The Carrier (53 page)

As always, an enormous thank you to my ace publishers Hodder & Stoughton, especially my fantastic editor Carolyn Mays who expertly saves every book from much-less-good-ness. Also to Francesca Best, Katy Rouse, Karen Geary, Lucy Zilberkweit, Lucy Hale, Jason Bartholomew, Alice Howe, Naomi Berwin, Al Oliver – the whole team. Nobody does it, or could do it, better than Hodder. Julia Benson deserves a special mention, for supplying me with certain football-related facts. Thank you, also, to my wonderful international publishers who do such a great job of translating and publishing my books abroad.

Thanks to Dan, Phoebe and Guy for really believing every book is worthwhile and important, and for putting up with the increasingly dishevelled madwoman in the attic for another year.

Thanks to Luke Hares, who provided not only scientific expertise but also an alibi for my heroine, and who allowed me to be part of a very exciting gang. May the force feedback be with you (even if I don’t have a clue what that means).

Thanks as always to my two research stalwarts: Guy Martland, who told me what I needed to know about strokes, and Mark and Cal Pannone, who provided police procedural and curry.

Thank you to Jonathan Walker-Kane – I think this book would have ended up being a different and worse book if it weren’t for you.

Thanks to BW and DR for the original inspiration for PUE.

Thanks to Chris Gribble for The Slack Captain – the perfect name.

Thank you to all my jolly Twitter followers who have answered many a useful question, especially the one about football team support! And thank you to my readers – everything I do, I do it for you (as Bryan Adams once said. Though not about psychological thriller writing).