Mrs. Sherlock Holmes

Outland, Robert B., III. Tapping the Pines. Baton Rouge: Louisiana UP, 2004.

Poole, Ernest. His Family. New York: Macmillan, 1917.

Quackenbos, Mary Grace. A Question for the House of Governors. New York: People’s Law Firm, 1909.

______. Report on Sunnyside Plantation, Arkansas. Department of Justice Straight Numerical Files, Record Group 60, 100937, September 28, 1907.

“Statement of Mrs. Mary Grace Quackenbos.” Hearings Before Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. House of Representatives, 61st Congress. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, March 29, 1910.





RESOURCES

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: www.missingkids.org

1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678)

FBI Kidnappings and Missing Persons www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap

The Polly Klaas Foundation

www.pollyklaas.org

U.S. Department of Justice

National Missing and Unidentified Persons System www.namus.gov

Project Jason

www.projectjason.org

The Wayne Foundation

www.waynefdn.org

I.C.E. Child Exploitation Investigations Unit https://www.ice.gov/predator





RAINN


www.rainn.org

National Suicide Prevention Hotline 1 (800) 273-8255

Walk Free

www.walkfree.org





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you, reader, for buying, downloading, or borrowing—and reading—this book.

The two people who deserve the most thanks are my editor, Michael Homler, and my agent, Scott Mendel. They saw right through the infinite previous ideas that came before this one. They instead pushed me to write something different and unsafe in the genre I dislike the most. This was not the book I set out to write, but in all the ways that count, it absolutely is. I am very grateful that even when they doubted my ideas, they never doubted me.

Because so little evidence exists of Grace Humiston’s life, I relied on the important work of great librarians and archivists from all over the world. In no particular order or affiliation, they are David Gary, Margaret Chisholm, John Nann, Maurice Klapwald, Christina Violeta Jones, Rebecca L. Collier, Michael Foight, Gregory J. Plunges, Esperanza Lopez, Suzan Tell, Robert Ellis, Tal Nadan, Lisa Darms, Celeste Leigh Brewer, Gregory J. Plunges, Rosalba Varallo Recchia, Tammy Kiter, Julio Hernandez-Delgado, Linnea Anderson, Landis McEachin, David P. Sobonya, Lisa Darms, and Celeste Brewer.

Other people who helped or offered their expertise include Patterson Smith, Doug Willete, Larry Goldsmith, Joni Balter, Jeff Trexler, Barbara Burgess Van-Aken, and Cesarina Casanova in Italy. Special thanks to Randy Boehm, who knows more about Grace than anyone alive and whose work on Sunny Side is the gold standard. He welcomed me into the “Grace Club” with open arms. I very much look forward to his own book on her.

Personally, for advice, support, or encouragement along the way, thanks to Gary Lee Stonum, David Giffels, the Cleveland Arts Prize, Stephanie Michaels and David Weaver of the Ohioana Library, George Bilgere, Cyrus Taylor, Jim Calder, the NEOMFA, Henry Adams, Peter Whiting, Michael Clune, Grafton Nunes, Robert Maschke, Matt Martin, Dave Lucas, Lance Parkin, Heidi MacDonald, Gerard Jones, Nathan Greno, Lisa Nielson, Renato Cocchi, Lee Chilcote, Alenka Banco, Mike Householder, Shelley Costa, Tom Batiuk, Anne Trubek, Ted Sikora and Milo Miller, and the great Rosa Ransom and Suzanne DeGaetano of macsbacks.com. And Shelley and Paul Servodio, who are my friends. And to everyone I thanked in Super Boys. Thanks as well to the good people at St. Martin’s Press, especially John Morrone, Lauren Jablonski, Amelie Littell, and Angela Gibson, who all made this a better book.

A very heartfelt thanks to President Barbara K. Snyder, of Case Western Reserve University, for instituting a family leave plan, letting me work on this book in guerrilla fashion between changing diapers and playtime with my son.

Thanks to Eric Dicken, also of Case Western Reserve University, who asked me to introduce my favorite author, Neil Gaiman, at a reading there. Though it was a great experience, it was Eric’s act of somehow remembering that I was a fan—and then asking me to do it—that was even better than the event itself (no offense, Neil). Thanks, pal.

Thanks to my family—everywhere and everywhen—for putting up with me when I made charts and taped photos to the walls and rushed through dinner and never slept. You are the best—I love you all. Thanks to Caroline, for always being the best mystery. And to James and his new brother or sister—I don’t know your name yet, or who or what you are, but we’re all waiting for you.

See you soon.

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