No Bad Deed
Page 28
Acknowledgments
First, I must thank all the readers who aren’t related to me and yet nevertheless made it all the way to the acknowledgments page. I will always be in awe of that.
My deepest gratitude goes to my agent, Peter Steinberg, of Foundry Literary + Media, whom I’ve called amazing so many times he’s probably grown sick of it. But without my amazing agent and his early belief in this novel, there would be no acknowledgments to write. Also, a huge thank-you to the entire Foundry team, with special recognition to Mike Nardullo and Richie Kern. I’m honored to be part of the Foundry family.
Thank you to my brilliant editor, David Highfill, for his encouragement and for always being right in the nicest way possible, and to everyone else at William Morrow. Also, thanks to Jennifer Doyle and the team at Headline. So many smart and talented people worked to bring this book to life. I’m indebted to all of them.
I’m also lucky to have had many wonderful friends and colleagues supporting this journey. There are far too many to list here, but some deserve special recognition. Judy Coffey, Diane Hernandez, and David Ebright for the gift of time. Denise Barredo, Karen Jacobsen, and Jason Turner for their boundless support. Bruce Baird for being there at the beginning, the last minute, and whenever I needed him in between. And Holly Clarke for being awesome in all things.
I’m also grateful to Retired Lieutenant Tom Swearingen of the Santa Rosa Police Department for being so generous with his time and expertise. Chalk up any mistakes to my artistic license.
A special thank-you goes to Patty Hayes and Lisa Ostroski for answering all those bizarre texts about how best to kill someone. And you never once called the police to report my preoccupation. This story would have suffered without your insight and your patience.
I would also like to give a shout-out to Chuck Sambuchino, who found the flaws in those very first fifty pages, and Becky Jenkins, because even promises made in childhood are important.
Without many of these people, there would be no book, but without my mom, Norma, and my dad, Ron, there would be no author. So, yeah, thanks for that and for being my earliest and most ardent fans.
I would also like to express my appreciation for my stepfather, Rob Hodges, my extended family of Middendorfs and Harringtons, and the entire Chavez family. I could not have married into a more welcoming or kick-ass family. I’m blessed to love and be loved by so many.
Finally, thank you to my husband, Alex, and our children, Jacob and Maya, for suffering through all those spontaneous (and often long-winded) readings of random passages, for making me laugh, and for being the best people I know. You inspire me daily. This novel, and everything else, is for you.
About the Author
HEATHER CHAVEZ, a graduate of UC Berkeley’s English literature program, has worked as a newspaper reporter and editor. She lives in Santa Rosa, California, with her husband and children. No Bad Deed is her first book.
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
no bad deed. Copyright © 2020 by Heather Chavez. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
first edition
Cover design by Elsie Lyons
Cover photographs © Balazs Kovaks/Arcangel; © wolfness72/Shutterstock (rain); © bymandesigns/Shutterstock (road lines); © railway fx/Shutterstock (rain)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition FEBRUARY 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-293619-6
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-293617-2
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