Every Cloak Rolled in Blood

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to my editor, Sean Manning, and his assistant, Tzipora Baitch, and the rest of the staff at Simon & Schuster. They have helped me in every way they could with what I consider my best and certainly my most personal novel, Every Cloak Rolled in Blood. I am also indebted to my copyeditors, E. Beth Thomas and Jonathan Evans, whose dedication and literary knowledge and talent I can always depend upon. And also special thanks to Erin Mitchell, my sidekick and publicist and movie representative and daily helper, who can fix almost any problem in the world.

I also wish to thank the Spitzer Agency, which has represented me for more than forty-three years and includes Anne-Lise Spitzer, Kim Lombardini, Lukas Ortiz, Mary Spitzer, and Philip Spitzer, who passed two days ago. When Philip and I met, he was driving a cab and running a one-man agency in Hell’s Kitchen. At the time I was out of print and couldn’t sell ice water in the Sahara. Philip kept my novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie under submission for nine years. It received 111 rejections before it was accepted by LSU Press, which nominated it for the Pulitzer Prize. No agent in the history of the publishing industry has a comparable record. Philip will be dearly missed.

I also wish to thank my wife, Pearl, and my children Jim, Andree, and Alafair for sticking with me. And I want to thank my daughter Pamala, who died one year ago. I think she is still with us and will always be. I also believe she helped me write the last few pages of this book. I mean that literally.

Lastly, thank you for reading my work. I think the readers of my books are the best people in the world. You’re intelligent and kind and decent and patriotic, and it’s always an honor to be in your presence.

That’s it. We don’t care what people say, rock and roll is here to stay.

One big union,

Jim