A Savage Hunger (Paula Maguire 4) (28 page)

Acknowledgements

Thank you to everyone who helped me keep going with this book, especially when I said I hated it and wanted to burn it (difficult as it only existed on my laptop at the time). Thank you to my agent Diana Beaumont, and everyone at Headline especially Vicki Mellor, Caitlin Raynor, and Jo Liddiard. Special thanks for the wonderful new-look covers.

A big thank you to everyone who reviewed my previous books, whether online or in print – it is hugely appreciated. You rock.

Thank you to all my fantastic friends, and to all readers of Paula’s adventures, who tell me they want to know what happens next. I hope that at least some of your questions have been answered in this book.

Thanks to my dad for finding my long-lost copy of
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
somewhere in the attic, and to my mum and siblings.

Thank you to Phil Murray for help with the police bits – if it’s still wrong (quite likely) then it’s obviously my mistake (I mean a very well-considered bit of poetic licence).

I’m indebted to the book
Ten Men Dead
by David Beresford, a fascinating and harrowing account of the 1980s Hunger Strikes, and also to
Hunger Strike
by Susie Orbach, about the psychology of eating disorders. If you get a chance, do look up about holy relics in Ireland – I promise you that bit is all true. Someone really did steal the preserved heart of a saint from a church in Dublin. Oh and it is entirely possible to buy hair shirts and other penitential equipment online (you’re welcome).

I love to hear from readers, so if you have any comments, please do drop me a line on Twitter at @inkstainsclaire or via my website www.ink-stains.co.uk.