Top Ten Clues You’re Clueless (18 page)

Acknowledgments

TOP TEN THANK-YOUS TO EVERYONE WHO KEPT ME SANE AND/OR PROVIDED A HELMET AND COOKIES
WHEN SANE WASN’T ATTAINABLE

1. My editor, Erica Sussman, who somehow knew what I was trying to do even though
my first efforts were so far off, they might as well have been written in hieroglyphics.
Thanks also to the entire team at HarperTeen, including Tyler Infinger, the wonderfully
crazy people on the Epic Reads team, the art department, which is full of geniuses,
and the entire marketing team, especially Alison Lisnow.

2. Laura Bradford, super agent, for being the savvy one so I can live in blissful
naïveté.

3. The earliest inklings of this story were nurtured into a workable idea through
a careful combination of grocery store experience, enthusiasm, and helpless laughter
by the lovely Jessica Souders, who did it all behind the wheel of a rental car with
the world’s stupidest GPS.

4. Heather Whitley helped me find the way, as ever. Even when I forget to email her
back because I keep my brain in a colander when I’m not using it.

5. The Wednesday Night Barnes & Noble Crew bore witness to much head-to-keyboard and
face-smushing anxiety. Thank you, ladies, for telling me I could do it anyway, especially
Jill Brevers, Barb Britton, Liz Kreger, Liz Lincoln, Karen Miller, Betsy Norman, and
Sandee Turriff.

6. The Class of 2k14 (Varsha Bajaj, Kate Bassett, Rebecca Behrens, Crystal Chan, Stephanie
Diaz, Stefanie Gaither, Tracy Holczer, Christine Kohler, Melissa Landers, R. C. Lewis,
Lauren Magaziner, Nicole Maggi, Elizabeth May, Amy K. Nichols, Kristin Rae, Gayle
Rosengren, Lisa Ann Scott, Carmella Van Vleet, Amy Zhang) provided invaluable support,
sympathy, and cheerleading.

7. My earliest readers include Cathy Weishan; Lindsay, Mary, and Evan Maruszewski;
Sarah Horne; and Anne Williams. You guys are the best cheerleaders around.

8. To everyone who gave me insight into the fascinating world of grocery stores and
shared all their tales of weirdness in retail. Be nice to the people who work where
you shop, you guys. Seriously.

9. The basic layout of my fictionalized GoodFoods owes itself almost entirely to my
local grocery store, Metro Market. I’d like to give a special thank-you to the hardworking
crew of the store who just kept smiling as I stood on tiptoe, peering into the Employees
Only sections, eavesdropping on conversations, and just generally being a creeper.
You guys are awesome for not throwing me out. And for your cookies. Your cookies are
the fricking best thing on Earth.

10. To my amazing family. We survived another one, you guys! Thanks for putting up
with strange questions, my vacant stare, and the poor quality of housekeeping. I couldn’t
do this without you, even if you don’t always know that.

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About the Author

LIZ CZUKAS
is a freelance writer living outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is also the author
of
Ask Again Later
. She collects college degrees she doesn’t use, types too loud, and always has a song
stuck in her head. You can visit her online at www.lizczukas.com.

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www.AuthorTracker.com
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Books by Liz Czukas

Ask Again Later

Credits

Cover art © 2014 by Alison Carmichael

Cover image © 2014 NinaMalyna \ ShutterStock.com

Cover design by Michelle Taormina

Copyright

HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Top Ten Clues You’re Clueless

Copyright © 2014 by Liz Czukas

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By
payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable
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www.epicreads.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Czukas, Liz.

Top ten clues you’re clueless / Liz Czukas. — First edition.

     pages   cm

Summary: The day before Christmas, money goes missing from a donation box at GoodFoods
Market and Chloe and her five teenage coworkers, held in the break room until the
police arrive, try to identify the real thief.

ISBN 978-0-06-227242-3 (pbk.)

[1. Grocery trade—Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 3. Lists—Fiction. 4.
Stealing—Fiction. 5. Christmas—Fiction. 6. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Title.
II. Title: Top ten clues you are clueless.

PZ7.C9993Top 2014

2013051290

[Fic]—dc23

CIP

AC

EPUB Edition © OCTOBER 2014 ISBN 9780062272430

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FIRST EDITION