ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Support Center for Child Advocates in Philadelphia, with the aid of hundreds of volunteer lawyers, offers free legal and social services to Philadelphia’s abused, neglected, and medically needy children. I was honored to be one of those lawyers. In this book, Victor was winging his pro bono representation as best he could, but the volunteer attorneys working with the Support Center are given extensive training and ongoing support. The services the center provides to the city’s at-risk children are a wonder.

For her valuable assistance in the dental portions of this novel, along with helping me keep my teeth, I wish to thank Dr. Ruth S. Rosenberg, D.M.D. I may be a deep-seated antidentite, but she has kept my shoe flipping to a minimum, though I have left a few scuffs on her walls. I also wish to thank Wendy Sherman, my excellent agent, Dr. Andrew Gross, and, as always, my mother for their help with the manuscript, and Mark Pfeffer for lending me his name. Much credit for my work goes to Michael Morrison, Lisa Gallagher, Sharyn Rosenblum, and the whole gang at Morrow, and especially to my editor, the very brilliant and very tough Carolyn Marino, who was enthusiastic about my boy Bob from the beginning.

Finally, as always, I am nothing without my family, and so I thank them all, especially my dear wife, Pam.

About the Author

William Lashner is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He was a criminal prosecutor with the United States Department of Justice. His novels – Fatal Flaw; Bitter Truth; Hostile Witness – have been published worldwide in ten languages. He lives with his family outside of Philadelphia.