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  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  One of the most frequent questions I am asked is, “Where do your ideas come from?” With Woman with a Gun, the answer is very simple. Close this book and look at the photograph on the cover. I saw it for the first time when I was keynoting a writers’ conference in St. Simons Island, Georgia. I was eating breakfast in Palmer’s Village Café, a restaurant decorated with art from a gallery owned by the café owner. After breakfast I went into the bathroom to wash up. Over the toilet was one of the most thought-provoking photographs I have ever seen: a woman in a wedding dress, standing on the ocean shore, holding what I mistakenly believed to be a Wild West six-shooter. “What is going on here?” I asked myself. “Did she shoot her husband on her wedding night? Is she going to commit suicide? Is she waiting for someone who is coming ashore? Is she going to shoot that person?” I immediately ran out to the manager of the café and asked if I could buy the photograph. The next morning, I was told that Leslie Jeter, the brilliant photographer who had taken the picture, was willing to sell it to me. Voilà, I had the title of a new book, Woman with a Gun, and the book cover. Working out the story you have just read took a little longer.

  I would like to thank Leslie Jeter for inspiring me. I want to thank my friend, gun expert and fellow writer Steve Perry, for informing me that the gun the woman in the photo is holding is not the ancient Western six-shooter in my novel, but most probably a modern-day Ruger.

  I could not have finished this book without excellent editorial help from Claire Wachtel and Caroline Upcher. Thanks also to Hannah Wood, Heather Drucker, and all the other terrific people at HarperCollins.

  Woman with a Gun would not have found a home at HarperCollins without the assistance of Jean Naggar and Jennifer Weltz, my intrepid agents and friends, and all the other wonderful people at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

  I also want to thank my longtime, fabulous assistant, Robin Haggard, for her research skills, and the home team: my daughter and writing partner, Ami Rome, and her husband, Andy, who administers my Facebook page; my son, Daniel; and my two rascally grandchildren, Charley (Loots) and Marissa Margolin.

  Last but not least, I want to thank Doreen, my muse, who is gone but never forgotten.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY GEORGIS

  PHILLIP MARGOLIN has written eighteen novels, many of them New York Times bestsellers, including his latest novels Worthy Brown’s Daughter, Sleight of Hand, and the Washington Trilogy. Each displays a unique, compelling insider’s view of criminal behavior, which comes from his long background as a criminal defense attorney who has handled thirty murder cases. Winner of the Distinguished Northwest Writer Award, he lives in Portland, Oregon.

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  ALSO BY PHILLIP MARGOLIN

  Lost Lake

  Sleeping Beauty

  The Associate

  The Undertaker’s Widow

  The Burning Man

  After Dark

  Gone, but Not Forgotten

  The Last Innocent Man

  Heartstone

  Worthy Brown’s Daughter

  DANA CUTLER NOVELS

  Washington Trilogy

  Executive Privilege

  Supreme Justice

  Capitol Murder

  Sleight of Hand

  AMANDA JAFFE NOVELS

  Wild Justice

  Ties That Bind

  Proof Positive

  Fugitive

  Vanishing Acts (with Ami Margolin Rome)

  CREDITS

  COVER DESIGN BY MILAN BOZIC

  COVER PHOTOGRAPH © 2006 LESLIE JETER

  COPYRIGHT

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  WOMAN WITH A GUN. Copyright © 2014 by Phillip Margolin. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Margolin, Phillip.

  Woman with a gun : a novel / Phillip Margolin—First edition.

  pages cm

  ISBN 978-0-06-226652-1

  1. Photographs—fiction. 2. Murder—investigation—fiction. I. Title.

  PS3563.A649 W66 2014

  813'.54 2014023462

  EPub Edition December 2014 ISBN 9780062266545

  14 15 16 17 18 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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