The Last Murder at the end of the World

A SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Right, there we are. The book’s finished. The curtain’s raised and the house lights are on. If you’re reading this immediately after the last page, your first impressions are probably starting to percolate in your consciousness. Did it go where you were expecting? Did you like where it went? What’s Stu’s problem with the human race anyway?

I won’t interrupt you for too long, because – truthfully – these first few numb minutes after a book ends are my favourite part.

I’m here because I’m about to send my acknowledgements to my publisher and I’ve just realised that you’re not in them, which doesn’t feel right to me. After all, you’re my co-author. We’ve spent hours with our heads down, building this world together. I suggested some stuff, but you dreamed it into being. You’re magic, and that shouldn’t pass without some sort of acknowledgement.

That’s why I’m writing this. I don’t want you to think that I take you for granted. I started my career with the idea that I would write radically different books each time, because that sounded the most fun. I change timelines, genres, characters, worlds. It’s a risky way to build a career, and it wouldn’t work unless you kept reading them. I get to do my job the way I want to do it because of you. That’s an astonishing thing and I’m so grateful.

I know it’s not an easy thing to pick up a book that’s not necessarily in your wheelhouse. Even if you enjoyed my Groundhog Day murder mystery novel, I appreciate that you may not be up for the historical haunted ship book, or the sci-fi apocalypse novel. And, yet, you keep taking a leap of faith.

That matters. That hugely matters. So thank you, everybody. Always, and from the bottom of my heart.

Stu

P.S. Next time we’re doing a more contemporary thriller thing. It’s going to be wild. Hopefully I’ll see you back here.