A Deadly Influence (Abby Mullen Thrillers #1)(127)

“Yes,” Eden said. “It’s me. And this is Abihail. She looks different. I know.”

He gazed at them, frozen. Abby now saw it. Not his similarity to the photos he’d sent her. But his similarity to that black-haired boy with the bucktoothed smile from her childhood. Something was deeply wrong.

Finally he said, “What are you doing here?”

Abby blinked. “We . . . we told you we were coming.”

“What? When?”

“We both sent you messages.”

“Abihail, I haven’t talked to either of you for more than . . . thirty years.”

Her world was spinning. No. That couldn’t be. She had stacks of letters from him. They’d chatted just a few days ago. She wrote him messages almost every single day.

“Then who have we been talking to all this time?”





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


Writing a book is tough. Starting a new series is even tougher. After I’d spent so long with Zoe, Tatum, Marvin, and the rest of that lot, creating a whole new series with a new protagonist with family and friends—and possibly a pet or two—felt like an impossible task. And it really would have been impossible without a lot of people helping me throughout.

My wife, Liora, first and foremost. She was the one who announced I needed to write about a hostage negotiator. I wasn’t sure—I wanted to write about an undercover agent, to which she said, “Meh.” And then when I told my editor, Jessica Tribble, that I was thinking of writing about an undercover agent but that Liora insisted I should write about a hostage negotiator, she said, “Listen to your wife.”

So I did, and Abby was born. Liora then helped me every step of the way, from building the character and her terrifying background to the plot. And then she read the thing when it was done and told me what I needed to change. Which turned out to be a lot.

And thanks to Jessica, who, after telling me to listen to my wife, helped me work on my original draft and add much-needed background on Abby, giving her more texture and depth. As always, she did a phenomenal job while editing the book.

Christine Mancuso read one of my original drafts (there were quite a few) and helped me restructure the book to improve the pacing. Did you grip the book extra hard when Nathan fled from his kidnapper? A lot of that was Christine’s doing.

My dad read an early draft, too, and helped me polish Abby’s professionalism. He’s a psychologist and was offended by the irresponsible way I scattered technical terms and cheap psychological observations throughout the book.

Kevin Smith, my developmental editor, did a fantastic job, helping me polish the book until it shone. He was super patient and helpful throughout our back-and-forth. Working with him was, as it has been before, pure pleasure.

Emily Havener and Stephanie Chou received the final draft and caught my endless grammar and spelling mistakes, as well as some ghastly continuity errors.

Thanks to Laura Barrett, the production editor, who did a lot of the coordination and administration involved in producing this book.

Wayne Stinnet read my raid chapter and helped me through it so that it felt more like a raid and less like a group of people bumbling in the dark haphazardly.

Richard Stockford answered my layman’s questions about how the police work, helping me through some issues regarding coordination among different law enforcement agencies.

Thanks to Sarah Hershman, my agent, for always doing everything she can to make my books soar.

And thanks to all of my readers for making my dreams come true.