Murder in a Basket’s Book Cover

One of the most exciting and terrifying things for an author is seeing your book cover for the first time because the truth is covers sell books. Last week, I received an email from my publisher saying the cover for Murder in a Basket was complete. With trepidation, I opened the photo file for a peek and sighed with relief.

I’m very happy with the result and hope you are too!  The novel takes place during October in Ohio, and I think the artist captured the season perfectly.

I showed it to a friend, and she said, “You have another dead hand on the cover. That must be your thing!” I realized she was right as there is a much smaller hand on the cover of Maid of Murder. It will be interesting to see if the third book will have one too.

Here’s a short blurb about the book:
College librarian India Hayes thought the worst thing about the Stripling Founders’ Festival was her pink gingham pioneer dress until she discovered the body of a free-spirited basket weaver on the festival grounds. The basket weaver leaves behind an angry blacksmith husband, a confused adopted son, greedy siblings, a dysfunctional artists’ co-op, and a labradoodle with a two-million-dollar trust in his name. Despite the wrath of her college’s provost and protests by handsome police detective Rick Mains, India finds herself playing sleuth as well as foster-owner to the two-million-dollar dog. With her own eccentric family commenting from the sidelines and her Irish-centric landlady as volunteer sidekick, India must discover the truth before she has a permanent canine houseguest or ends up the next victim in the basket weaver’s murder.

Release is February 8, 2012