Long Road to Mercy

Acknowledgments

To Michelle, this book has a crackerjack female character who can eye roll with the best, which I know you will appreciate.

To Michael Pietsch, for going above and beyond.

To Lindsey Rose, for never, ever missing a single beat.

To Andy Dodds, Nidhi Pugalia, Ben Sevier, Brian McLendon, Karen Kosztolnyik, Beth deGuzman, Albert Tang, Brigid Pearson, Elizabeth Connor, Brian Lemus, Jarrod Taylor, Bob Castillo, Anthony Goff, Michele McGonigle, Cheryl Smith, Andrew Duncan, Joseph Benincase, Tiffany Sanchez, Morgan Swift, Stephanie Sirabian, Matthew Ballast, Jordan Rubinstein, Dave Epstein, Rachel Hairston, Karen Torres, Christopher Murphy, Ali Cutrone, Tracy Dowd, Martha Bucci, Rena Kornbluh, Lukas Fauset, Thomas Louie, Sean Ford, Laura Eisenhard, Mary Urban, Barbara Slavin, Kirsiah McNamara, and everyone at Grand Central Publishing, for continuing to reach higher and higher.

To Aaron and Arleen Priest, Lucy Childs, Lisa Erbach Vance, Frances Jalet-Miller, John Richmond, and Juliana Nador, for always being by my side.

To Mitch Hoffman, for pushing me on this book to such an extent that it went to ELEVEN (Spinal Tap reference!) on the final version.

To Anthony Forbes Watson, Jeremy Trevathan, Trisha Jackson, Katie James, Alex Saunders, Sara Lloyd, Claire Evans, Sarah Arratoon, Stuart Dwyer, Jonathan Atkins, Anna Bond, Leanne Williams, Natalie McCourt, Stacey Hamilton, Sarah McLean, Charlotte Williams, and Neil Lang at Pan Macmillan, for being the best in the business. Can’t wait to see the new digs!

To Praveen Naidoo and the team at Pan Macmillan in Australia, for raising your game with every book.

To Caspian Dennis and Sandy Violette, for being such great advocates and friends. Our tour-end annual dinner is something I always look forward to. Knickerbocker sundaes all around!

To Steven Maat and the entire Bruna team, for leading the way in Holland.

To Bob Schule, for your stellar work on reading through the manuscript.

To Mark Steven Long, for copyediting.

To my good friend Dr. Dana Ericksen, for all the hiking info on the Grand Canyon. The Heineken scene was for you, my friend!

To FBI Special Agent (retired) Bob Ulmer, for providing me with a ton of great information about the Bureau. And to his daughter Wendy Noory, for putting us in touch.

To Dana Schindler, for getting me great research sources, and being a wonderful friend.

To Anne and Paul Buellesbach, for sharing with me all your mule-riding adventures and cool information on the Canyon.

To charity auction winners Carol Blum (Amelia Island Book Festival’s Authors in Schools), Sung Nam Chung (Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights), Colson Lambert (Project Kesher), and David Roth (The Mark Twain House & Museum), I hope you were suitably thrilled with your characters. And thanks for supporting such great causes.

To Benjamin Priest, with a belated bar mitzvah gift.

To Michelle Butler, for helping to make Columbus Rose a lean, mean writing machine!