Black Light

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to issue particular thanks to Weyman Swagger, who gave especially of time and effort. Then John Feamster, of Precision Shooting, pitched in with another large chunk of help.

Other friends were involved as well, notably Bob Lopez, Mike Hill, Lenne Miller, my brother Tim Hunter, and Barry Neville. A whole slew of people were of great help in Arkansas, including the three antiques dealers in Fort Smith, who helped me find maps from the fifties, and the librarian who dug out the microfilm of the Southwestern Times Record for July of 1955. In fact, the people of Arkansas were unfailingly kind to me in my peregrinations in that state.

Peter R. Senich’s The Long Range War was invaluable in explaining the difference between Army and Marine sniper programs in Vietnam, though it should be emphasized that any judgments made on those programs are mine and not his.

Two other points should be made. Polk Countians and other Arkansans will recognize that I’ve yielded to the godlike temptation to create and destroy at my own whimsy. For example, I’ve created the Harry Etheridge Memorial Parkway out of whole cloth; I’ve also disappeared the town of Mena and dumped the wholly fictitious town of Blue Eye, with a far more tragic racial history, in its place.

Second, the author hopes that some readers recognize that Black Light is the third in what amounts to a trilogy, following on his last two novels, Point of Impact and Dirty White Boys. I’ve made a good-faith effort to reconcile this book with the other two, where it was possible; alas, in some cases, as where I placed the same event on different days in each book (duh!), it was not.

Finally, the author would like to thank his brilliant agent, Esther Newberg, for enthusiasm, shrewd judgment and unflagging support; his first editor at Doubleday, David Gernert, for his enthusiasm and support; and his second editor at the house, Bill Thomas, for picking up the project and running with it.

Naturally, none of these good people is responsible for any mistakes or failures of nerve, taste and character in the book; those rest with me entirely.