The October List

and yet still making the audience laugh just as hard as if they’d heard the gag in proper order. It can be done:
    The bartender says, ‘We don’t serve time travelers in here.’
    A time traveler walks into a bar .
    Many, many Post-it notes later I plotted out and wrote The October List – a novel that begins with the last chapter and then moves backward in time, over the course of about two days, to the first chapter. Though it’s a bit shorter than most of my novels, I can say that it was more challenging, byte for byte, than anything I’ve previously written.
    Because of my heroine’s passion for photography, I thought I would include images throughout the book, at the beginning of each chapter. Some are merely illustrative. But some are clues as to mysteries the book holds, and some are twists in themselves. As Gabriela has said, ‘There’s something seductive about taking reality and controlling it. Sometimes I make a literal image, sometimes I start there and manipulate it. Sometimes the end result is obscure, abstract; only I know the truth.’
    I couldn’t agree more.
    Rather than give the titles to the pictures where they appear in the book, I thought it was best to include them in the table of contents. That surprise thing, again.
    – J.D., Chapel Hill, NC

Acknowledgments
     
    With special thanks for taking a chance on this one (and helping me get as backward as was humanly possible) to Mitch Hoffman and Carolyn Mays. Thanks too to Jamie Hodder-Williams, Michael Pietsch, Jamie Raab, Lindsey Rose, Katy Rouse and David Young. And I really appreciate all the juggling my regular crew did to keep this book on track and me more or less sane: Madelyn Warcholik, Julie Deaver, Deborah Schneider, Cathy Gleason, Vivienne Schuster, Betsy Robbins, Sophie Baker, Jane Davis, Will and Tina Anderson and Hazel Orme.

About the Author
     
    A former journalist, folksinger and attorney, Jeffery Deaver is an international number-one bestselling author. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times , the Times of London, Italy’s Corriere della Sera , the Sydney Morning Herald and the Los Angeles Times . His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into twenty-five languages.
    The author of thirty-one novels, two collections of short stories and a nonfiction law book, he’s received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world. His The Bodies Left Behind was named Novel of the Year by the International Thriller Writers Association, and his Lincoln Rhyme thriller The Broken Window and a stand-alone, Edge , were also nominated for that prize. He has been awarded the Steel Dagger and the Short Story Dagger from the British Crime Writers’ Association and the Nero Wolfe Award, and he is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Readers Award for Best Short Story of the Year and a winner of the British Thumping Good Read Award. The Cold Moon was recently named the Book of the Year by the Mystery Writers Association of Japan, as well as by Kono Mystery Wa Sugoi magazine. In addition, the Japanese Adventure Fiction Association awarded The Cold Moon and Carte Blanche their annual Grand Prix award.
    He contributed to the anthology Books To Die For , which won the Agatha Award this year.
    His most recent novels are The Kill Room , featuring Lincoln Rhyme, XO , a Kathryn Dance thriller, for which he wrote an album of country-western songs, available on iTunes and as a CD, and before that, Carte Blanche , the latest James Bond continuation novel, a number-one international bestseller.
    Deaver has been nominated for seven Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, an Anthony Award and a Gumshoe Award. He was recently shortlisted for the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Best International Author.
    His book A Maiden’s Grave was made into an HBO movie starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin, and his novel The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. And, yes, the rumors are true; he did appear as a corrupt reporter on his favorite soap opera, As the World Turns. He was born outside Chicago and has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University.
    Readers can visit his website at www.jefferydeaver.com .

To Frank, Maureen and Caitlyn Jewett

First published in the United States of America in 2013 by Grand Central Publishing
     
    First