A View to Die For

Chapter 3

To the Readers:

Those of you familiar with Santa Catalina Island will realize that I have taken some liberties with the island’s terrain, and no doubt with many other details. To those of you who find such liberties annoying, I would echo Samuel Johnson’s response to James Boswell: “I wish you could have looked over my book before the printer, but it could not easily be. I suspect some mistakes; but as I deal, perhaps, more in notions than in facts, the matter is not great.” As a former journalist, I’m not sure I agree with Johnson’s conclusion; the matter is great, the devil is in the details, and I beg your forbearance.

All the characters in this book are completely and utterly fictional, with the exception of Dr. Robert Michael Pyle, who did visit Catalina in June, 2008, as part of his Butterfly Big Year as chronicled in Mariposa Road, and who kindly agreed to make a cameo appearance on the hillside above Avalon in this book.

MariposaRoad