Yesterday's Boston Globe ran a rave review. Also yesterday, a few paragraphs of ABSENT FRIENDS were excerpted in a Sunday NY Times feature called "Bookshelf," where they run short bits from books set in NY. Significantly (I think), this was not a "mystery" edition of Bookshelf, but a general fiction one. Still missing some major reviews, still no foreign sales (but some very hot nibbles). I have a number of NY-area events over the next month, then the book's kind of on its own. FYI, my agent tells me Bantam has already discussed with him how/when they plan to bring out the paperback. This is the kind of thing I don't get involved with, because it calls for expertise I don't have, so I don't know exactly what they're talking about. Just thought you'd like to know that happens this early.