Edith/Maddie here, sweating it out during New England’s hottest week yet this year.
News Flash: Christine Fox and Debbie Pruss are our randomly selected winners of the two ARCs! Ladies, congratulations, and please check your email.
/I’m declaring a “richness” to be the group-name for book covers. And I have three to reveal to you! In celebration, I’m going to give away my last two ARCs of Murder in a Cape Cottage, book #4 in the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries, even though all three covers are from the Country Store Mysteries. More richness, I guess.
You might remember that my novella “Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse” released in 2019 in the Christmas Cocoa Murder collection. Like Barb, I am lucky enough to have my novella re-release as a standalone ebook, which will be out September 27. (That’s the same day my new novella, “Scarfed Down,” comes out in Christmas Scarf Murder, and also the same day Murder in a Cape Cottage releases – more riches from Kensington!)
I just got the ebook cover and wanted to share it with you.
Isn’t it gorgeous? I love the depiction of Robbie’s country store porch all decorated for Christmas, including Birdy with his knitted scarf (not that any self-respecting cat would leave a scarf on long enough to get his picture taken, but, whatever).
Here’s the novella description:
ʼTis the season to indulge in hot chocolate and irresistible holiday treats—until too much of a good thing turns downright deadly . . .
When local businessman Jed Greenberg is found dead with a chocolate Lab whimpering over his body, the police start sniffing around Robbie Jordan’s country restaurant for answers. Was it something in Robbie’s hot cocoa that killed Jed, or was it Cocoa, the puppy? As the suspects pile as high as her holiday tree, Robbie attempts to get to the bottom of the sickly-sweet murder . . .
But when I was poking around Amazon, what should I find but an audiobook release of the novella, and it already came out last month! I had no idea. Maybe my editor told me. If so, I’d lost track of the news. Here’s the cover for the “Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse” e-audiobook.
It’s also a fun cover. Neither novella cover includes the chocolate Labrador puppy named Cocoa who is important to the story, but that’s okay. Just remember, if you’ve already read the novella in the collection, this one will be exactly the same. (That is, save your money for new books…)
Finally, I don’t think I’ve shared the cover for the next full-length Country Store Mystery, Four Leaf Cleaver, which will be out at the end of January. As you might guess, it’s a St. Patrick’s Day mystery.
An Irish cook-off is held in Pans ‘N Pancakes. And somebody is killed. And Robbie, no surprise, gets involved. But more about that when we get closer to the date. Big kudos to fan Grace Koshida who suggested the fabulous winning title after I sent out the request for punny names on my Facebook page.
All three of the stories behind these covers are up for pre-order (or order, if we’re talking about the audiobook). Preorders really help the author. As our friend Hank Phillippi Ryan says (only half joking), it’s only my career. Now, how do I paste in a winking emoji?
Readers: Which cover do you like best? Are you all caught up on the Country Store series? How about the Cozy Capers books? I’ll send two commenters an advance copy of Murder in a Cape Cottage.