Among the Shadows (31 page)

 

Acknowledgments

A
MONG THE
S
HADOWS
is the culmination of a long journey, from my first days attending the University of Southern Maine—­to study writing—­through nearly three decades in law enforcement. I am eternally grateful to a number of ­people instrumental in my transition to published novelist. You'll forgive me if I've left any of you out, it was certainly not my intention.

Kate “Doc” Flora for your friendship, sage advice, counsel, ruthless editing, and ongoing psychotherapy as I blindly navigate my battered dory through the forbidding, shark-­infested waters of writing and publishing. And for pushing me to reach beyond while talking me off the ledge.

The many writing teachers who've inspired me, among them Scarborough High's Gerald Hebert, Eileen Matrazzo, and Deborah Kerr.

My proofreaders, critics, and fact-­checkers: Nancy Coffin (my mom), Michael Cunniff, Sherry Simons, Jen Printy, Judy Ridge, Barbara Nickerson, Marge Niblock, Lee Humiston, Cindy Swift, and Inger Cyr.

Fellow crime writers Brenda Buchanan, Dick Cass, Kate Flora (yes, again), Al Lamanda, and Rick Simonds.

My immediate family and friends for their constant encouragement and support along the way.

Dave and Theresa Cote for providing me with an opportunity.

The many men and women in the field of criminal justice, true professionals I was fortunate enough to have served with, whether municipal, county, state, federal, corrections, prosecutors, defense counselors, or magistrates. I will always consider each one of you my extended family (Wouldn't that make for a great tax deduction?).

My agent, Paula Munier, at Talcott Notch for believing in me.

Nick Amphlett, my editor at Harper­Collins, for allowing me to stick my foot in the novel publishing door and for prodding me to reach further. And Patrice Silverstein, my copyeditor, for catching what I missed.

Lastly, and most importantly, my wife, Karen, for her love, support, inspiration, infinite patience, and for believing. Without you in my life there would be no story.

 

About the Author

BRUCE ROBERT COFFIN retired from the Portland, Maine, police department in 2012, after more than twenty-­seven years in law enforcement. As a detective sergeant, he supervised all homicide and violent crime investigations for Maine's largest city. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, he worked for four years with the FBI, earning the Director's Award (the highest honor a nonagent can receive) for his work in counterterrorism.

Bruce's fiction has been shortlisted twice for the Al Blanchard Award. His story
Foolproof
appears in the Level Best Books anthology
Red Dawn
,
Best New England Crime Stories
, 2016, and in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's
Best American Mystery Stories
, 2016. He is currently writing the sequel to
Among the Shadows
.

He lives and writes in Maine.

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Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

AMONG THE SHADOWS
. Copyright © 2016 by Bruce Robert Coffin. All rights reserved under International and Pan-­American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-­book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-­engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of Harper­Collins e-­books. For information, address Harper­Collins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.

EPub Edition SEPTEMBER 2016 ISBN: 9780062569462

Print Edition ISBN: 9780062569479

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