Unraveled (43 page)

I’d like to thank my husband for not complaining about this exciting archaeological feature over the dinners I didn’t cook, or while putting away the dishes I didn’t do, or while shelving the groceries I didn’t buy. I’d especially like to thank him for putting up with my inability to talk about anything except this book during many long walks that were supposed to be just about “us” and ended up being brainstorming sessions. Mr. Milan also provided needed medical advice—without him, I’d not have known how to describe Mrs. Blasseur’s end-stage lung cancer.

As I mention in the Author’s Note, this book started with a simple image from
Asylum Denied
by David Ngaruri Kenney. I also drew on Charles Dickens’s descriptions of legal matters in
Bleak House
and
Oliver Twist
—and I explicitly drew on Dickens’s hapless Jo, the street-sweeper, from Bleak House, in portraying Widdy.

I also drew on materials from a visit to Bristol. In particular, I’d like to thank the staff at the Bristol Records Room, who retrieved numerous important historical documents that helped shape this book, ranging from postcards that showed the layout of the gaol to the parchment paper that contained the oath of office that Smite would have taken. I also am indebted to the staff at The Georgian House. Miranda’s home was patterned after this historic home.

As always, I have to thank Tessa Dare, Carey Baldwin, and Leigh Dennis for (a) listening to me talk about this book, and (b) putting up with me when we met for a weekend, and I did nothing but work on it. As always, my enormous thanks to Franzeca Drouin, Robin Harders, and Martha Trachtenberg for editing. Lynn Funk, Nicholas Ambrose, and Anne Victory did wonderful proofreading work. My agent, Kristin Nelson, has been relentlessly supportive.

I have a lot of people who help talk me down from various ledges: the Vanettes, the Peeners, and the Pixies. The Vanettes in particular helped me write cover copy for this book, which I doubt I could have managed on my own.

And thanks most of all to SOC, without whom this book would have looked very different. I love you.

Most of all, I want to thank all the many readers who I’ve found over the course of writing the Turner series. The extraordinary response that you’ve had has made a huge difference in my life. Thank you all so much for reading, for engaging, for talking about these books with friends and even with random strangers on the internet. I could not be where I was today without you.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental, except where it is a matter of historical record.

Copyright © 2011 by Courtney Milan.

Cover design © Courtney Milan.

Cover photograph ©
Sandra Kemppainen
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