by Fiona Barton
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I’ve had calls from reporters asking me to tell my story in time for Jamie’s trial. I’m sure the words “dogged,” “devoted,” “brave,” and “inspirational” will be scattered freely across their articles. To them I am the Good Mother who stood by her son, solved the case, and won his freedom.
I suppose I am in a way. I’m waiting for the first one to arrive. She’ll be here soon. I wonder if she’ll bring flowers. I would if it were me, knocking at the door. I’ve put out a plate of mince pies, and my favorite family photos are sitting among the fake holly on the mantelpiece. I sit quietly. I have my story ready.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank so many people who have been vital to the writing of The Suspect, but let me begin with the wonderfully generous Louise Butler. Louise made the winning bid to be a character in The Suspect in CLIC Sargent’s Get in Character auction. She is now immortalized as a scheming tabloid journalist (sorry, Louise . . .) and has helped raise a fantastic £10,696 for the fight for young lives against cancer.
My specialists: the brilliant retired Murder Squad detective Colin Sutton, who took time out of his own successful writing career to patiently guide me on police matters, and Home Office forensic pathologist Dr. Debbie Cook, who put down her scalpel to talk me through autopsies on embalmed bodies. I am so grateful to both of them.
The foreign correspondents and officials who expertly guided me through Bangkok’s murky back streets and tourist scams—Marc Lavine, Andrew Drummond, Jonathan Head, Lindsay Murdoch, and Daniel Fieller at the British embassy. You were fantastic advisers.
Once again, huge thanks to my inspirational editors at Transworld and Berkley/Penguin Random House, Frankie Gray and Danielle Perez, for believing in me.
As always, love and thanks to my husband, Gary; children, Tom and Lucy; their partners, Orlanda and Martin; my brother, Jon; and my parents, David and Jeanne, for their encouragement and support. And to my lovely sister, Jo Wright, and my friends Rachael Bletchly and Jane McGuinn, who have listened, read, and cheered me on.
Finally, I would also like to raise a glass to, ahem, Literary Agent of the Year 2018 Madeleine Milburn. As the British Book Awards judges said: “The care of her authors is exemplary. It’s clear she goes the extra mile for them.” It is and she has. I cannot thank you enough.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fiona Barton is the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow and The Child. She has trained and worked with journalists all over the world. Previously, she was a senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at the Mail on Sunday, where she won Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards. Born in Cambridge, England, she currently lives in southwest France and England.