Kelly Gay is the author of the Pocket Books urban fantasy series featuring Charlie Madigan, which include The Better Part of Darkness, The Darkest Edge of Dawn, The Hour of Dust and Ashes, and Shadows Before the Sun. She is a two-time RITA Award finalist, a 2010 finalist for Best First Book from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance, and a recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council fellowship grant in literature. She also writes as Kelly Keaton.James E. Sheridan is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Northwestern University and the author of a number of books on China.