Author’s note
Thank you for choosing to read my first Maggie Novak thriller. Your support is sincerely appreciated. I wrote this novel for you. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, tell everyone!
To be the first to hear about my next Maggie Novak release and to enter into my exclusive competitions to win signed books, please join my growing Reader List at www.keithhoughton.com, where you are more than welcome to stop by and say hello.
If you look hard enough, you can also find me killing time on Facebook and Twitter at https://facebook.com/keithhoughtonbooks and https://twitter.com/keithhoughton.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I want to thank my wife, Lynn, for loving me unconditionally. It isn’t easy living with a writer. At times, my characters distract, and my thoughts often inhabit a world from which she is excluded. It takes patience and tolerance to put up with me and my daydreaming, and I am truly blessed to have her support, guidance, and friendship—without which none of this would be possible.
Lynn, you are my rock, my muse, my soul mate. You define me. Thank you for being you.
I want to thank my family for their love and laughter. Our gorgeous daughters and sons-in-law: Gemma and Sam, and Rebecca and Ruben. Our beautiful granddaughters: Willow, Perry, Ava, and Bella. And our lovely parents: Lynn’s mum, Lillian, and my mum and dad, June and Bill. Together, they are my world.
I want to thank Amazon Publishing and the Thomas & Mercer team for believing in me and my writing and for their support with my T&M books throughout the year. In particular, I want to thank Laura Deacon, editorial director, for trusting in my vision for Maggie Novak and for allowing me to turn my dream into reality yet again.
I want to thank Charlotte Herscher, my developmental editor, for opening my eyes for a fourth time around. Her insights always act like a microscope, revealing details I might have otherwise overlooked.
I want to thank my copyeditor and proofreaders. Your input has helped put a high polish on the final manuscript, and now it’s gleaming. Great job, guys.
Last, but not least, I want to thank my reader fans and author friends for sticking around for as long as they have. Writing is a solitary process, and I depend on their interaction on social media to keep me sane.
About the Author
Keith Houghton spent too much of his childhood reading science fiction books, mostly by flashlight under the bedcovers, dreaming of becoming a full-time novelist. When he was thirteen, his English teacher—fed up with reading his space stories—told him he would never make it as a science fiction writer. Undeterred, Houghton went on to pen several sci-fi novels and three comedy stage plays while raising a family and holding down a more conventional job. But it wasn’t until he started writing mystery thrillers that Houghton’s dream finally became reality. Though his head is still full of space stories, he keeps his feet planted firmly on the ground, enjoying life and spending quality time with his grandchildren.
Houghton is the bestselling author of the three Gabe Quinn thrillers—Killing Hope, Crossing Lines, and Taking Liberty—as well as the stand-alone psychological thrillers No Coming Back, Before You Leap, and Crash. Please visit www.keithhoughton.com to learn more.
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