Authors: Brom
T
his book has been a long time coming. I’ve had a lot of encouragement, input, and help along the way and owe a lot of people booze and chocolate.
Foremost, Diana Gill, an extraordinarily gifted editor. I am in awe of her insight and intuitiveness for story and character. Time and time again she steered this novel out of the muck and took it much further than I ever thought possible. Thanks, Diana, for your voodoo.
To my manager, Julie Kane-Ritsch, for her friendship, enthusiasm, and diligence. There is no better feeling than knowing you’re in good hands. Thank you, Julie.
To Emily Krump, Katherine Nintzel, Michael Barrs, and Olga Gardner Galvin for their invaluable input.
And a special thanks to the poor souls who read through my early drafts—a selfless act worthy of sainthood. There is a little of each of you in this novel: Luke Peterschmidt, Robert, Ivy, Killian, Devin, and Laurie Brom. And to Ben Reh for posing as Peter.
BROM
first won acclaim illustrating for TSR’s Dark Sun role-playing world. He has since lent his distinctive vision to all facets of the creative industries, working on such notable titles as World of Warcraft, Magic the Gathering,
Diablo, Doom, Batman
comics,
Galaxy Quest
, and Tim Burton’s
Sleepy Hollow
. He is the author of two award-winning illustrated horror novels,
The Plucker
and
The Devil’s Rose
. Brom is currently kept in a dank cellar somewhere just outside of Seattle.
Visit him online at www.bromart.com
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Jacket design and illustrations by Brom
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE CHILD THIEF
. Copyright © 2009 by Brom. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition July 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-190317-5
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900
Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com