Jeff Abbott - No Rest for the Dead

The wonderful thing about an endeavor of this sort is that I’ve become very good friends with several of the contributors and my friendship has been strengthened with writers whom I had previously known only casually. A special thanks goes to Jeffery Deaver, that man for all seasons. He played a huge part in finding loose ends and tying them all together with a sleight of hand that David Blaine would admire. Jonathan Santlofer, one of the smartest minds around, also played a critical role in strengthening the book and writing the watcher scenes-though I have to admit that he and I did want to kill each other a few times. Thankfully our homicidal thoughts never interfered with our friendship. John Lescroart provided a lot of support and helped us find even more writers for this project and was always there to chew on any ideas that we had. And of course the great David Baldacci who wrote that great introduction; David is one of the true gentleman in the literary world and it was a pleasure to work with him. Alexander McCall Smith helped with exploring the depths of Christopher Thomas’s manipulative character.

I would also like to thank my brother Farris for his support and wisdom and enduring presence in the process of bouncing ideas; Lisa Gallagher, one of the sweetest and most supportive people I know; Nancy Yost, who from the start was a guiding light; Joe Finder, who became our oracle; Doug McEvoy, who no matter how busy he was, always found time to give me his sage advice; and the Touchstone team of Stacy Creamer, David Falk, and Michelle Howry, whose faith in this project never wavered.

Some of the other people who were instrumental in helping get this project off the ground were Alice Martel, Alan Jacobson, Lukas Ortiz, Christian Lewis, Ben M., Lesley Winton, Louise, and Nick Ellison.

Also, I must thank both my parents for always encouraging me to read and write when they were alive. My dad spared no expense in buying me hundreds of books and giving me tons of confidence. When I was a scrawny little eight-year-old, writing stories on scraps of paper, my mom was always there to encourage me, and until her last few months on earth, she patiently read all my stories and was the gentlest yet sharpest critic I’ve ever come across.

This has been a three-year marathon. I learned a lot, felt frustration, suffered some sleepless nights, had that great feeling of anticipation every time I opened an e-mail with a new chapter, and now I revel in the exhilaration of a job well done. But above all, I’m humbled to know that were it not for the tremendous effort and dedication of all the people who played a part, I would not be writing this.

– Andrew F. Gulli

Putting together a cohesive novel written by twenty-six different authors is certainly not a two-person job. Andrew and I learned that-the hard way. No Rest for the Dead would not have been possible without the help of our publishers and so many friends; family members; agents; editors; colleagues; and, of course, the writers, whose work I was very privileged to edit.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank my brother Andrew for including me in this, although I must admit there were times (the all-nighters come to mind) when I hated him for it. Also a very big thank-you to my brother Farris. During some of my most frantic moments working on the book Farris was always there, listening patiently and giving sound advice. He helped resolve plot problems, pointed out logical inconsistencies, and as a physician was always on hand to answer medical/forensics questions that came up. Many thanks also to Christian Lewis, who on very short notice took time out of his schedule to read the book and use his excellent editing and research skills to resolve several key issues in the novel.

Special thanks to Jonathan Santlofer for his help editing, for bringing in additional writers, and for so many of his obvious and less obvious contributions to this book. Also many thanks to Jeffery Deaver, who was always on hand to read large excerpts, offer advice, and even contribute to the editing, and to Kathy Reichs for her detailed and timely responses to all our forensics questions. I’d also like to thank Joseph Finder and Doug McEvoy for their support and invaluable advice, as well as Lisa Gallagher, Nancy Yost, Tess Gerritsen, John Lescroart, Peter James, Michael Palmer, T. Jefferson Parker, Alexander McCall Smith, Diana Gabaldon, Louise Ihm, Alison Jasonides, Marnie Fender, and Lisa Scottoline.

Thanks to everyone at Touchstone, including Stacy Creamer for her excellent editorial advice and for giving Andrew and me the time to make No Rest a better book; Michelle Howry for her help editing and for being so patient; and David Falk for deciding to look at the manuscript in the first place.

Lastly, I’d like to thank all of the contributors for their excellent work and for their patience and understanding of the editing process involved in putting together a serial novel. All of the contributors were extremely gracious about edits made to their individual chapters in order for the book to come together as a whole. Without this fantastic lineup of authors this book would not have been possible.

The idea for the book was dreamed up by Andrew as a means to raise funds for cancer charities-except for funds allocated to author payments, all of our profits from No Rest for the Dead are going to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. According to LLS, each day approximately 148 people in the United States alone die from blood cancer-one person every ten minutes. We’re hoping that in some small way our contribution will help make that a smaller number. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society funds potentially lifesaving research around the world. If you’d like more information about LLS, or to make a donation, please visit their website, www.lls.org.

– Lamia J. Gulli