All the Devils Are Here

This book is dedicated, as you might have noticed, to Hope Dellon. Hope edited the Gamache books, from The Cruelest Month onward. She became ill and went on sick leave a couple of years ago, but continued to edit my books, from home.

As special as the word “friend” is, as powerful a concept and reality, it doesn’t come close to what Hope and I had. It was an intellectual and emotional intimacy that comes from working so closely together on something we both cared deeply about.

Hope realized she couldn’t continue, and so she announced her retirement this year. But, over lunch in New York, she agreed to become my First Reader. To take over the role Michael always held.

So she read All the Devils Are Here before anyone else, even Lise. And she gave me her thoughts. Always incisive. Thoughtful. Kind even. But clear. What she liked. And what she did not.

We were all to gather at the home of her close friend Sally Richardson, the longtime publisher of St. Martin’s Press, to celebrate Hope’s retirement. But two weeks before that, Hope suffered a heart attack, and passed away. Her beloved Charlie and daughters Rebecca and Emma at her side.

The loss is incalculable. As is her contribution to literature. The books she edited and improved, including mine. The writers she worked with and improved, including me. The young editors she mentored.

Hope was a passionate supporter of all things literary, from libraries to bookstores, from theatre to books of all genres.

It breaks my heart that Hope is no longer with us, but I take comfort in imagining her sitting with Michael by the fireplace in the bistro. Waiting for us.

As I write this, I’m looking at one of the many gifts she sent. It’s a pillow and on it is written:

Goodness Exists.