For anyone who’d like more information on the CAU’s progressive approach, I recommend Opening Our Arms: Helping Troubled Kids Do Well, by Kathy Regan. I also recommend The Explosive Child, by Dr. Ross W. Greene, for a detailed look at the collaborative problem-solving (CPS) approach.

On the more mundane side of research, a happy shout-out to my favorite pharmacist, Margaret Charpentier, who once again helped me pick the perfect poison. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten to collaborate. I think the results are fun, as always.

Kill a Friend, Maim a Buddy: Congratulations to Audi Solis for being chosen as the sixth annual Lucky Stiff. I hope you enjoy your grand end. Sharing the fun across the Atlantic, Jo Rhodes won the Kill a Friend, Maim a Mate. According to Eleane Rhodes, it was the least I could do.

For anyone else who wants in on the action, the next sweepstakes should be up and running by September. Visit www.LisaGardner.com for more info.

Under “Care and Feeding of Authors,” thank you to Michael Carr, whose pen functions more like a scalpel when editing a manuscript. I cried only for a little bit, and the book is better for it. My appreciation to my first readers, Kathleen, Barbara, and Diana, for doing an excellent job, as always, with the page proofs. And finally, the big guns-I couldn’t do this without Meg, Kate, and the support of my entire publishing team. Thank you for making the magic happen.

On the home front, my love to my patient husband and my not very patient but always adorable child.

Finally, this book is in memory of Michael Clemons, a good man, gone too soon. We miss you.

LISA GARDNER is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, including Live to Tell, The Neighbor, and Say Goodbye. She lives with her husband and daughter in New England. She is currently at work on her next Detective D.D. Warren thriller, which Bantam will publish in 2011.