Acknowledgments

3 minutes after the verdict was read in State of Connecticut vs. Max Hastings: Hey Sarge, remember me?

As ever, the first thanks must go to my agent, Sam Copeland. Thank you for being the best sounding board/agony aunt/bad cop/good cop. This all started with me pitching you girl does school project about old murder case back in June 2016, and look where we are now! A whole-ass trilogy is the technical term. But there wouldn’t even be one book if you hadn’t taken a chance on me back then and told me to write this idea, so thank you! (Although let’s not give you ALL the credit—though I’m sure you’d love to take it!) Next, I want to thank booksellers, who do such a fantastic job of getting books into the hands of readers and have continued to do so despite the incredible challenges of this past year. I am so so grateful to you for your enduring enthusiasm and dedication to books and reading, and for the huge part you have all played in the success of the AGGGTM series . To the bloggers, too, who dedicate so much of their time to posting reviews or shouting about books they have enjoyed. I could never thank you enough for all the love you have shown the AGGGTM

series, and I am so looking forward to seeing your reactions to As Good As Dead.

To everyone at Delacorte Press who worked tirelessly to help turn my Word documents into actual, physical books. It takes a village. Thank you to Kelsey Horton for so expertly navigating this huge book with me and for understanding exactly what I wanted it to do. And again for guiding me through my fake-American-ness and all the ensuing hilarity that comes from “translating” UK to US English. Thank you so much to Beverly Horowitz for all your guidance and hard work overseeing this series from the very beginning, and for all the incredible opportunities you have given me. Thank you to Colleen Fellingham, Tamar Schwartz, and Marla Garfield for helping me whip this manuscript into shape. Thank you, as always, to the genius Casey Moses for the incredible cover design and for so expertly bringing to life my unhelpful suggestion of “duct tape—but make it creepy.” And to Christine Blackburne for your superb photography once again. I think this is the best cover of the series—it’s so dark and fitting for this finale and I couldn’t have asked for a better cover. I hope no one looks at duct tape the same way again. Thank you to Caitlin Whalen, Emma Benshoff, Jenn Inzetta, Lili Feinberg, and everyone in the publicity and marketing teams for all your incredible hard work in making sure people hear about these books and are excited about them—I am eternally grateful. And to Victoria Rodriguez for being the most amazing advocate for YA books. Thank you to the sales team for all you do to get these books out into the world, and a massive thanks to Nick Martorelli and the audiobook team for making my words sounds so cool and professional! A special thank-you to Priscilla Coleman again for your fantastic artwork, and for bringing the DT Killer to life so expertly in the police composite sketch.

After the last year we have had, it would seem a glaring omission for me to not express my overwhelming gratitude and admiration to all NHS workers (in the UK—where I live). Your everyday heroism and bravery during the Covid-19 pandemic at times made my contribution to society feel very small (typing away made-up stories about made-up people), but I want to thank you for being so inspiring and compassionate, and for looking

after us all during this horrific year. You truly are heroes, and the National Health Service is an incredible privilege that we should protect at all costs.

Thank you to my writer friends, as always, for helping me navigate the tricky waters of publishing, especially during these lockdown releases. And for Zoom game sessions so I could virtually escape my flat and my deadlines (temporarily). Thank you to my Flower Huns for keeping me sane (remotely) during the pandemic. I look back fondly on those weekly quizzes. I can’t wait to do more IRL playing this year—although no more quizzes, yeah?

Thank you to my mum and dad as always for their unwavering support and for believing in me when no one else did. I think you probably knew I was going to be a writer from a young age, but thank you for fostering my love of stories by letting me have a childhood full of books, and video games, and TV, and films. Not a second of it was wasted. Also thank you, Dad, for your first reader comments, and for understanding the book perfectly. And thanks, Mum, for telling Dad that you “felt sick” when reading the book—that’s when I knew it was doing exactly what I wanted it to do!

Thank you to my sisters, Amy and Olivia, for their constant support, and for showing me just how important sisters are. Pip has had to find her own sisters (Cara, Naomi, Nat, and Becca), but I was lucky enough to have two from the very start. I’m sure your influence will be all over every example of sibling banter/bickering I ever write, so thank you for that!

To my nephew, George, who says I am his favorite author, despite being ten-plus years too young to read my books: top marks for you! To my new niece, Kaci, for supplying the cuteness to keep me going during a dreadful year of deadlines, and for also being a badass pandemic baby. And especially to my niece Danielle, who is almost old enough to read these books now. Several years ago, when Danielle was about nine years old, she was studying creative writing at school, and she told me that all the best stories end in a dot dot dot… Well, Danielle, I have finished my first-ever trilogy with a dot dot dot— I hope you’re proud (and I hope you’re right!).

Thank you to Peter, Gaye, and Katie Collis as ever for being my early readers and for being the best second family one could ask for.

To Ben, who is my cornerstone, my forever partner-in-crime. Without you, none of this would have been possible and Pip would never have seen the light of day, let alone made it to the end of book three. Thank you.

After writing a series that is so heavily influenced by true crime, it would seem strange for me to end without one comment on the criminal justice system and the areas in which it fails us. I feel a helpless despair when I look at the statistics of rape and sexual assault in this country (and I’m sure the case is much the same in the US) and the abysmal rate of reporting and conviction. Something isn’t right here. I hope the books themselves do the talking for me on this front. I think it’s clear that parts of these stories come from an angry place, both personal anger at the times when I have been harassed and not believed, and frustration at a system of justice that sometimes doesn’t feel very just.

Finally, to end on a lighter note, I want to thank all of you who have followed me through every page right to the end of book three. Thank you for trusting me, and I hope you found the ending you were looking for. I certainly did.