Black Sun

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many people helped this book in its journey onto the page — first and foremost my dedicated and patient editor, Robert Bloom at Doubleday, who worked tirelessly above and beyond the call of duty to shape and polish Black Sun. Without my genius agent Toby Mundy I would never have hooked up with Rob, or thought to make Alexander Vasin the hero of a trilogy. And without the encouragement of my friends I would never have imagined writing my first thriller in the first place. Particular thanks to Lisa Hilton, Jonny Dymond, Andrew Jeffreys, Charles Cumming, and Richard Stow for all their help and support while the book was being written. And to Xenia, Nikita, and Teddy for putting up with a writer in the house, which is no easy fate. Finally, a bow to the real Alexander Vasin, my late uncle, who as a young Soviet tank commander lost a leg outside Smolensk in 1944 but despite his disability rose to be the USSR’s deputy minister of justice and a wise and loving husband to my aunt Lenina.