by Alon Preiss
They never once fought; they never once had cross words. They almost never stopped holding each other. She and Zwaggott died in each other’s arms. Asleep, wrapped in a tight embrace, their bodies failed them during the night. At first, police suspected a double-suicide. But that proved not to be the case. Alice had suffered a stroke, and her husband had succumbed to a heart attack. The Zwaggotts had simply died at the same time, folded into each other’s arms. No one had ever seen anything like it before. But there you are.
THE END
OF
IN LOVE WITH ALICE
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This is the second book in my very loosely connected Thirtover novels. I have chosen to call the period covered in this series of books — roughly the final third of the 20th century — the “thirtover” years, which sounds as though it refers to the last third of a century that’s over. Thomas Hardy used the word “thirtover” to mean perverse and cantankerous, which I considered an appropriate description of the period, back when I was trying to come up with a subtitle for the first book in the series. I’m having second thoughts, but it’s really too late now.
Thanks again to Steven Drachman, whose work on Chickadee Prince Books saved this novel, and others, from utter oblivion.
Thanks also to Drachman for telling me about the evil mathematician Leopold Kronecker and the saintly Chinese emperor Wang Mang, both of whom I have referenced in my novel.
Thanks as always to Isabel, my first reader, best friend and true love.
For the rest of you, who are encountering this book for the first time, if you enjoyed my story, remember that Chickadee Prince Books, the publisher who brought this to you, is a small independent artists’ collective press devoted only to quality work, and it needs your word of mouth to survive. Please tell a friend and write a review on Amazon and Goodreads of this book or other CPB books.
Alon Preiss
October 2016
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