This House of Burning Bones

With Thanks

A book is like a small child (only not as sticky and far less likely to insert jammy slices of toast into your DVD player) in that it needs a village to raise it and teach it how to speak proper and do all that civilised malarkey, so it’s ready to go out and face the world.

Here are the inhabitants of my village:

Lots of thanks go to my lovely publisher, Francesca Pathak, for putting up with all my nonsense, pernicketiness, and excessive hairiness, ably supported by her excellent sidekick, Emily Sumner. Melissa Bond worked on fixing all my mistakes, while Holly Sheldrake saw the book through production; Linda Joyce was my ever-constant proofreeder (yes, I did that on purpose, just to annoy her). James Annal came up with the lovely cover and art direction stuff; Laura Sherlock is my publicity wunderkind; while Jamie Forrest, Katie Roden, and Claire Bush have marketed up a storm, as have the digital team — Andy Joannou and Alex Hamnet. On the sales front I have been blessed with the superb talents of Christine Jones, Stuart Dwyer, Ellie Kyrke Smith, Richard Green, Gillian Mackay, Charlotte Cross, and Julia Finegan in the UK, with Leanne Williams taking care of international, while Gordon Kemp and Becca Souster do that digital thing. Becky Lloyd is my big noise in the Audio World. And, of course, my hat is off to the excellent Lucy Hale and Joanna Prior for welcoming me to the Pan Macmillan family. There are bound to be people I’ve missed off this list, but even if you’re not here, I still think you’re lovely!

I also want to thank the magnificent Peter James for recommending Pan Macmillan when I was looking for a new home for Logan and the crew. He’s a good egg is our Peter. As is m’ good friend and colleague Allan Guthrie (né Buchan). Speaking of good eggs, here’s a big hurrah! to my guide through the uncharted wilderness of Police Scotland (and genuine police hero): Inspector Bruce Crawford.

And, while I’m doling out the thanks, here’s to the battalions of librarians and booksellers who fight the tide of ignorance and thickness that seems determined to swamp the world. And to you, the person reading this, for taking up arms alongside them!

I’ll finish by bigging up Fiona, Gherkin, Onion, and Beetroot — who have helped-and-or-hindered to various degrees (though only one of them brings me tea and biscuits while answering obscure spelling-and-grammatical questions).