Fogged Inn (24 page)

I first heard the expression “You cannot make any new old friends” at the commencement address given by actor and writer Mike O'Malley at my daughter's graduation from the University of New Hampshire in 2006. I admit I went into the event rolling my eyes. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush had already been announced as the joint speakers for 2007, and it didn't help when my daughter explained who O'Malley was by referencing his show on Nickelodeon. (Of course, now that I know who he is, he's
everywhere
.)

It turned out, as it so often does, that my low expectations were dramatically wrongheaded. O'Malley's speech was heartfelt and wise, and resonated all the more because he had sat where those graduates were sitting. The relevant portion of the speech is this: “Try as often as you can to give tribute to your friends, to stay in contact, to be at their momentous occasions. Drive across the country and go into debt to go to their weddings, fly across the country and be with them when their parents pass away. You cannot make any new old friends.” (The whole address is worth a read at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UserIanManka/Mike_O%27Malley
:)

That speech is what got me thinking about a group of old friends and the reason they might not drift apart, but be blown apart. The reason it happens in
Fogged Inn
is from a story my mother once told me. I have no idea if it was true, but I have remembered the story for more than thirty years.

I thought this book would take much less research than the previous three. All the suspects are baby boomers, and I'm one, too. But the group in
Fogged Inn
is about seven years older than me, and as anyone who was there will tell you, the sixties and early seventies were a fast-moving time. College deferments from the draft changed to a lottery system that included all eligible men, and then to a time when no one was called up. By the mid-1970s, female students entered law schools and medical schools in numbers truly unthinkable just a few years before, reflecting a larger, dramatic change in young women's expectations for their lives. The leading edge of the baby boom had a very different coming of age than the middle, who had a very different coming-of-age than the trailing edge. I found myself constantly checking reference points and looking at photos as I pondered the lives of this group of recent retirees. So thank you, World Wide Web.

For this book I'd like to thank my agent John Talbot, my editor John Scognamiglio, and the team at Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to tell more of the Snowden family's stories.

Thank you to Sherry Harris and Bill Carito, who read drafts of the material and provided critical feedback. You always help me get out of my own way. Sherry was also on a deadline for her Kensington series, the Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries, so I particularly appreciated her support for this book.

I'd especially like to thank fellow writer A.J. Pompano for reviewing and making such wonderful suggestions about the scenes that take place in Guilford, Connecticut.

Pat Kennedy, Luke Donius, and Bill Carito contributed recipes to
Fogged Inn
. The delicious pea soup is Pat's. The scrumptious fish tacos are Luke's. Bill provided all the others, as well as ideas about how Chris would go about developing tasty and innovative, but affordable, menus for Gus's Too.

As always, I'd like to thank my blog sisters at Wicked Cozy Authors—Jessie Crockett, Sherry Harris, Julie Hennrikus, Edith Maxwell, Liz Mugavero, Sheila Connolly, Kim Gray, and Sadie Hartwell, and the whole gang at the Maine Crime Writers blog. Also to my writer's group—Mark Ammons, Katherine Fast, Cheryl Marceau, and Leslie Wheeler.

Because
Fogged Inn
takes place the first week in December, we don't make it to the Snowden Family Clambake in the book. However, I still want to take the opportunity to say that if you want to go to a real Maine Clambake on a private island in Maine, check out the Cabbage Island Clambakes at
http://www.cabbageislandclambakes.com/
.

Thank you to my family for their unflagging support—Bill Carito, Rob, Sunny and Viola Carito, and Kate Carito. I truly don't know what I would do without you.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge my old friends. We don't make nearly enough time to see each other, but you are the people I can go years without seeing and then pick up the conversation as if it were yesterday. Thank you for being in my life, friends of my youth—Hilary Hinds Kitasei, Amy and Thom Fritz, Vida Antolin-Jenkins, Jon Anton, Pat McGrath, and Paul and Paula Dowd. Love you all.