Inherit the Dead

About Safe Horizon

Crime writers, much like the perps who populate their pages, couldn’t succeed at their work without victims. A murder mystery will offer up at least one corpse; and when a serial killer is on the loose, the body count grows even higher. Some bad guys choose their victims with great care; others catch toddlers or little old ladies in random cross fire.

I was a prosecutor in New York for thirty years, during which time I started my own career as a crime novelist. When I began the job in 1972, there were no victim advocates anywhere in America. Prosecutors represent the state or federal government; and as much as they may empathize with someone who has been assaulted or robbed or burglarized, they are not lawyers for the victim.

When Safe Horizon was founded in New York in 1978, it filled an enormous void, stepping up to provide support and promote justice for victims of crime and abuse, their families, and their communities. Its twenty-four-hour toll-free hotlines are gateways to assistance for so many of the 250,000 crime victims whose lives we touch each year. We are the largest provider of domestic violence services in America, offering innovative programs to support women — in collaboration with the criminal justice system — as they navigate the complexities of leaving abusive relationships and building safe futures. We have state-of-the-art child advocacy centers that aid more than four thousand sexually and physically abused children and their families every year, pioneering the model of fully co-locating police, prosecutors, doctors, social workers, and mental health professionals in one facility so that the child victim is not exposed to repeated interviews in hostile environments.

Safe Horizon has more than fifty-seven programs in courthouses, schools, precincts, and in our own havens and shelters. Our counseling center helps clients regain a sense of control over their lives, a sense often lost after a violent and traumatic event. Since 1979, we have worked with family members who survive homicide victims — their spouses, siblings, parents, and children. We also advocate nationally for policies on behalf of those affected by violence and abuse.

How especially fitting, then, that this brilliant cast of contributors — some of the finest writers in the genre — have pooled their considerable talent to support Safe Horizon, the largest and best victims’ services agency in the United States. While the writers hold us spellbound with their storytelling, our friends at Safe Horizon will continue to do their work on the side of the angels, using this support to help move victims from crisis to confidence.

LINDA FAIRSTEIN

crime novelist and board member of Safe Horizon