Читать книгу Guilt By Silence - Taylor Smith - Страница 7

Although this work of fiction is meant to entertain, its writing was made a good deal easier by the many people who read part or all of the manuscript to verify the scientific facts it contains, and/or who answered my endless questions on their particular areas of expertise. It goes without saying that I owe to them the accuracy of the facts contained herein, while any errors that might stubbornly remain are no one’s fault but my own.

I would particularly like to thank: Jaye Orr, for checking my medical facts; Harv Pulford, for the computer stuff; Larry Butler of the Los Angeles Fire Department, for so much useful information on collision fires; Dan Young of the Orange County Fire Department, for the inspiration of gasoline explosions and tungsten pins; Marsha MacWillie, crime scene analyst with the Garden Grove Police Department, who let me hang around and watch her do what she does so well; J. L. Ragle, former Deputy Coroner of Orange County, and the host of forensic experts he brought to his seminars; Peter Ernest of the CIA Office of Public Relations, who kindly answered my questions on CIA career paths and the Agency’s priorities in a post-Cold War world; my writing friends, including Margaret Gerard, Roy Langsdon and Marjorie Leusebrink et al. at the UCI advanced fiction workshop, who read and advised; Elaine Shean, who proofread the manuscript and provided moral support and occasional baby-sitting services to get me through this; Pat Teal, agent and morale booster; and finally, my friend “C”—my inside source in the nuclear regulatory field, who verified the nuclear facts but asked, only half-jokingly, if I couldn’t please make the regulators’ lives easier by adding a footnote saying, “But really, folks, this could never happen here.” Well, I hope it couldn’t. With people of C’s dedication in the field, we could yet luck out.