Dry Bones in the Valley: A Novel (31 page)

Particular acknowledgment is made to:

Pete, Kate, Nathaniel, and Katherine Bouman, for their steadfast support.

Joyce Wilbur and Ed John.

My family.

Bill Luce, for hunting lore and wisdom in the field.

Chief Tim Burgh, for his valuable perspective on rural law enforcement—any inaccuracies on that subject are mine alone.

Everyone at W. W. Norton & Company whose excellent work made this book real, in particular Eleen Cheung, John Glusman, Ryan Harrington, Ingsu Liu, and Nancy Palmquist, as well as my copy editor Dave Cole.

My beloved agent Neil Olson, without whose trust, advocacy, and editorial work this book would surely have been consigned to the woodstove.

My friend and editor Tom Mayer—brilliant, generous, and in the pocket.

Barbara Jean.

And to Emily, “Always, darling.”

Copyright © 2014 by Tom Bouman

All rights reserved

First Edition

Excerpt from
The American Songbag
by Carl Sandburg.

Copyright 1927, and renewed 1955 by Carl Sandburg.

Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Book design by Brooke Koven

Production manager: Devon Zahn

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Bouman, Tom.

Dry bones in the valley : a novel / Tom Bouman.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-393-24302-4 (hardcover)

1. Police—Pennsylvania—Fiction. 2. Murder—Investigation—
Fiction. 3. Rural life—Pennsylvania—Fiction. 4. Social conflict—
Pennsylvania—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3602.O8923D79 2014

813′.6—dc23

2014002224

ISBN 978-0-393-24303-1 (e-book)

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.,

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