Save Me - Lisa Scottoline [144]
A special hug of thanks for their time and expertise to everybody at Herr Foods of Nottingham, Pennsylvania. It’s important to reiterate here that everything in the book is fictional, but I was helped to create Homestead by the great people at Herr Foods, starting with ace Public Relations Manager Jennifer Arrigo, and most especially the Herr Family: J.M. Herr, Ed Herr, Gene Herr, and Daryl Thomas. A special thanks for the consultation to Fran Dolan, Jim Rock, Bill Beddow, and all the hard-working staff who showed me the ropes.
Thank you to the gang at St. Martin’s Press, starting with my great editor and super-supportive coach, Jennifer Enderlin, who inspires me and guided this book, and to John Sargent, Sally Richardson, Matthew Shear, Matt Baldacci, Jeff Capshew, Nancy Trypuc, Monica Katz, John Murphy, John Karle, Sara Goodman, and all the wonderful sales reps. Big thanks to Michael Storrings, for an astounding cover design. Also hugs and kisses to Mary Beth Roche, Laura Wilson, and the great people in audio books. I love and appreciate all of you.
Thanks and big love to my wonderful agent and friend, Molly Friedrich, as well as the Amazing Paul Cirone, and the brilliant Lucy Carson. My dedicated and amazing assistant and best friend is Laura Leonard, and she’s invaluable in every way, and has been for twenty years. And she’s a great mom! Thanks, too, to Annette Earling, my Web diva, who runs scottoline.com, where I exist only in Photoshopped form.
Thanks to my family and friends, for everything. They know I love them and they usually get the last word, if not the dedication, in my books. But this book is different, because the last word, and the dedication, goes to my dear friend Joseph Drabyak, who recently passed away, much too soon. I dedicated this book to Joe because he was dedicated to books.
I met Joe almost twenty years ago as the bookseller at my local independent bookstore, Chester County Books & Music Company, and I grew to be great friends with him and his wife, Reggie. He was an early champion of my books and advocated for books he loved as well as for independent bookstores, and eventually he became the hardworking president of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association. Joe understood that books bring people together, and that reading empowers, enriches, nurtures, and fuses us, one to the other. Before Joe passed, I sat with him and told him I’d dedicate my next book to him, which made him happy. And though he’d read every one of my books in manuscript form, he didn’t get to read this one.
It is, now and forever, my loss.
Also by Lisa Scottoline
Fiction
Think Twice
Look Again
Lady Killer
Daddy’s Girl
Dirty Blonde
Devil’s Corner
Killer Smile
Dead Ringer
Courting Trouble
The Vendetta Defense
Moment of Truth
Mistaken Identity
Rough Justice
Legal Tender
Running from the Law
Final Appeal
Everywhere That Mary Went
Nonfiction
My Nest Isn’t Empty, It Just Has More Closet Space (with Francesca Scottoline Serritella)
Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog
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.
SAVE ME. Copyright © 2011 by Lisa Scottoline. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
[http://www.stmartins.com] www.stmartins.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Scottoline, Lisa.
Save me / Lisa Scottoline. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-312-38078-6
1. Mothers and daughters—Fiction. 2. Bullying in schools—Fiction. 3. Motherhood—Fiction. 4. Domestic fiction. I. Title.
PS3569.C725S28 2011
813'.54—dc22 2010048414
First Edition: April 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-5979-7
First St. Martin’s Press eBook Edition: April 2011
Table of Contents
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents