The author described spending four years researching primary and secondary sources to ground the novel’s historical setting, including archives, memoirs, industry magazines, newspaper articles, and FBI files.

Instead of presenting technical material, the author offered an accessible bibliography for readers interested in the real history beneath the novel’s events.

The recommended titles covered diplomats in American custody during World War II, an accessible overview of diplomatic detainment, a hotel memoir, a firsthand account of FBI work, an internee’s perspective, and oral histories of the American home front.

No narrative scenes, character actions, or in-world developments occurred in this chapter.