She Woke to Darkness

Author’s Foreword

In each of the twenty-four published adventures of Michael Shayne, the stories have necessarily come to you second-hand-written in third person by me from Mike’s notes and from talks with him after the case was ended.

Thus, all descriptions of people involved, all the dialogue, incidents and bits of action, were channelled to my readers through me from Shayne’s memory after the case was closed.

This may have been all for the best. I think it is quite true that later events do affect one’s precise memory of what has gone before, causing one’s subconscious to suppress certain things that may have been misinterpreted at the time, and to twist the memory of one’s thoughts and actions to make them appear a little more prescient than they may have actually been.

As I say, this may have been all for the best. By going back and retelling a case to me after it was ended, Michael Shayne may well have subconsciously interpolated story values that were not actually inherent in the events as they progressed. True objectivity and absolute honesty of detail do not always make for good storytelling.

This case is different. This story happened to me, Brett Halliday. For once, the truth was no stranger than fiction.

I’ve enjoyed putting it down on paper, now that it’s all over and I’m still alive to do the telling, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading it as much as the previous cases in which I was a mere onlooker.