A Dangerous Talent (An Alix London Mystery) (26 page)

The real-life exploits of our good friend Alica Lampert, Lieutenant (Ret.), San Diego Police Department, provided inspiration for some of Alix London’s more exciting adventures.

Karen Stewart of CenturyLink gave us expert real-world advice on various happenings in the book.

Our agent, Lisa Erbach Vance of the Aaron Priest Literary Agency, provided active, energetic, and helpful advice and support—services above and beyond the norm—every step of the way. Thank you, Lisa!

Several of the book’s scenes are set at Ghost Ranch (Abiquiu, New Mexico) and the Mabel Dodge Luhan House (Taos, New Mexico). These are real places and are described as accurately as we could manage. We owe our thanks to the helpful staffs at both of these historic, wonderful locations.

Photograph by Bob Lampert

Charlotte Elkins wrote her first novel while working at the MH de Young Museum in San Francisco. Published under the pseudonym Emily Spenser, it was the first of her five romance novels that have sold in twenty countries. She switched to writing mysteries when she realized how much fun it was to collaborate with her husband, Aaron. Their first novel,
A Wicked Slice
, was published in 1989; since then, they have co-written four more novels starring a golf-pro-turned-sleuth and several short stories, one of which, “Nice Gorilla,” won the Agatha Award for Best Short Story of the year.

Aaron Elkins’s novels have been published in thirteen languages and made into a major television series. He is the author of sixteen novels featuring forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver and of three mysteries featuring art museum curator Chris Norgren. He has won an Edgar Award and a Nero Wolfe Award, and he shares an Agatha Award with his wife, Charlotte. Aaron’s nonfiction articles have appeared in the
New York Times’s
travel magazine,
Smithsonian
magazine, and
Writer’s Digest
.