Linda Fairstein - Entombed

My greatest pleasure in plotting this book was the opportunity it provided to reread all of Poe's writings. My source was the ten volume collection published by Stone and Kimball in 1894, including the memoir by George E. Woodberry. Poe's life is well-described by Kenneth Silverman in Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance; and by Arthur H. Quinn in Edgar Allan Poe-A Critical Biography.

The Bronx County Historical Society maintains Poe Cottage in remarkable condition, for tourists and scholars alike. Kathleen McAuley is not only its knowledgeable curator, but an enchanting guide. The splendid setting that is the New York Botanical Garden is one of the city's true jewels, as I saw in the hands of Dr. Kim Tripp, and a far less threatening site than it appears in my novel. I am grateful to both institutions for opening their doors to me.

Thanks once again to everyone at Scribner and Pocket Books- Susan Moldow, Roz Lippel, Louise Burke, Mitchell Ivers, Pat Eisemann, Erin Cox, Sarah Knight, Angella Baker-and to John Fulbrook, for my own elegant raven.

To Susanne Kirk, who has guided my hand and spirit from the first pages of Final Jeopardy through the last edit of Entombed, may you always be sitting on my shoulder as I write, through your long and happy retirement.

To Hilary Hale and David Young at Time Warner UK, my gratitude for taking Alex Cooper around the world in such grand style. And to Esther Newberg, the best in the business, I'm glad to have had you at my side since the outset.

My family and friends are my inspiration and source of sustenance. Librarians and booksellers are the generous souls who put my books in readers' hands. And my beloved Justin Feldman- whose childhood playground, in the Bronx, was actually Poe Park-remains my steadfast partner in law and literature, which gives me happiness beyond imagining.

Linda Fairstein, America 's foremost legal expert on crimes of sexual assault and domestic violence, led the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit of the District Attorney's Office in Manhattan for twenty-five years, leaving in 2002 to write, lecture, and continue her advocacy for victims of violent crime. A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the International Society of Barristers, she is a graduate of Vassar College and the University of Virginia School of Law. Her first novel, Final Jeopardy, which introduced the character Alexandra Cooper, was published in 1996 to critical and commercial acclaim and was made into an ABC Movie of the Week starring Dana Delaney. Likely to Die, Cold Hit, The Deadhouse, The Bone Vault, and her most recent novel, The Kills, also achieved international bestseller status. Her nonfiction book, Sexual Violence, was a New York Times notable book in 1994. She lives with her husband in Manhattan and on Martha's Vineyard.