The Searcher (40 page)

I
T
'
S BECOME A BIT OF A TRADITION OF MINE TO COMPARE THE WRITING AND
publication of each book to throwing a large party. This particular bash has been a particularly long time in the planning and there are, therefore, an army of people behind the scenes who have helped plan the playlist and the menu and all those other things that make a party go with a swing and become something that, hopefully, people will come to, enjoy, and leave feeling happy or at least satisfied—and maybe even a little tipsy.

As often seems to be the way with my books this one started with a lunch at The Cumberland Arms, around the corner from my agent's office, where the holy trinity of Alice Saunders, Mark Lucas, and Peta Nightingale listened to my vague outlining of various potential stories, including one about a pale man who appears shoeless on a desert road at which they unanimously said “That sounds great. Write that one.” Alice deserves special mention here. She plucked my first book from the slush pile five years ago and has had to suffer my infuriatingly imprecise working process and constant blind optimism ever since. This book was particularly hard to write, for various reasons, and she never lost her patience or temper—at least not to my face—and managed to hold it together when I finally delivered a manuscript that was sixty thousand words too long, three months late, and needed another four months work—and a 60 percent rewrite—to turn it into the thing you currently hold in your hands. I am very lucky to have her, though I'm pretty sure she would be much better off without me.

Equally patient and supportive, as usual, have been everyone at HarperCollins—both in the U.K. and the U.S. There are whole teams of very bright, very clever, and very hardworking people in both camps who design the covers, write the copy, supervise the edits, and make sure each book is as good as it can possibly be. These people do not earn vast fortunes and could undoubtedly earn far more doing almost anything else. But they work in publishing because they love books and love their jobs and we are all the richer because of it. Heading up these teams are the twin capos of Julia Wisdom in the U.K. and David Highfill in the U.S., who have edited more books than I will ever write and bring all of that experience to the table each time we work together. I say “work,” but in truth it often feels more like fun, or it does to me at least.

I also owe a huge debt to everyone at ILA—my always enthusiastic and very hardworking international rights agents. It is they who invite the rest of the world to each new party, and they also know how to throw one of their own, as they did recently on the event of their 50th anniversary—a real party, not a figurative one.

Other names I want to throw into my huge “Thank You” hat—the people who have variously helped, inspired, or supported me in different ways through the course of writing this (and all the other books)—are Kate Stephenson, Lucy Dauman, Adam Humphrey, Kate Elton, Sarah Benton, Jaime Frost, Hannah Gamon, Emad Akhtar, Tanya Brennand-Roper, Tavia Kowalchuk, Kaitlyn Kennedy, Kaitlin Harri, Danielle Emrich, Chloe Moffett, Daniel Palmer, Andrea St. Amand, Mark Rubinstein, Mark Billingham, Peter James, Paul Christopher, Brad Meltzer, Steve Berry, Greg Iles, Andrew Pyper, M.J. Rose, Lee Child, Liz Berry, Kimberley Howe and all at ITW, Kate at Wet Dark and Wild, Jackie at Raven Crime Reads, Miles at Milo's Rambles, Matt at Reader Dad, Robin at Parmenion Books, Cristina-Maria Mitrea, Tracy Fenton at THE Book Club, Cheryl Dalton of (Secret World) Book Club, Mike Stotter, Barry Forshaw, Chris Simmons, Jake Kerridge, Shannon and John Raab at
Suspense Magazine,
Pam Stack at Authors on the Air, and all the other reviewers, authors, and bloggers who have said lovely things about my previous books and helped bring them to a wider audience.

To all you readers and Amazon reviewers and Tweeters and Facebook posters I thank you too. Writing a novel is a lonely business and the daily lift of new followers or likes or kind messages or nice reviews are like chinks of sunlight in the steady gloom. If you ever wonder whether you should contact an author, any author, to tell them you enjoyed their book the answer is always “Yes.” We all write for you, and without the readers, the bridge of story falls down. So please say “hi”—I always say “hi” back.

A special thank you must go to Staff Sergeant Taron Maddux of the Bisbee PD who kindly walked me through local Arizona town law—though I eventually built my own town and wrote my own rule book. In the light of that it must also be very clearly said that none of the police officers featured in this book are based on him or his colleagues and that the town of Redemption bears only a passing resemblance to Bisbee and is, in truth, based largely on other Arizona places and my own imagination. Also I want to thank Tania and Lou and all the staff at Cafe Marmalade in Brighton—where I work most days—for not seeming to mind that I can make a single cup of coffee last for three hours.

Closer to home I owe a massive thanks to my sister Becky Toyne, who did a first pass edit and had to constantly jiggle her schedule and ultimately work unsociable hours due to my chronic lateness (note to reader: she's a proper professional book editor, not just a relative with a red pen). Also a nod to my three children, Roxy, Stan, and Betsy, who are just hilarious and brilliant and remind me that the stuff going on in my head is actually less important than the stuff going on around me. And finally, and always most importantly, to my wife Kathryn for making sure the children didn't die and the house didn't burn down while I disappeared into my head for long months. Only the partners of other authors know what a weird thing it is to live with someone who conjures fables for a living: I would often gladly get away from myself if I could, and the fact that she actually can but chooses not to is nothing short of miraculous, and I am, and forever shall be, lovingly grateful.

Simon Toyne

Brighton

8th April, 2015

SIMON TOYNE
is the bestselling author of the Sanctus trilogy:
Sanctus, The Key,
and
The Tower
. A writer, director, and producer in British television for twenty years, he worked on several award-winning shows, one of which won a BAFTA. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and published in more than fifty countries. He lives with his wife and family in England and the south of France, where he is at work on his second Solomon Creed novel.

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The Tower

The Key

Sanctus

Cover design by Amanda Kain

Cover photographs: © by James Orndorf / Arcangel Images (desert road); © Reilika Landen / Arcangel Images (man)

This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.

THE SEARCHER.
Copyright © 2015 by Simon Toyne. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

Title page photograph courtesy of Designm.ag

EPub Edition September 2015 ISBN 9780062329738

ISBN 978-0-06-232972-1

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