Thanks to Jim Edgar and his great staff at the Montana Bureau of Vital Statistics, and also to the gang at Fact amp; Fiction Bookstore and The Books Exchange for the excellent books on Missoula and Montana history. Thanks to the legendary Tattered Cover in Denver for my cowgirl books, Cowgirls, Women of the American West, by Teresa Jordan, University of Nebraska Press (1992), and Cowgirls, Candace Savage, Ten Speed Press (1996).
Thanks to the Recorder’s Office at City Hall, Philadelphia, especially Ward Childs, archivist, and Jarrance Nesbitt, Title Registration Supervisor, Department of Records, who were so kind. Thanks to the Otts at Clews Boats in Frazer, Lisa Baute, M.D., of Penn Medicine, and Paul Davis. Thanks for all things Italian to Sebastian Pistritto of www.gustobene.com.
Huge thanks to Theodore Nacarella, Esq., for excellent legal advice and all-around intelligence and good cheer; if I say more about what vital part he helped with, you’ll guess a PLOT TWIST. Thanks to my other genius lawyers, dear friend Jerome Hoffman, Esq., and now his amazing son, David Hoffman, Esq. For constitutional law assists, thanks to Professor Judy Brown, Esq., and Lisa Gleicher, Esq. Thanks to Glenn Gilman, Esq., and to Forever-Detective Art Mee, my go-to experts for everything wonderful and helpful.
Thanks to all of those generous people who donated to a worthy cause in return for their names in the novel, Bern Gibboni (American Red Cross), Marti Funnell (American Diabetes Association), Lisa Gemmill (Free Library of Philadelphia), Lorraine Pecora (Free Library of Philadelphia), Stephen Nicastro (Friends’ Select School), Gail Lasko (PAL), and Ernest and Leslie Eadeh (Pennsylvania Home of the Sparrow for abused women and children).
On the writing side, a huge and grateful hug to the best editor in New York, Carolyn Marino, with whom I have worked for eleven books. I am blessed in her and in everyone at HarperCollins: the great Jane Friedman, Cathy Hemming, Susan Weinberg, Michael Morrison, Carl Lennertz, Patti Kelly, Christine Boyd, Rockelle Henderson, Carrie Kania, Libby Jordan, Roberto De Vicq de Cumptich, Bob Spizer, and Jennifer Civiletto. And I also owe Carie Freimuth and Tara Brown. I love you all. Deepest thanks and love to everyone at the Aaron Priest Agency, mainly my terrific agent, Molly Friedrich, and the Amazing Paul Cirone, for improvements to this manuscript and guidance in all things.
Thank you to all of the hard-working booksellers who have forever supported me and my books, and to my pal Joe Drabyak of Chester County Books amp; Music, who nurtures me with all sorts of wonderful reading and even made comments on an early draft of this manuscript.
Love to my family, for their constant support and love.
And to a certain man, who taught my heart to talk.
About the Author
Lisa Scottoline is a New York Times bestselling author and former trial lawyer. She has won the highest prize in crime fiction, the Edgar Award, and has lectured at law schools and bar associations on issues of legal ethics. She is an honors graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and its law school, where she was an editor of the Law Review and won the Loughlin Prize for legal ethics. Her books are published in more than twenty languages, and she remains a life-long resident of the Philadelphia area. She welcomes reader email at www.scottoline.com.
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