The Deep Zone

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ethan Ellenberg, my intrepid literary agent, first saw potential in The Deep Zone and worked with me to make it better. My stellar nonfiction editor, Jonathan Jao of Random House, introduced me and the novel to Ballantine’s editorial director of fiction, Mark Tavani. Mark helped transform the novel into the one I had dreamed of publishing for forty years. I am also deeply indebted to publisher Libby McGuire, editor in chief Jennifer Hershey, and deputy publisher Kim Hovey for their vigorous and unwavering support for the novel.

Kelli Fillingim masterfully guided The Deep Zone through the countless refits and refinements that transform a book from raw manuscript to published hardcover. Bonnie Thompson once again proved why she is the copy editor I would not write a book without. There are other worlds across the seas, and for introducing me to them I owe huge thanks to Denise Cronin, Rachel Kind, and everyone in subsidiary rights. And without the invaluable help of everyone in sales and promotion, the novel would have been like a tree falling in the forest. It might have made the most beautiful sound imaginable, but no one would have heard it.

Elizabeth Tabor, Wallis Wheeler, Steven Butler, Sheila Bannister, Tasha Wallis, Lisa Loomis, Damon Tabor, and Jack Tabor all read early drafts of the novel and offered invaluable feedback. My good friend Jim Parker, an expert cave diver and perhaps the smartest and bravest man I’ve ever known, helped me avoid wrong turns in the diving passages.

My mother, Hallie Siple Tabor, contributed half of the heroine’s name. Deputy Chief Joyce Leland of Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, the best supervisor any street cop could pray for, contributed the other half.