Smoke & Whispers (23 page)

‘Gan canny,’ Sarah whispered through the glass. Though whether her words were aimed at the river, at Zoë, or at herself, she couldn’t tell.

Acknowledgements

It’s a common complaint that authors take liberties with geography. In this instance, geography has taken liberties with the author. Some locations in this novel will have been redeveloped out of recognition by the time of publication – mostly, I hope, for the better – but they’re described the way I found them in the winter of 07/08.

The scenes set inside the derelict Jesmond Picture House were written before I saw Richard Shepherd’s spooky photographs of its interior. They can be viewed at
http://www.shepy.co.uk/myphotos/main.php
, and provide convincing evidence that I overdid the cobwebs.

Arimathea House does not exist. Incarnation Children’s Centre in New York does. Journalist Liam Scheff’s reports on what happened there suggested one of the main planks of this novel (
http://www.altheal.org/toxicity/house.htm
).

XYZ are Sarah Jones, Matthew Jones and David Jones (
http://www.myspace.com/xyzfolk
).

Last Orders are Matthew Jones, David Jones, Kevin Lees and Joe O’Connor, with Maz O’Connor providing vocals (
http://www.myspace.com/lastordersfolk
).

Love and thanks to my mother, to Anne and to Mick for some long city walks.

And thanks too to Tony Smith, for a little learning, a lot of software support, and at least eleven years of squash.

Mick Herron August 2008