Stone Barrington 06-11

then undressed and got into a nightshirt. Then he remembered the envelope.
    He sat down on the bed and opened it. There were some papers and a cover letter, in a neat hand, on Eduardo Bianchi’s personal letterhead.
I thought you might like to have these. This ends the matter. I hope to see you soon.

Eduardo

    Stone set the letter aside and looked at the papers. There were only two: One was the original of the marriage certificate he and Dolce had signed in Venice; the other was the page from the ledger they and their witnesses had signed in the mayor’s office. These made up the whole record of his brief, disastrous marriage.
    He took them to the fireplace, struck a match, and watched until they had been consumed. Then he got into bed, and with a profound sense of relief, tinged with sorrow, Stone fell asleep.

Acknowledgments

    I AM GRATEFUL TO MY NEW EDITOR, DAVID HIGHFILL, AND my new publisher, Phyllis Grann, for their enthusiasm and hard work on this book. I look forward to working with them both in the future.
    I must thank my agents, Morton Janklow and Anne Sibbald, and all the people at Janklow & Nesbit, for their continuing fine management of my career and their meticulous attention to every detail of my business affairs.
    I must also thank my wife, Chris, who reads every manuscript, for her good judgment and acute insight, as well as for her love.

Author’s Note
    I AM HAPPY TO HEAR FROM READERS, BUT YOU SHOULD know that if you write to me in care of my publisher, three to six months will pass before I receive your letter, and when it finally arrives it will be one among many, and I will not be able to reply.
    However, if you have access to the Internet, you may visit my Web site at www.stuartwoods.com , where there is a button for sending me e-mail. So far, I have been able to reply to all of my e-mail, and I will continue to try to do so.
    If you send me an e-mail and do not receive a reply, it is because you are one among an alarming number of people who have entered their e-mail return address incorrectly in their mail software. I have many of my replies returned as undeliverable.
    Remember: e-mail, reply; snail mail, no reply.
    When you e-mail me, please do not send attachments, as I never open these. They can take twenty minutes to download, and they often contain viruses.
    Please do not place me on your mailing list for funny stories, prayers, political causes, charitable fund-raising, petitions, or sentimental claptrap. I get enough of that from people I already know. Generally speaking, when I get e-mail addressed to a large number of people, I immediately delete it without reading it.
    Please do not send me your ideas for a book, as I have a policy of writing only what I myself invent. If you send me story ideas, I will immediately delete them without reading them. If you have a good idea for a book, write it yourself, but I will not be able to advise you on how to get it published. Buy a copy of Writer’s Market at any bookstore; that will tell you how.
    Anyone with a request concerning events or appearances may e-mail it to me or send it to: The Publicity Department, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014.
    Those ambitious fold who wish to buy film, dramatic, or television rights to my books should contact Matthew Snyder, Creative Artists Agency, 9830 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212-1825.
    Those who wish to conduct business of a more literary nature should contact Anne Sibbald, Janklow & Nesbit, 445 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022.
    If you want to know if I will be signing books in your city, please visit my Web site, www.stuartwoods.com , where the tour schedule will be published a month or so in advance. If you wish me to do a book signing in your locality, ask your favorite bookseller to contact his Putnam representative or the G. P. Putnam’s Sons Publicity Department with the request.
    If you find typographical or editorial errors in my book and feel an irresistible urge to tell someone, please write to Putnam, address above. Do not e-mail your discoveries to me, as I will already have learned about them from others.
    All my novels are still in print in paperback and can be found at or ordered from any bookstore. If you wish to obtain hardcover copies of earlier novels or of the two nonfiction books, a good used-book store or one of the online bookstores can help you find them. Otherwise, you will have to go to a great many garage sales.



Praise for