Hard Knocks

Acknowledgements

Many people have let me trawl through their collective experiences in order to put together this book. Former VIP protection officer Brad Blake was one of them, as was Glynn Jones. The people at the Revere Gun Range in Pompano Beach, Florida also helped, but never knew it. I’m still drawing on the lessons learned during self-defence classes with Ian Cottam and Lee Watkin.

Key pieces of German information were provided by Derek Harrison and Armin Mohren. Technical info vital to the plot came from Luke C in Colorado; Tim Enderby and Ike Flack at SAS; and Ian Hill and John Whitehead at Hiteq. Thank you also to Chris Brown at Alpine Electronics (UK) for explaining the finer points of their navigation system. Any factual errors are all my own work.

Once again, many people were kind enough to offer their opinions during the early stages, including Iris, Jean, Sheila, and everyone at the Lune Valley Writers’ Group. The usual pre-publication vivisection was carried out by Peter Doleman, Claire Duplock, Sarah Harrison, Clive Hopwood, Tim Winfield, and copy editor Sarah Abel. Keep on digging, people, and don’t mind me squealing . . .

As always, the biggest thank you goes to my husband, Andy, who has a lot more to put up with than he lets on about.

Grateful appreciation goes to Libby Fischer Hellmann for her help and advice, and generously allowing me to include an excerpt from DOUBLEBACK as a bonus feature at the end of this novel.

Finally, huge thanks to ZACE-eBookConversion for immaculate conversion of the printed book to e-format; and to Jane Hudson at NuDesign for the stunning new covers.