The Last Enemy (40 page)

THE END

Acknowledgments

My editor, Laura Hruska.

My siblings, Margaret, John, Helen, and Patrick, and my thirteen nieces and nephews, for being there.

My dear friend Laury Magnus, who said when I began searching for character names, “I’m thinking Artemisia,” and who suggested that I read Mary Garrard’s excellent biography,
Artemisia Gentileschi
, to put flesh on my thoughts of plagiarism, but mostly for her day-to-day encouragement when I first began to write.

My good friends, Cathy Costa, Barbara Fisher, and Kathleen McCann, for their enthusiastic manuscript readings, and Ann Schwartz for her continuing support and advice.

In Assisi, Orland Tanci and Anne Robichaud for introducing us to the real Umbria; Angelo Maccabei, Lani Irwin, and Alan Feltus for the cover photograph; and all of our good friends and neighbors who made us most welcome in the years that we lived in Italy.

The very helpful state, carabinieri, and municipal police, who tirelessly answered my many questions on the workings of the Italian justice system. Any errors, procedural or otherwise, are my own.

And always, Miguel, who asked the questions (and answered many of them) while I struggled with Italian, and who serves as the model for the best parts of Alessandro Cenni.