Authors: Fairstein Linda

Lethal Legacy

My earliest childhood
memories of books are of those from which my mother read to me every night
before I went to sleep. I still have the frayed volumes of poems by Robert
Louis Stevenson and A. A. Milne, and the stories of Beatrix Potter and E. B.
White. I remember the first time she took me to the public library in our small
city, and with what delight I left that day carrying the three books the
librarian entrusted to me. Our favorite weekly excursion—an hour of pure
happiness with my mother—was the trip downtown to return the small stack I had
selected and replace it with another.

Most bibliophiles love
reading
about
books, too, and for me, the opportunity to do some of my
research with literary treasures was a thrilling experience. One foundation for
my exploration was a 1923 tome I picked up at an antiquarian book fair—Harry
Miller Lydenberg’s
History of the New York Public Library
. I studied
Phyllis Dain’s
A Universe of Knowledge
, Nicholas Basbanes’s
A Gentle
Madness
, Ingrid Steffensen’s
The New York Public Library: A Beaux Arts
Landmark
, and a slim little book published by Educare Press,
The
Waldseemüller World Map
(1507).

One of the most riveting
articles I relied on for an understanding of the world of rare map collectors appeared
in
The New Yorker
’s Annals of Crime, called “A Theft in the Library” by
William Finnegan. As always, my research notebooks were teeming with clippings
from the
New York Times
, whether about the structural bones of Manhattan
buildings or transparency in the boardroom’s of libraries and museums, or even
the obituaries of long-forgotten individuals.

Perhaps the most
extensive private collection devoted to cartography was in the unique library
of England’s Christopher Henry Beaumont Pease, the second Baron Wardington. The
essay written by Lord Wardington for Sotheby’s 2006 sale of Important Atlases
from his library captured the passion these treasures inspired, and the elegant
descriptions in that catalog helped me design the volumes that line the bookshelves
of my fictional characters.

My dear friends Cynthia
and Dan Lufkin invited me to their spectacular apartment when they moved to a
landmarked building on Central Park West several years ago. It’s still a
mystery to me how elements of their stunning home took such a sinister turn in
my imagination, but I am grateful for that introduction to the chapel over
cocktails.

Dr. Cecilia Crouse,
chief of the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office forensic science laboratory, is a
woman I admire enormously. She solves crimes, saves lives, does justice every
day, and trains scores of young scientists to do the same. Cece is a great
force for good against evil in this world, and she remains my DNA guru.

Paul LeClerc, President
of the New York Public Library, has the most splendid professional home in
America. He has called libraries “the memory of humankind, irreplacable
repositories of documents of human thought and action,” and I agree with him
that the NYPL is such an institution, par excellence.

David Ferriero, Andrew
W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries, was my brilliant personal
guide through all the amazing wonders of the great library. The NYPL was
founded in 1895, he said, with the mission of making the accumulated knowledge
of the world freely accessible to all, without distinction as to income,
religion, nationality, or other human condition. David knew that I was likely
to invent murder and mayhem within the historic walls of the central library as
a result of the time he spent with me, but still he led me from the rooftop to
the basement stacks and through every secret passageway in between, and put me
in the hands of each scholarly curator and conservator along the way.

My lifelong love affair
with librarians reached a fever pitch while working on this book. David’s
enthusiasm for the world he inhabits is impressive and infectious. He and
Zelman Kisilyuk led me from the rooftop through the treacherous stacks with
great care. Isaac Gewirtz educated me about the Berg Collection; John Lundquist
let me explore the Asian and Middle Eastern works; Shelly Smith and her
colleagues in the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation Division helped me understand
the critical nature of their work—and the incomparable gift bestowed on the
NYPL by Barbara; and Alice Hudson, and her assistant chief Matthew Knutzen,
thrilled me with their displays of the breathtaking and vulnerable riches of
the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division. I borrowed a bit of Alice’s
wisdom and spirit to enliven the plot.

Everyone should have a friend
like Louise Grunwald. She’s smart, beautiful, funny, wise, and fiercely loyal
to her many, many friends. Her quiet generosity never ceases to amaze me, and
she exercised it this time to open the massive doors of the NYPL and place me
into the hands of David Ferriero.

My team at Doubleday—led
by Steve Rubin and Phyllis Grann—is the class of the field in the publishing
world and includes Alison Rich, John Pitts, John Fontana, and Jackie Montalvo.
To Esther Newberg and everyone at ICM—especially Kari Stuart—goes my gratitude
for helping make my dream of a writer’s life come true.

Wherever you are, use
your libraries and support them. And when you are in New York City, come visit
the great New York Public Library and behold its treasures.

My mother was the
kindest person I have ever known, with the most enormous heart and a dazzling
smile that invited all comers to share in her happiness. Among the very best
things she ever did for me—and there are many—was to nurture my love of books
and reading. She is forever, as I said in the dedication of my second novel,
simply the best. Dearest Bobbie, rest in peace.

And like all the books
before it, this one is for Justin, always—my first reader, my great warrior.

ALSO BY LINDA FAIRSTEIN

THE ALEXANDRA COOPER NOVELS

Killer Heat

Bad Blood

Death Dance

Entombed

The Kills

The Bone Vault

The Deadhouse

Cold Hit

Likely to Die