I'm including a copy of the map of the sleeping arrangements at Styles that appears in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It appears at the start of Chapter 3: The Night of the Tragedy (on page 29 in my edition). It obviously isn't in audiobooks, and I'm guessing in ebooks it's probably so small it's too difficult to read. It isn't necessary but if Christie included it she did it for a reason.

Copyright remains with the publisher and the Christie estate.

An easy reference guide to the characters of Shady Hollow. I include these mostly for audiobook listeners who don't have the quick access that physical and ereader readers do.

Vera Vixen: This cunning, foxy reporter has a nose for trouble and a desire to find out the truth, no matter where the path leads.

Lenore Lee: This dark-as-night raven runs the town’s bookshop, Nevermore Books, and has a penchant for mysteries.

Chief Theodore Meade: Bears make excellent law enforcers: big, brawny, and belligerent. But Chief Meade seems singularly uninterested in solving crime when he could be fishing.

Deputy Orville Braun: This large brown bear is the more hardworking half of the Shady Hollow constabulary. He works by the book. But his book has half the pages ripped out.

Dorothy Springfield: A sweet but somewhat eccentric rat. She’s been known to believe in all manner of unbelievable things.

Edward Springfield: Dorothy’s kind-hearted and supposedly deceased spouse, who is quite alive to all appearances.

Walter Fallow: Mirror Lake’s esteemed lawyer, who has connections to the Springfields…and just about everyone else.

BW Stone: The cigar-chomping skunk of an editor of the Shady Hollow Herald. BW (“Everything in black and white!”) loves a good headline.

Joe Elkin: This genial giant of a moose runs the town coffee shop—the local gathering spot. If gossip is spoken, Joe has heard it, but this time, he is the gossip.

Bradley Marvel: A famous author of thrillers, who sticks around town long after his business is over.

Arabella Boatwright: This rat runs Mirror Lake’s library, and she knows every secret on the shelf.

Gladys Honeysuckle: The town gossip and busybody, there’s nothing Gladys doesn’t know. She hates to be scooped on a juicy tidbit.

Sun Li: He runs the Bamboo Patch, serving unusual vegetarian dishes to die for. But his past is a mystery to nearly all.

Howard Chitters: Once a humble accountant and now the de facto head of the sawmill. Chitters is an object lesson in how murder can shake up a routine.

Barry Greenfield: A senior reporter at the Herald. This old hare has seen it all, and he remembers it all too.

Lefty: The small-time criminal about town, the masked raccoon Lefty lives in the shadiest part of Shady Hollow. Whatever the game is, Lefty always knows the score.

Ambrosius Heidegger: Professor of Philosophy and general know-it-all. The owl is the smartest creature in the forest, and never lets anyone forget it.

Philomena Ambler: The law in the nearby town of Highbank. This bobcat is on a first-name basis with the notorious local criminal, and she knows where the bodies always turn up.

For my fellow audiobook listeners. We miss quite a bit at the start of Heist: the dedication, art, a glossary, and an author's note. I'm sharing them because, honestly, the glossary is important given the time difference, the art is great and the dedication is... no genre does dedications like dark romance. This is really long.

Art by Poethalan. Copyright remains with Ruby M. Darling & Darkling Publishing LLC.

Slang Glossary. • Apple butter: Smooth • Back seat bingo: Getting frisky in the back of the car • Bake a biscuit: To record an album • Blanket: Sandwich • Classy chassis: An attractive female body • Earth pads: Shoes • Fat City: A happy or great situation or place • Gringles: Worries • Lay dead: Wait a minute • Negative perspiration: Easy • Panic-and-a-half: A funny joke • Razz my berries!: Impress me! • You make the king's jive: You speak English well • ankle-biter: a small child • bash ears: talk too much • curtain climbers: small children • dreamboat: a really cute guy • square: a person who conforms to traditional social norms; a cigarette • stacked: a woman with an ample bosom • chariot: car; vehicle • machine: a hot rod car • passion pit: a drive-in movie theater • pad: where someone lives • peepers: glasses • bash: a party • burn rubber: to quickly cause a vehicle to accelerate • can: toilet or bathroom ( referred to a jail or prison.) • goose it: accelerate a vehicle • nifty: great or cool • radioactive: popular, current trend; toxic • real gone: head over heels in love • cooking with gas: doing something the best way • made in the shade: an easy success, an advantage • the royal shaft: to be unfairly treated or put-off • tank: a big car • Spaz: someone who’s awkward • Copacetic: A term that meant things were going well or smoothly; all good. • Boss: A term for something or someone that was the epitome of cool, with evidence of its use going back to the 1800s. • Loaded: A very common slang term meaning very rich. • Well-heeled: An informal term for being wealthy or well-off. • Moneybags: A term for a rich person. • Fat cat - A term for a wealthy and often influential person. • Ritzy: A general term meaning fancy, high-class, or luxurious. • The cat's meow: While more general for something excellent or attractive, it could be used to describe something very high quality or desirable. • Glitzy: Suggests something flashy or gaudy in its opulence. • Swank: A term used to describe something stylishly luxurious or elegant. 

The Dedication To the quiet girls who saw the good man beneath the bad boy façade and allowed him to ruin you for anyone else… I really hope he was worthy of you.

And if he wasn’t… then I present Jasper ‘Fox’ Collins.

Author's Note Dear Reader, While this book is a world created in my mind, over a year's worth of my life went into research for this book and this book alone. I'm sorry if I pulled away. I immersed myself and went manic over these characters I fell head over heels in love with so you would, too.

If you're expecting high spice... read a different book. Now, if you want plot with high tension and then spicy spice when it hits, then this book is for you.

From the slang, the music, the cars, medical treatments, and the way of life—including but limited to—the struggles of women in that era, it is all as historically correct as possible aside from the embellishments I took creative liberties with to fit the plot. This story is inspired by real historical events that happened in 1990, but in order to fit the plot and timeline of this story—names, decade and… everything but the place has been changed. In no way, shape, or form does this author encourage, nor do I believe it is a way of life we should return to. But she does believe: ignoring history is a way for it to repeat itself. With that being said, we have come a very long way. And in order to tell this story, ** I had to be unafraid **.

All in all, I wanted you to get lost in this world with me. A world where one single US dollar was worth ** eleven times more* * than it is today in the year 2026 of our lord and savior, Dolly Parton. A world without cellphones, social media, CCTV, or instant gratification, where you had to wait a few days for black and white headlines to know what was happening in the world around you.

Without further ado Welcome to 1957.

-XoXo- Ruby M. Darling