To conduct my research, I relied on the work of many others: Erich Steingr?ber, Oppi Untracht, Janice Berkson, Stephen Maine, Todd Merrill’s work on James Mont, and Gregory Cerio’s Mont piece in The Magazine Antiques. Several real heists are mentioned in this novel using information from news coverage. I’m indebted to the legend of Russian jewel thief Sonya Golden Hand, who might have found Grace a bit soft.
Thank you first to Susan Golomb and Carole DeSanti; Krista Ingebretson, Soumeya Bendimerad, Christopher Russell, Kym Surridge, Clare Ferarro, Nancy Sheppard, Carolyn Coleburn, and everyone at Viking. To the Helen Zell Writers Program at the University of Michigan and the many writers who’ve supported me there: Nick Delbanco, Michael Byers, Doug Trevor, and especially Eileen Pollack, Peter Ho Davies, and V. V. Ganeshananthan, tireless champion. To the Hopwood Program, which gave me a boost when I most needed it. To my fellow students: Let us raise a glass in an empty Skeeps. Others encouraged me more than they know: Charlie Baxter, Julia Fierro, Valerie Laken, and Jess Row.
Love and thanks to the friends who lent their gimlet eyes to these pages over the years: Anna Brenner, Tessa Brown, Nania Lee, Anna Sheaffer, Maya West, and extra (infinite!) gratitude to Katie Lennard. Thanks to Sharon Pomerantz, Jeremiah Chamberlin, Aline Rogg, and Molly Kleinman, whose doors were always open, and to Gina Balibrera. To my family, who made me this way, especially my grandmother Joan, who watched Antiques Roadshow with bated breath. To every single one of my friends: you are the truest hearts, the wildest minds. To my husband, the whole valley of love.