Avenue Of The Dead

AcknowledgementsIt's never easy finding the right words to say thank you to those who have helped to inspire a story, or to turn the story into a book. Sometimes the help given is the intangible kind of aid that is almost impossible to quantify. That particular idiom applies in the case of both The Devil You Know and Avenue of the Dead, though I will do my best to give due gratitude where it is appropriate. My initial thanks must go to a wonderful man I met during a visit to the west coast of Mexico some years ago. His name was Jésus, though his surname was at that time almost unpronounceable to me, and I never had the opportunity to write it down. He was already an old man when I met him in the town of Puerto Vallarta, in the state of Jalisco, and he was instrumental in kindling my interest in the history of Mexico, and its people. He became a veritable fountain of knowledge, who seemed to know the history of all the ancient civilisations that had at one time or another lived and flourished, and finally died, within the boundaries of his country. He was proud of his native land, and his family, and loved nothing more than sitting and talking to me of his life, his children, grandchildren, and the history of his nation. I learned more from him in a short time than I could have done from a library full of books, or from a college course on the history of Mexico. I must also thank Graeme S Houston of the now defunct Mythica Publishing. Graeme was the first to see the merit of the character of Juan Morales, and he was instrumental in publishing The Devil You Know in which Morales made his first appearance, first in Capture Weekly Magazine, and secondly as an eBook in its own right. 'Devil' has since appeared in my Eternal Press Collection, Murder, Mayhem and Mexico, sadly no longer available and more recently in my short story collection, After Armageddon. Graeme was the driving force behind my decision to bring Morales back in Avenue of the Dead. My thanks to Graeme must also extend to his critique and proofreading skills. The final inspiration to begin the actual writing of Avenue of the Dead came from a wonderful series of photographs taken by a lady named Sue Jones, whom I have never met, taken on a recent visit to Mexico, which included a visit to the ruined city of Teotihuacán. It was one of those photographs in particular that suggested the title of this story, which until then had been nameless. Thanks go to my late friend Malcolm Davies for sending them to me, with Sue's permission. Finally, to Juliet, who encourages me in all I do. Thank you. Author's note:Though Hidalgo del Parral, the ruined city of Teotihuacán, and the majority of locations used in the writing of both The Devil You know and Avenue of the Dead are real, the characters portrayed in the books, and the incidents depicted, are wholly the creations of the author's imagination. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, or to actual events, is therefore purely coincidental.