The Cover!!

overcast, light rain, temps plus 9

Wow - so mild. I'm still waiting for winter, and here we are actually in spring. We're 'sugaring-off' here, and no, that isn't a euphemism for something Ruth might say. Go sugar off! It's the maple syrup season...when the sap runs in the trees. Very traditional here - there're the cabane a sucres, the sugaring-off parties. All the traditional foods, including 'tire' on snow (though snow is becoming hard to find!)

Very fun time - wish I could say especially for children, but adults love it just as much.

But the VERY fun news for me, as you can see, is that Minotaur Books has come up with the cover for the next Chief Inspector Gamache book. THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY will be coming out August 28th - and this is the cover.

When Andy Martin, the publisher, sent it to me I admit, I hesitated before opening the attachment....very scary. Very important. Critical in fact....to get a cover that's compelling, beautiful, subtle, but makes a statement....and that reflects the tone of the book.

Extremely difficult to get it right.

But as soon as I opened it I knew they'd nailed it! Thanks to David Rotstein, the designer. He also did A TRICK OF THE LIGHT. And as much as I adored that book, and the astonishing blue of the cover, and the might of the moon - I believe I like this cover for THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY even more.

The fresh greens of the forest...but mostly, of course, the soft light. Anyone who's spent time in the woods knows that light, as it comes between the leaves and branches. Not a perfect, glaring light, but diffuse. It is at once inspiring, but also makes the darkness all the darker.

He's captured the duality in the series, and in THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY in particular. What Gamache finds, in that remote monastery. And the terrible outcome, for Gamache and for the monks.

I think it also helps that my name is getting bigger and bigger (not that I would notice that sort of thing...my agent told me. Honest)

I'm SO looking forward to having you read it!

I know, too, that I've said this before, and I'll be saying it many more times....but if you could tell others about THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY and the series, I'd be deeply grateful! I know you've already spread the word - thank you so much! But if you could post a comment on websites, or a review, or somehow get word out to the hundreds of thousands (millions) who've never heard of the books, that would be amazing.

How lucky I am to have you as a reader, and championing the Gamache books! I can hardly wait to have THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY in your hands! August 28th.

Oh, and you can pre-order it now, online or at your bookstore.