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will be my consolation.
For reparation is the shadow cast by salvation.
I have faith in some better world beyond this one. I know that my wife and
child dwell within it, for I have seen them. I know that they are safe now
from the dark angels and that wherever may dwell Faulkner and Pudd and the
countless others who wanted to turn life to death, they are far, far from
Susan and Jennifer, and they can never touch them again.
There is rain tonight in Boston, and the glass of the window is anatomized
with intricate veins traced across its surface. I wake, my knuckle still sore
from the treated bite, and turn gently to feel her move close beside me. Her
hand touches my neck and I know somehow that, while I have been asleep, she
has been watching me in the darkness, waiting for the moment to arrive.
But I am tired, and as my eyes close again,
I am standing at the edge of the forest, and the air is filled with the
howling of the hybrids. Behind me, the trees reach out to one another, and
when they touch, they make a sound like children whispering. And as I listen,
something moves in the shadows before me.
Bird?
Her hand is warm upon me, yet my skin is cold. I want to stay with her, but
I am drawn away again, for the darkness is calling me and a shape still moves
through the trees. Slowly, the boy emerges, the black tape masking the lens of
his glasses, his skin white. I try to walk to him but I cannot raise my feet.
Behind him, other figures drift but they are walking away from us,
disappearing into the forest, and soon he will join them. The wooden board has
been discarded but the burn marks from the rope remain visible at his neck. He
says nothing but stands watching me for a long, long time, one hand gripping
the bark of the yellow birch beside him, until, at last, he too begins to
recede,
Bird, she whispers.
fading away, moving deeper and deeper,
I'm pregnant.
down, down into the depths of this honeycomb world.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The following books proved invaluable in the course of writing this novel:
Wrath of Angels: The American Abortion War by James Risen and Judy L. Thomas
(Basic Books, 1998); Eagle Lake by James C. Ouellette (Harpswell Press, 1980);
The Red Hourglass: Lives of the Predators by Gordon Grice (Allen Lane, 1998);
The Book of the Spider by Paul Hillyard (Hutchinson, 1994); The Bone Lady by
Mary H. Manheim (Louisiana State University Press, 1999); Maine Lighthouses by
Courtney Thompson (CatNap Publications, 1996); Apocalypses by Eugen Weber
(Hutchinson, 1999); The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come, edited by
Francis Carey (British Museum Press, 1999); and The Devil's Party by Colin
Wilson (Virgin, 2000). In addition, Simpson's Forensic Medicine by Bernard
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Knight (Arnold, 1997) and Introduction to Forensic Sciences, second edition,
edited by William G. Eckert (CRC Press, 1997), rarely left my desk.
Much of the material relating to religious movements in Maine came from
Elizabeth Ring's introduction to her Directory of Churches & Religious
Organizations in Maine, 1940 (Maine Historical Records Survey Project); Till
Shiloh Come by Jason Stone (Down East magazine, March 1991); and The
Promised Land by Earl M. Benson (Down East magazine, September 1953).
As each novel progresses, the depths of my ignorance become more and more
apparent. I have relied on the knowledge and kindness of a great many people
in researching this book, among them James Ferland and the staff of the Maine
Medical Examiner's Office, Augusta; Officer Joe Giacomantonio, Scarborough
Police Department; Captain Russell J. Gauvin, City of Portland Police
Department; Sergeant Dennis R. Appleton, CID III, Maine State Police; Sergeant
Hugh J. Turner, Maine State Police; L. Dean Paisley, my excellent guide to
Eagle Lake; Rita Staudig, historian of the St. John Valley; Phineas Sprague
Jr. of Portland Yacht Services; Bob and Babs Malkin, and Jim Block, who helped
me with Jewish New York; Big Apple Greeters; Phil Procter, theater manager of
the Wang Center in Boston; Beth Olsen at the Boston Ballet; the staff of the
Center for Maine History in Portland, Maine; Chuck Antony; and many others. To
all of them I owe a drink, and probably an apology for all of the mistakes
that I've made.
Finally, I wish to thank my agent, Darley Anderson, and his assistants,
Elizabeth and Carrie; my foreign rights agent Kerith Biggs; my editor at
Hodder & Stoughton, Sue Fletcher; my editor at Atria Books, Emily Bestler, for
her constant kindness and support; her associate editor, Sarah Branham; and
Judith Curr and Louise Burke, my publishers at Atria Books and Pocket Books.
Titles by John Connolly
Series
Charlie Parker
1. Every Dead Thing (1998)
2. Dark Hollow (2000)
3. The Killing Kind (2001)
4. The White Road (2002)
5. The Black Angel (2005)
6. The Unquiet (2007)
Novels
Bad Men (2003)
The Book of Lost Things (2006)
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