Four Walls

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PRIMARY THANKS MUST GO to my wonderful editor, Jennifer Heddle, who gave me the chance to once again write a novel taking place in my hometown, the greatest city in the world.

Secondary thanks to Paul DiGennaro, who has been a corrections officer in the state of New York for many years and whose guidance was invaluable in the descriptions of life in the fictional Richmond Hill Correctional Facility. It's safe to say that I couldn't have written this book-or, at least, the bits that involve the RHCF-without Paul. Thanks also to Linda Foglia of the New York State Department of Corrections and Deputy Superintendent of Programs Edward Adler and Captain William Caldwell of the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility for the tour of the latter site, which was incredibly useful. Any deviations or mistakes in relation to prison life are entirely inventions (a nice way of saying "screwups") of the author and should not reflect on any of these fine people.

Of course, I must also thank Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakaredes, Eddie Cahill, Hill Harper, Carmine Giovinazzo, Anna Belknap, Robert Joy, Claire Forlani, Emmanuelle Vaugier, A. J. Buckley, Mykelti Williamson, and Carmen Argenziano, who all provided face and voice for many of the characters herein, thus giving me material to work with.

Although it was the inspiration for a different TV show on a different network, I have to give props to David Simon's Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. That's the true-crime book that got me interested in police procedure in the first place.

Huge thanks also to Reddy's Forensic Page (www.forensicpage.com), a fantastic online clearinghouse for forensic info and a researcher's dream site. Fellow CSI novelist (and forensic expert in his own right) Ken Goddard helped out with some scientific details as well. Also for sheer cool value, thanks to the good folks at CLPEx.com (Complete Latent Print Examination), who have a PDF of Francis Galton's groundbreaking 1892 book Finger Prints on their website.

The usual thanks to GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido, who again provided an excellent first read.

Finally, thanks to them that live with me, both human and feline, for everything.