“Which is?” Amy asks.
Steve spreads his hands, encompassing this team of three.
“We Solve Murders.”
“We Solve Murders?”
“Well, we do,” says Steve. “Don’t we?”
Amy opens her mouth to complain but thinks better of it. The pony is making his way up the high street, while the ginger cat snores lightly. Axley is still and quiet. She nods at Steve.
“Okay, okay, We Solve Murders it is.”
Owls hoot their greetings from the trees.
“We Solve Murders,” says Rosie, nodding. “Great name for a book.”
Acknowledgments
Well, here we are again, folks, I do hope you enjoyed the ride. So scary to write a brand-new book with these brand-new characters, but the fact you’re reading this means that, at the very least, you made it through to the end. Unless you are one of those people who reads the acknowledgments first, in which case I honestly believe you are a dangerous sociopath.
I have so many people to thank for their wisdom, support, advice, and, in one particular case, almost constant meowing during the process of writing We Solve Murders.
But, before all of that, thanks first and foremost to all of you wonderful readers. Characters and stories don’t exist without readers, so thank you so much for joining me in this new world.
I hope it was a relief that I hadn’t suddenly written a seven-hundred-page meditation on the capriciousness of memory set among the asparagus farmers of fourteenth-century Italy. I’m not saying that such a book would be bad, far from it, I’m just saying that it would be bad if I had written it.
You will have spotted in We Solve Murders that, although the world is new, my brain remains the same. I think I mentioned “Twix,” “Greggs,” and “Lee Child” within the first fifteen pages or so. Which I imagine was a relief to us all.
I hope there was something in Amy, Steve, and Rosie that you could take into your hearts. They will be returning soon, I promise, and I guarantee that Steve will be flying around the world against his will, and Amy will probably jump out of a helicopter, while Rosie arches an eyebrow and mixes the perfect martini. Incidentally, I don’t know about the rest of you, but the book I’m really dying to read next is Rosie D’Antonio’s Death Pulls the Trigger. I do wish it existed.
There are also lots of other characters in this book I can’t wait to return to. For example, I very much feel that we haven’t heard the last of our US Customs and Border Protection officer, Carlos Moss. Quite how I’ll get him involved next time, I don’t know, but, rest assured, I will. I also feel like I don’t want to leave Max Highfield behind. I know we are all eagerly anticipating Rampage 8.
I did feel, as I began to write We Solve Murders, that I was somehow cheating on my other characters. You know the ones I mean. But I was soon certain that they are all happily living in the same world as each other. In fact, if Steve were ever to jump in his Corsa, he could reach Coopers Chase in just over two hours. Various possible routes, but I think Tony Taylor would recommend A337, A31, M27, A27, B2192. Depending on the traffic, of course.
That’s enough directions, time for more thanks.
Thank you once again to all the wonderful booksellers and librarians out there. Every time you hand over a book you are handing over magic, from Belfast to Brazil, from Crickhowell to Canberra. I hope to meet even more of you this year, so get your book recommendations and tote bags ready. And, yes, please, I would love a cup of tea, I’m absolutely parched.
Books don’t get published without publishers—the clue is in the name—and I am lucky to have the very best of the very best.
Special thanks to my editor Harriet Bourton at Viking for being so brilliant, and for pretending to be super chill every time the word “deadline” was mentioned. You hide your terror very well, Harriet.
I am so beyond blessed that the entire Thursday Murder Club team at Viking also joined me on this new journey. Thank you once again to the fabulous Amy Davies, press and PR supremo Olivia Mead, Rose Poole, Meredith Benson at Penguin Audio, Rosie Safaty, and Roseanna Battle (note to self: Roseanna Battle would be a good name for a Max Highfield movie).
Thank you to the awesome UK sales team, Ruth Johnstone, Autumn Evans, Lucy Keeler, Caitlin Knight, Emily Cornell, Chris Wyatt, Grace Dellar, and Jessica Sacco; and in Ireland, Carrie Anderson—all led by the incomparably brilliant Sam Fanaken. And thanks also to the international sales team, Jessica Adams, Nadia Patel, and Laura Ricchetti.
I am deeply grateful once again to the production genius of Natalie Wall and Annie Underwood, and the exemplary copyediting of Donna Poppy.
Thank you to Richard Bravery for another storming front-cover design. A cat sitting on a gun, how well you know me. Incidentally “Richard Bravery” could be the name of Max Highfield’s character in Roseanna Battle.
And my final Viking thanks to the two big bosses, Preena Gadher and Tom Weldon. Even if they hadn’t been helpful, I would have thanked them, because I am nothing if not a corporate suck-up, but, thankfully, they are both kind, wise, super-talented people.
Five novels in now, and my constant guide has been my wonderful agent, Juliet Mushens (with the help of Seth, of course). Thank you to the whole amazing, and amazingly patient, Mushens gang: Emma Dawson, Kiya Evans, Alba Arnau Prado, Catriona Fida, and Liza DeBlock (and welcome, baby Theo!). Thank you also to my wonderful American agent, Jenny Bent.
I am so grateful to my lovely publishers from around the world; I am really trying to tick the territories off one by one as I can. Special thanks to Jess Malpass for shepherding me through Australia so entertainingly.
My American publishers continue to dazzle and delight. Thank you so much to Pamela Dorman, and Jeramie Orton, what a joy to meet you and your whole team in New York this year. Further thanks, from the land of the New Forest to the land of South Carolina, to Brian Tart, Andrea Schulz, Patrick Nolan, Natalie Grant, Kate Stark, Rebecca Marsh, Kristina Fazzalaro, Magdalena Deniz, Mary Stone, and Alex Cruz-Jimenez. Further thanks to Tricia Conley, Tess Espinoza, Mike Brown, Diandra Alvarado, Jason Ramirez, Colin Webber, and Andy Dudley, and the amazing Viking Penguin sales team. I’m certain I’ll be seeing you all again very soon!
Thank you, on two particular points of order, to Olly Smith (apparently a lovely Pink Padel rosé is just the ticket with monkfish) and Tom Lidstrom for naming The Wilberforce. And a special thank-you to the people and the ponies of the beautiful New Forest. As a child we used to go camping every year at Hollands Wood (just on the right as you leave Brockenhurst), and I apologize to the campsite owners for all the bloodshed (in the book, not on the family holidays).
Thank you, also, to Jn Pierre, who really is a St. Lucian taxi driver/politician, but definitely isn’t involved in any of the nefarious things that Ferdy knows about in the book. Neither, to my knowledge, has he ever crashed. If you’re at the airport in St. Lucia, do ask for him and tell him I sent you.
Thank you, as always, to my mum, Brenda. I just emailed her to say that a newspaper would like to take a photo of her with Dame Helen Mirren on the set of the Thursday Murder Club film, and I assumed that was okay with her?
Her three-word reply was “You assume correctly.” That’s my mum for you.
Thank you to the rest of my awesome family: Mat and Anissa, Jo, Richard and Salomé, Matt and Nicola. Hola, from Uncle Richard, to Mika, Leo, and Neni, and love, as always, to my grandparents Fred and Jessie.
This book is dedicated to Jan Wright, my late, greatly loved Auntie Jan. Jan died the day after her birthday, having just spoken to everyone who loved her (that was a lot of people) and looking forward to a trip to the café at M&S. Not bad going, Jan. We love you and miss you.
Readers often ask me if any of my characters are based on people I know, and they very rarely are. But I can confirm that Trouble is based, in very large part, on my constant writing companion, Liesl Von Cat. Liesl actually managed to delete an entire paragraph of the story for the first time ever this year. Can’t wait to see what she has in store next time.
Thank you to my children, Ruby and Sonny, for growing up to be such funny, smart, kind adults. It is a great privilege that you still enjoy hanging out with me.
And, finally, at the heart of everything, all my love and thanks to my wife, Ingrid. What a dream it is to go through life by your side, Ingrid. Here’s to many more adventures ahead, your hand in mine.
See you all same time next year, for the further adventures of a gang of friends called Joyce, Elizabeth, Ibrahim, and Ron. I do hope they’ve enjoyed their year off and are ready for a few more murders.
