team for publishing this series. With every book, Amy and Nicole point out crucial improvements and catch small but important errors of detail. Greg Newbold once again created the art for the beautiful cover and captured the sense of the story.

  I was grateful to join Tiger Wiseman again for a high word-count week at her Mystery Acres in Vermont and for her Scrivener consulting. I also was able to spend a productive week with Ramona DeFelice Long and others in another Clare House writing retreat. Ramona gave a fourth brilliant performance with her developmental edit of the manuscript, too. Thank you, my friend.

  As always, my Wicked Cozy Authors gang has my back, both on the blog and behind the scenes: Barbara Ross, Liz Mugavero, Julie Hennrikus, Sherry Harris, and Jessie Crockett. Please come visit us at wickedauthors.com, check out all their other names, and read these ladies’ books. You won’t regret it.

  Rose’s father Allan is modeled on my late father, Allan Maxwell, Jr. I’d rather have him still here to read the manuscripts, but I know he’s beaming at my literary successes from wherever his soul rests.

  Catriona McPherson helped me with Scottish flavor for one scene, and KB Inglee again read a draft and fixed a few historical faux pas. Thanks, author pals! Midwife Risa Rispoli checked the birthing details, for which I am ever grateful.

  I was privileged to attend, in a labor support role, the birth of my goddaughter Anna Yanco Papa’s first baby over the course of a weekend while this book was in progress. (I was in the room when Anna was born to my best friend thirty-three years ago, so this was a special completion of a cycle.) We all rejoiced in a healthy baby girl born to Anna and her darling husband, Kevin Braxton, and the experience was a mini-refresher course in labor and delivery for me. I thank them both for allowing me to be there.

  Last year was Amesbury’s 350th birthday and the year was filled with events celebrating the town’s long and rich history. At the kickoff party live auction, I donated naming rights to a character in this book. Jonathan Sherwood, I hope you like being a supervisor at Lowell’s Boat Shop!

  I’m blessed and grateful for the love and support of Amesbury Friends, Sisters in Crime, my good friends, my sons and sisters, and my beau—I love you all back.

  About the Author

  Agatha- and Macavity-nominated Edith Maxwell (Amesbury, MA) is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, co-chair of the New England Crime Bake, and a longtime member of the Society of Friends. She also writes the Local Foods Mysteries, the Country Store Mysteries, and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries (the last two penned as Maddie Day), as well as award-winning short crime fiction. You can find her at edithmaxwell.com and blogging at wickedauthors.com and killercharacters.com.