Keep The Midnight Out (William Lorimer) (33 page)

T
hose readers familiar with my beloved Mull will see that I have kept faithfully to its topography. However, there are a few places in
Keep The Midnight Out
created purely from my imagination. You may search in vain for Kilbeg Country House Hotel, the Black Teeth or any loch that spills its waters into the Sound of Mull near Tobermory Bay.

T
here are many people I wish to thank for their help in making this novel come to life. First, my cousin, Dr Andrew Noble, current owner of Leiter Cottage, for his kind permission to use it in my works of fiction. You know how much Leiter has meant to me since childhood, Drew. Also to my cousin, Elizabeth McIver, and to Ian Phillips for all the help in preparing background material and for being there whenever I needed a bed in Tobermory for the night.

Going back to 1995 has been an interesting experience and several police officers have made suggestions that helped to recreate that period when policing in Scotland was a bit different from now. As ever, my thanks go to DC Mairi Milne and to former DS Alastair Morris for their invaluable knowledge. Also thanks to Superintendent Martin Cloherty for his assistance in finding out technical details and to those officers in Oban and Lorn who gave me information. May they forgive my fictional imaginings of twenty-first-century policing on Mull!

To John Weir for his panama hat (the character who wears it is purely from my imagination!); to my sister, June, for help with researching Courlene; to the library staff at Glasgow Royal Infirmary for the invitation that gave me a chance to wander the hospital corridors; as ever to Dr Marjorie Turner for keeping me right about all post-mortem and other forensic details.

The crew at Little, Brown are perennially amazing, in particular my wonderful editor Jade Chandler and my dear David Shelley, not forgetting Stephanie, Rachel and Thalia. A special thanks to Moira who keeps me – and my diary – organised (and for looking after Puskas while I signed books all over the country and travelled around for research). Thanks, Jenny, the best agent a writer could wish for, and more than an agent, a dear and loyal friend.

Donnie, thanks for everything, especially for sharing the journeys (my, what trips across Ardnamurchan!) and for being a wonderful husband. And, yes, I couldn’t do it all without you.