Holly

Author’s Note

Although Holly closely follows the events of the short novel If It Bleeds in the collection of the same name, Constant Readers and students of current events may notice there’s at least one very large continuity lapse. Although Covid plays a big part in Holly—in fact, several story points depend on it—there’s no mention of the pandemic in If It Bleeds, even though December of 2020, the time period in which Bleeds is set, was a terrible month for this disease in America, with at least 65,000 reported deaths.

The reason is simple: when I wrote If It Bleeds in 2019, Covid wasn’t on the radar. I hate it when real events screw with my fiction, but that happens from time to time. I’d change If It Bleeds if I could, but that would entail rewriting the entire story, and as we used to say in my marathon Hearts games back in college, if it’s laid, it’s played. I just wanted you to know I’m aware of the glitch.

A considerable portion of the American population—not a majority, I’m relieved to say—are anti-vaccination. These folks may think the Covid through-line in Holly is preachy (the term for this sort of fiction, which I sort of love, is “soapboxing”). That’s not the case. I think fiction is most believable when it coexists with real-world events, real-world individuals, even brand names. Holly’s mother has died of Covid, and Holly herself is a bit of a hypochondriac. It seemed natural to me that she would hold strong opinions about Covid and take every precaution (cigarettes excepted). It’s true that my opinions match hers on the subject, but I like to think that if I had chosen an anti-vaccination character as either my protagonist or as an important supporting character, I would give a fair representation of those views.

Which brings me to Rodney Harris. He’s a fine example of a character whose views most certainly don’t match my own. Every fact and historical anecdote about cannibalism that Roddy presents happens to be true. It’s his conclusions that are false. The idea that eating human liver can cure Alzheimer’s, for example, is utter bullshit. Not that one can blame Rodney for cherry-picking his data; the man is clearly crazy as a loon. And now that I think of it, that comparison is an insult to loons.

My research, as always, was done by the wonderful Robin Furth. She gave me a complete tutorial on cannibalism, but that was just where her contributions started. She also went back to the Mr. Mercedes trilogy and created a complete timeline for Holly Gibney. That necessitated quite a bit of rewriting on my part, but it also saved me from any number of howlers. I think I did an okay job, with one exception: Uncle Henry apparently had kids, who have been excluded from this narrative. Robin is my Goddess of Research. Please give her the credit for the stuff that’s right. For the stuff that’s wrong, I get the blame.

For help with Latin (mine is rusty), I need to thank Tim Ingram and Peter Jones of Classics for All, a charity that supports the teaching of many classical subjects. Find them on Facebook or with Google.

My longtime agent and friend, Charles “Chuck” Verrill, died early in 2022. The loss I felt at his passing was in some measure alleviated by the speed with which his longtime business partner, Liz Darhansoff, stepped in to handle the book- and story-related matters so I could go on making shit up, which is what I do best. In spite of her own deep grief, Liz never missed a beat. I’d be lost without her, and that goes for her sterling associates in the agency, Michele Mortimer and Eric Amling. Big thanks.

Chris Lotts is my foreign rights man, and is chiefly responsible for getting my books known around the world. He’s also a great guy.

Rand Holston, also a great guy, fields requests for movie and TV rights. I’ve known him for over forty years and consider him one of my friends as well as a business partner.

Nan Graham edited the book. Her suggested changes almost always worked, and her suggested cuts—although painful—picked the story up whenever it lagged or went off on a tangent. They say the devil is in the details, but when it comes to my details, Nan has always been an angel. It’s nice to have such a pro on my team.

Thanks to Molly, aka the Thing of Evil, who always keeps me amused when my spirits sag.

Most thanks of all to my wife, the novelist Tabitha King, who supports me in every way. I couldn’t ask for a better life’s companion. It was Tabby who talked me through the short section of this book that was hardest for me to write: Jerome’s final conversation with Vera Steinman. I love you, kiddo.

One final thing before I let you go. I had to write this book to write one scene, which I saw clearly in my mind: Holly attending her mother’s Zoom funeral. I didn’t have a story to go with it, which was unfortunate, but I kept my feelers out because I’ve loved Holly from the first and wanted to be with her again. Then one day I read a newspaper story about an honor killing. I didn’t think that could be my story, but I loved the headline, which was something like this: EVERYONE THOUGHT THEY WERE A SWEET OLD COUPLE UNTIL THE BODIES BEGAN TURNING UP IN THE BACKYARD.

Killer old folks, I thought. That’s my story. I wrote it, and now you’ve read it. I hope you enjoyed it. And, as always, thank you for coming to another dark place with me.