The House on Cold Hill

Acknowledgements

I owe an enormous debt of thanks to the Rance family — Matt, Emma and their daughter, Charlie — for allowing me to use the lovely and smart Charlie as the model for my character Jade Harcourt. She and her parents were massively generous in their help and advice and I could never have conjured such a personality out of thin air.

In addition I’d like to thank others who helped so much with my research, including Gary, Rachel and (superstar!) Bailey Kenchington, Jim Banting, Richard Edmondson (Senior Partner, Woolley Bevis Diplock solicitors), Michael Maguire, Robin and Debbie Sheppard, Jason Tingley, and the Reverend Dominic Walker.

I’m fortunate to have a terrific support group, whom we jokingly call Team James, who all provide vital feedback at various stages of the writing process. A massive thank you to Susan Ansell, Graham Bartlett, Martin and Jane Diplock, Anna-Lisa Hancock, Sarah Middle and Helen Shenston. To my agents Carole Blake, Julian Friedmann, Louise Brice, Melis Dagoglu, and to all the team at my UK publishers, Pan Macmillan — including Wayne Brookes, Geoff Duffield, Anna Bond, Sara Lloyd, Toby Watson, Stuart Dwyer, Charlotte Williams, Rob Cox, Fraser Crichton, and my wonderful publicists, Tony Mulliken, Sophie Ransom, Becky Short and Eve Wersocki of Midas.

I need to single out three people above all others — former Detective Chief Superintendent David Gaylor, my model for Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, who has become my good friend and sometime-slave driver(!);my assistant, Linda Buckley, who has an endless capacity for hard work and helping free up my time for writing, as well as a brilliant eye for detail; and lastly, but also first — my beloved Lara, who is such a wise head and brilliant sounding board, and a constant pillar of support in every possible way. And of course no acknowledgements would be complete without a mention of our wonderful canine friends, Oscar, our Lab/Bull Mastiff/Parson Russell cross rescue dog and our recent arrival — our labradoodle puppy, very appropriately named, for this book, Spook!

As ever, thank you, my wonderful readers! I always love to hear from you, either on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, and your comments give me such constant encouragement.

Peter James

Sussex, England