My thanks to all the incredibly hardworking and dedicated folks at Soho Press and Soho Crime, a true independent voice for quality fiction. Publisher Bronwen Hruska, Associate Publisher Juliet Grames, Marketing Maven Paul Oliver, editor Mark Doten, Meredith Barnes, Rachel Kowal, Janine Agro, Amara Hoshiro, Abby Koski, Rudy Martinez: my appreciation and gratitude for your continued dedication to doing such great work.
A big thank you to copyeditor extraordinaire, Maureen Sugden, who goes above and beyond in her attention to detail both grammatical and story. Also many thanks to proofer Katie Herman (was there a better choice to proof this book? I don’t think so).
Web designer Ryan McLaughlin, as always, a pleasure working with you.
I am truly fortunate to have an amazing circle of author friends, whose support and camaraderie make the bad times easier and the good times better: Purgatory, Fiction Author’s Co-op, the Writing Wombats, you are all awesome. Special thanks to Dana Fredsti for the beta read! Also, to Tim Hallinan, for being one of the most generous and supportive writers I know. I want to be like you when I grow up.
I want to thank Nathan Bransford and the fine folks at CNET, past and present, who have helped me keep body and soul together over the last two years. Special thanks go out to Jennifer Guevin, Emily Dreyfuss, and Christine “Killer” Cain.
China friends and experts who have helped me get the details right and who have generously opened their homes to me: Richard Burger, Fuzhen Si, Tim Smith, Dave Lyons, Brendan O’Kane, Allison Corser, Karl Gerth, Peter Braden, and Dongmei Cao. I’m often asked why I keep going back to China. It’s largely because of people like you.
I am about to do the most California thing ever: Thank personal trainers Tim Ehhalt, Kyle Hannon, and Nick Gombold. In all seriousness, I doubt very much this book would have been completed without these guys teaching me old-school weight training and keeping me moving. For all that we’re told that writing comes from keeping our butts in our chairs, the best thing I have done for my writing work has been getting out of that chair and doing some serious sweating.
My mother gets a special shout-out in the dedication, but I have to thank my parents, Bill and Carol Galante, here too. Especially for all that Costco sushi. You know how to keep a writer going.
I’d like to express my gratitude to all the great folks at Curtis Brown, in particular Kerry D’Agostino, Stuart Waterman, Holly Frederick, Kerry Cullen, and most especially, my agent Katherine Fausset, who has been a rock when I’ve been in a hard place.
Finally, I want to thank all of the readers who have accompanied Ellie on her journeys. I hope you found entertainment, emotion, and some food for thought.
Table of Contents
★
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty Two
Chapter Twenty Three
Chapter Twenty Four
Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty Seven
Chapter Twenty Eight
Chapter Twenty Nine
Chapter Thirty
Acknowledgments
Dragon Day Page 30
