by Sung J. Woo
“What about?”
“It regards a friend’s son. And since Mr. Park believes you to be a competent investigator, he’d like to recommend you. Can you be available tomorrow morning at nine?”
I told him yes and hung up.
“What was that?” Craig asked.
“I think,” I said, “that’s my next job.”
Acknowledgments
A heartfelt thanks goes out to my early readers, who suffered at the hands of my clumsy prose and dead-end plotting: Dawn S. White, Ava Sloane, E.A. Durden, Michael Bahler, and Stewart O’Nan. You’re all aces.
I’m especially grateful to Madison Smartt Bell, who not only offered editorial guidance but lead me to my incredible editor, Chantelle Aimée Osman, and the rest of the team at Agora/Polis Books. Thank you to Chantelle and Jason Pinter for taking a chance on this “literary” writer’s first mystery novel.
Lastly, words can’t do justice to the dedication of my agent, Priya Doraswamy, who continued to believe in this book when even I lost faith.
And actually, one more thing, and maybe the most important thing. I believe creativity to be fragile, and I don’t mean in some precious, I-need-my-perfect-cup-of-tea type of way. I may have written all the words to this novel, but they only got written because I have a loving wife, a fantastic family, devoted pets, a generous mentor, and an understanding boss. So much has to go right for this book to exist, and I know full well how lucky I am. So thank you Dawn, Mom, Sunny, Bill, Chung, Emeric, Ginny, Lily, Mac, Stew, and Tom Valva, for all your graces.
About the Author
Sung J. Woo’s short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, PEN/Guernica, and Vox. He has written two novels, Love Love and Everything Asian, which won the 2010 Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Literature Award (Youth category).
He lives in Washington, New Jersey.
Follow him at @SJWoo.
