Carefully, she poured half an inch in the glass and sipped it, holding the buttery liquid in her mouth until it melted away. Then she raised the bottle and let a few golden drops trickle out onto the bare earth, a libation for the past, and for the future.
Acknowledgments
Thanks are due to all the good people at William Morrow for their support and enthusiasm, and especially to my editor, Carrie Feron. Nancy Yost has once again proved herself an agent beyond compare, and Laura Hartman Maestro has provided the charming map.
To those who have read the manuscript, Steve Copling, Dale Denton, Jim Evans, Diane Sullivan Hale, Gigi Sher-rell Norwood, and Viqui Litman, I’m sure I couldn’t have done it without you. A final thanks to Jan Hull for being a great friend in a pinch, and to my family for putting up with me in the throes of a book.
About the Author
DEBORAH CROMBIE was born and educated in Texas and has lived in both England and Scotland. Her Kincaid and James novels have received Edgar®, Agatha, and Macavity Award nominations, and her fifth novel, Dreaming of the Bones, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was selected as one of the Best Crime Novels of the Century by the Independent Mystery Booksellers of America. Her novels have been published in Japan, Germany, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, France, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom. Crombie travels to England several times a year and has been a featured speaker at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford. She lives in a small North Texas town, sharing a turn-of-the-century house with her husband, three cats, and a German shepherd. You can visit her website at www.deborahcrombie.com.