The Crack in the Lens (26 page)
Read The Crack in the Lens Online
Authors: Steve Hockensmith
Holmes on the Range
On the Wrong Track
The Black Dove
The author wishes to thank:
Jim Thompson and Bernard Herrmann—for inspiration.
Crafty Keith Kahla, editor and Texan—for pointing the way.
Elyse Cheney, agent and New Yorker—for cracking the whip.
Andy Martin, Hector DeJean, Kathleen Conn, and everyone else at Minotaur Books—for keeping this crazy cattle drive moving.
Big Red’s Posse (you know who you are)—for giving me a reason to saddle up.
Sandra E. Cortez and the San Marcos Public Library—for helping me get my facts straight and forgiving me (I hope) when I chose to bend the truth.
India Cooper—for the sharpest eyes this side of Old Red himself.
Sophie Littlefield, Steven Sidor, and Ben Sevier—for timely words of wisdom and encouragement.
Everyone I’m forgetting to thank—for not hitting me the next time I see you.
Mark and Alyssa Nickell—for sweet relief.
Kate and Mojo and Mar—for the whole schmear.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE CRACK IN THE LENS
. Copyright © 2009 by Steve Hockensmith. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hockensmith, Steve.
The crack in the lens / Steve Hockensmith.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(Holmes on the range mystery series; 4)
ISBN: 978-0-312-37942-1
1. Brothers—Fiction. 2. Cowboys—Fiction. 3. Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir. 1859–1930—Influence—Fiction. 4. Texas—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3608.O29C73 2009
813'.6—dc22
2009007910