An enormous thank you to Jamie Bernthal, who gives me the best possible help, advice and support every day and in every way: practical, editorial, creative, the lot. I couldn’t do most of what I do without him.
Thank you to my family – Dan, Phoebe, Guy and Brewster – for making it all feel worthwhile, and for providing, among other things, interesting perspectives on how best to use a cutlery-divider, Instagram instructions, and currently fashionable-among-young-people vocabulary. You are all ‘dank AF’. Whatever that means. Thanks to Adele Geras and Chris Gribble for reading and offering feedback when this novel was a work in progress, and to Emily Winslow, my writing-group-of-two partner, whose editorial insights were as superb as ever.
Last but not least, thank you to the state of Arizona – with a special mention for the awesome Poisoned Pen bookstore – for winning my heart to the extent that I eventually said to myself, ‘I have to set a novel in Arizona.’ And thank you to the various inspirational Arizonan spa resorts I have happily lounged, swum and floated in, dreaming up fictional murders …
Three books, one TV show and one podcast about true crime cases in America inspired me greatly while writing this novel: Without a Doubt by Marcia Clark, Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony by Jeff Ashton, Conviction: the Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars by Juan Martinez, Making a Murderer by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, and Serial by Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder. My thanks to the creators of those utterly fascinating books. Thanks to you, my fantasy of one day becoming an American judge who yells, ‘Pull that in my courtroom again, I’ll have you disbarred’ is still going strong!
Did You See Melody? Page 31