A Spring Betrayal

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As with my previous Akyl Borubaev novel, A Killing Winter, I owe a great deal to many people, whose continued help and encouragement is already acknowledged there.

To that list must be added:

In Germany: Sebastian Fitzek.

In Kyrgyzstan: Oksana Itikeeva and Umai Sultanova.

In the UAE: Isobel Abulhoul, Annabelle Corton, Baron Elliot, Michael Judd, Yvette Judge, Maryann Miranda, Meerim Morrison, Nyugen Ngoc, and Martin Tyler.

In the UK: Stefanie Bierwerth and her team at Quercus, especially Kathryn Taussig and Matthew Cowdery; Jakob Tanner at Waterstones; Marcus Wilson-Smith, whose Kyrgyz photos are the redeeming feature of my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/tomcallaghanwriter).

As before, I owe huge thanks to Tanja Howarth, friend and agent extraordinaire, and my old pal Simon Peters, for criticism, encouragement, and a killing eye for typos.

My biggest debt, of course, is to everyone who read A Killing Winter, and who I hope will enjoy A Spring Betrayal as well.

All the characters and events in this book are entirely fictitious, and any errors, misinterpretations, or distortions of actual events are mine. Kyrgyzstan is a beautiful country with friendly people, and I hope no one will be put off visiting it by reading what is, after all, a crime novel.