Again, my sincere thanks to Don Weisberg, Macmillan’s chief executive officer, Sally Richardson who serves as chairman of St. Martin’s Publishing, Jen Enderlin who captains St. Martin’s, and my publisher at Minotaur, Andrew Martin. Also, a huge debt of gratitude continues for Hector DeJean in Publicity; Jeff Dodes and everyone in Marketing and Sales, especially Paul Hochman and Danielle Prielipp; Anne Marie Tallberg, the sage of all things paperback; David Rotstein, who produced the cover; and Mary Beth Roche and her innovative folks in Audio.
A huge bow, as always, goes to Simon Lipskar, my agent and friend.
Also a big thank-you to Madeline Houpt, who makes things happen for me at Minotaur. Then there’s Meryl Moss and her extraordinary publicity team (especially Deb Zipf), along with Jessica Johns and Esther Garver who continue to keep Steve Berry Enterprises running smoothly.
As always, to my wife, Elizabeth, who remains the most special of all.
For the past seven years Kelley Ragland has been my editor. When I moved from Random House to Macmillan in 2014 I came with a lot of anxiety. Thirteen years with one house, one editor, one team had settled me into a comfortable routine. I was worried that things would not be the same.
And I was right, they were not.
Instead they were even better.
And it all started with Kelley.
She’s a lovely lady with a warm heart, gentle manner, and infectious smile. She never raises her voice or gets angry. Never a foul word or a derogatory comment.
But she has opinions.
And when she offers those, I follow that advice. After seven years I’ve come to know what others before me already knew. She’s smart, savvy, and first-class all the way.
