Shadow of a Killer
Page 22
She’s a Catholic who takes her beliefs seriously and I quite often go to church with her on a Sunday morning. I like the peaceful atmosphere and the steady rhythm of the mass. St. Joseph’s is what they call a ‘smells and bells’ church, very traditional, and I appreciate that.
It’s ‘so far, so good’ in all kinds of ways. As Rachel likes to point out to me, my attitude these days is reflected in my company’s name.
I’ve called it New Horizons Aviation.
Acknowledgements
A novel is a major undertaking and this one is the hardest challenge I’ve set myself so far. It necessitated considerable research in order for me to portray, I hope convincingly, experiences I’ve never had and places I’ve never been. This is the thriller writer’s job, of course, and I’ve enjoyed stretching myself in new ways.
Among many books, a key text for me has been the highly acclaimed Alive by Piers Paul Read, the classic account of sixteen young men stranded in the Andes for seventy-two days in 1972 and forced into cannibalism of their friends and even siblings in order to survive. That was a long time ago but some things in a struggle to survive at high altitude and extreme cold do not change much. I have taken many factual details from this book.
Special thanks are due to my friend Don Morrison who very kindly beta-read the first third of the manuscript, located typos, and offered perceptive advice. Grant Wilson gave me excellent and much needed information about flying small planes. Any remaining errors are, of course, entirely my own.
I also want to express my sincere gratitude to two special women for their personal and professional support; Kit Schindell and Abby Berman. As always, I am supremely grateful to my wife Joanne and son Brendan for their love and understanding at all times.
David Anderson was born and brought up in Northern Ireland, where he graduated from Queens University, Belfast with a degree in philosophy. His short stories have been anthologised in various publications. The author of two previous thrillers, Earthly Powers (2014) and Meaner Things (2015), he has also published Young Adult novels, The Beachhead (2016) and The Remnant (2017). He lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada with his wife and son.
About the Author
David Anderson was born and brought up in Northern Ireland, where he graduated from Queens University Belfast with a degree in philosophy. His short stories have been anthologised in various publications. The author of three thrillers, Earthly Powers, Meaner Things and Shadow of a Killer, he has also published three Young Adult novels, The Beachhead, The Remnant and Uninvited. He lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada with his wife and son, and reads copiously in his spare time.