A DISCLAIMER — AND SOME THANKS

I’ve been a reporter at a Chicago newspaper, I’ve prowled the back halls of the Cook County Criminal Courts Building, and I’ve been a pastor at a suburban megachurch — but what you’ve read in these pages is fiction. Indeed, the book is dedicated to a real–life chief judge who was the antithesis of my character Reese McKelvie.

Given my role as a pastor at two of the country’s largest churches, it will be natural for people to try to guess who the book’s characters most resemble. But it would be a futile effort, because they are the creation of my imagination.

The references to such real–life individuals as Chicago mob hit man Harry “The Hook” Aleman (whose federal trial I covered for the Chicago Tribune) and murdered Arizona investigative reporter Don Bolles (part of whose case I also covered) are accurate. But the plot of my book is merely a fanciful excursion into the intriguing world of “what if.”

This is my first major work of fiction, and I have many people to thank for their input, encouragement, and patience. Chief among them are my wife, Leslie; my editor, Dudley Delffs; the entire team at Zondervan Publishing House, especially Moe Girkins; my associate Mark Mittelberg; his son, Matthew Mittelberg, who was the first to read the manuscript and offer feedback; and Ronald Dunn, who wrote about the Lone Ranger episode that I referenced in these pages. Also thanks to Gary and Judy Fields and Chris Henshaw.

I also want to thank my daughter Alison, who’s a terrific novelist. She warned me at the outset that this project would be harder and more fun than writing nonfiction — and she was right!