Bad Men

Acknowledgments

While Sanctuary is an entirely fictitious island, elements of its history and geography are based loosely on Peaks Island, which lies in Casco Bay, close to Portland, Maine. Without exception, the people I met on the island were wonderful. You should visit. You’d like it.

I am particularly grateful to Officers Christopher Hawley and Bob Morton of the Portland Police Department, who carry out their duties on Peaks Island and who were kind and patient enough to answer my endless questions about the island and their work. My thanks also to Captain Russell Gauvin of the Portland Police Department, who was once again generous enough to facilitate my research, and to Sarah Yeates, a font of knowledge. Peaks Island: An Affectionate History by John K. Moulton (1993); Islands of Maine by Bill Caldwell (Down East Books, 1981); The Maine Coast Guide by Curtis Rindlaub (Casco Bay, 2000); Maine: The Pine Tree State from Prehistory to the Present, edited by Richard W. Judd, Edwin A. Churchill, and Joel. W. Eastman (University of Maine Press, 1995); and The Handbook of Acromegaly, edited by John Wass (BioScientifica, 2001) were also useful to me. All mistakes are, as ever, my own.

On a personal note, my thanks go out, as always, to my wonderful editor at Atria Books, Emily Bestler; her associate editor Sarah Branham; and to Louise Burke, Judith Curr, and all at Pocket and Atria for their faith in me, and for their constant kindness and support; to my editor at Hodder & Stoughton, Sue Fletcher; to Megan Underwood and the folk at Goldberg McDuffie Communications; and to my agent and friend, Darley Anderson, and his staff, for all that they have done for me; and, finally, thanks to the many booksellers and critics who have been generous enough to support my work.