Hidden Beneath Release, a New Map and a #giveaway

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by Barb, taking time out from book jail in Maine

Hidden Beneath, the eleventh book in my Maine Clambake Mystery series, releases today. It feels like it’s been a long time coming, but it’s actually almost exactly a year since the last book in the series, Muddled Through, was published. And only six months since the last novella, “Perked Up,” in Irish Coffee Murder came out.

To celebrate, I’m giving away paperback copies of Hidden Beneath to two lucky commenters below.

A New Map

Regular readers of the blog and the series will be familiar with the map of Busman’s Harbor, Maine that I had made for the release of Shucked Apart. My goal at the time was to capture the intricate world I’d created through nine novels.

Click on the image to see a larger version on my website

My motivation to create the new map was just the opposite. Instead of a sprawling world that threatened to get out of my control, I was dealing with a limited geography that was critical to the story. As I wrote Hidden Beneath, I had such a hard time visualizing my characters movements through this terrain that I had to rely on my hand-drawn map a great deal. Unlike Busman’s Harbor, which is deeply familiar to me at this point, Chipmunk Island, the site of the new novel, was terra incognito. I was making it up as I went along.

Chipmunk Island appears on the map of Busman’s Harbor and in several of the earlier books in the series, mostly as the Snowden Family Clambake tour boat, the Jacquie II, takes customers out to Morrow Island to enjoy their clambake meals. In other words, in passing. Up until this book, I had only the vaguest notion of who lived on the island, and aside from the shape that contributes its name, knew next to nothing about the physical island either. Hidden Beneath fills those spaces.

Click on the map to see a larger image on my website

As with the previous map, I worked with artist Rhys Davies. I drew a (terrible) draft of the map and researched the houses. That process was made much easier this time, because a) I hadn’t described the houses in multiple books prior to looking for physical examples, and b) Kensington did such a terrific rendering of the victim’s house for the cover that I had my starting point. Rhys did everything else. We went back and forth a few times, but we’re veterans of working together now. I highly recommend him should you ever need a map.

A new book and a new map. Feels like a day for celebration!

Readers: Do you like maps in books? Do you find them helpful or distracting? Comment below or just say “hi” for a chance to win one of two copies of Hidden Beneath.

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Published by Barbara Ross

Barbara Ross is the author of twelve Maine Clambake Mystery novels and six novellas. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. She lives in Portland, Maine. Readers can visit her website at www.maineclambakemysteries.com

128 Thoughts

  3. Happy book birthday, Barb! I didn’t know you were doing a new map, and I love it. I often don’t refer to maps in books, although I admire the creativity that goes in to them.

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  4. Hi! Congratulations on the release of your book! I love seeing maps in books. I have referred to them from time to time especially if new areas are introduced or reading a new series so I understand the layout,

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  5. Congratulations on the book release. I have been looking forward to it. Received it on my Kindle this morning and already started it. I love maps but then what historian doesn’t. I could not find the map though. Glad you included it here and I did find the link to it in the book. Thank you! And thank you for writing it. Now for some time to read it!

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  6. Hooray! New book! Yes, I love maps in books, really helps me visualize what the author “sees” while they are writing. I’ve often thought it would be fun to see drawings of what the authors envision the characters to look like. I like really detailed descriptions of characters.

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  7. I LOVE maps in books- adds a whole new dimension to reading a book, especially a series. My daughter got the Busman’s Harbor map- very cool!

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  8. BARB: Yes, I love seeing maps in books. I like that the Chipmunk Island map includes close views of each of the houses.

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  10. Congrats Barb! It does seem like a long time coming but then again doesn’t everything post covid?
    I (still) love maps! Its easier to see the surrounding area on a map, than a screen, if you need to get your bearings in relation to other spots. I am a teacher/naturalist at New England Botanic
    gardens and I always point out the maps of the woodland trails to the kids who come thru the school groups. Most find it fascinating! I love that you tweaked the Busman Harbor map to help your writing, there’s a little cartographer in all of us!

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    1. We love the Botanical Gardens. Were just there over Memorial Day with my two younger grandchildren who loved it. My older granddaughter loves it, too.

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  13. I love those extras! Getting a visual representation of the setting makes it so much more real, and it’s fun to see how the author imagines the space. I like following the map as the characters move from location to location, looking how far they are actually going, what’s nearby, etc.

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  14. Congratulations on another book! I like maps. It gives me a better idea of what’s going on.

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  15. I love the map and can’t wait to read Hidden Beneath! Just this morning (before reading your email or this post) I was looking at my map of Busman’s Harbor displayed in my sewing room and Chipmunk Island caught my eye! We enjoy watching the antics of the chipmunks in our yard and I thought, what a great name for a Maine island. Congratulations on the book release.

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  16. Yes I do like maps in books. I still have the Busman”s Harbor map you gave away a while back.

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  17. Congratulations on your new release! I love maps in general (even before I married a cartographer), and I really love a map in a novel so I can flip to it to help me visualize the story. Your maps are beautiful! Btw, I loved Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody.

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  19. I’ve always loved maps. I spent hours in my grandparent’s basement with their National Geographic maps. In college I was a Geography major. I always have at least a mental map of the places book characters live.

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  22. Can’t wait to read the new book! Yes, I love the maps – helps to visualize what’s what. I always have my own sort of vision of how things look, but it’s helpful to know how the author visualized everything.

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    1. Even the map is a collaboration between me and the artist, which makes it a collaboration between me, the artist, and the reader when you see what you see in it.

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  23. I enjoy maps in books. I find them helpful and interesting! Thanks so much for the chance! Adore the book cover!

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  24. I love maps, in books and IRL. They help me place myself and relevant details in our proper places.
    I’ve noticed small children are fascinated by maps as well. I admire those who can draw accurate maps. ❤

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    1. I will have to test that out on my little granddaughters! My daughter has had a map wall ( a wall with various graphic maps on it) their whole lives, so they’ve had plenty of exposures.

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  26. Just finished Hidden Beneath and I LOVE IT. I can visualize Chipmunk Island from your great description. Now I want the map to hang alongside the one of Busman’s Harbor.

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  27. Congrats on the new book. It’s another great addition to the series. 🙂 (Obviously, no need to enter me in the giveaway.)

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  28. Yes! I absolutely love it when a map is included in the front of a book. It helps me get a better picture of where I am and what is around me.

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  29. I like maps because it helps me visualize the town and makes it seem more real. Your maps are extra special since they show the houses and buildings so I not only know where everything is but exactly what it looks like. I also like a list of characters at the beginning of a book to help keep everybody straight.

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    1. That’s an interesting idea. I don’t think anyone has ever requested a list of characters, but they have requested a genealogy for Iced Under and Sealed Off.

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  30. Yes, I love maps in books. When I was a teenager my aunt gave me a boxed set of The Lord of the Rings with large foldout maps in each book and I loved them! When I have a book with a map I often refer back to the map as I read to visualize what is happening, when the book is set in a real place I often find a map online to get the same result. Your maps are lovely, you were lucky to find such a great artist to collaborate with!

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  31. I love maps in books. It adds more information and also gives more mystery to the book. Congratulations on your book. I enjoy your books.

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  32. Congratulations! I woke up this morning and couldn’t wait to open my kindle to Hidden Beneath! I have read the first 2 chaptetrs but I had to put it down because I had to get ready for the Cabbage Island Clambake! My two daughters and my 15 year old granddaughter are with me!
    I have the map you had created and I enjoy referring to it!

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  33. I love maps! I cannot take a trip without looking at a map first. They are just such a treasure trove to be mined. My Busman’s Harbor map is hanging in my office and I refer to it with every Maine Clambake book or novella. Am delighted to see one of the islands in the bay highlighted in a story and see a new map detailing it. Congratulations on the release! Am excited to get my copy and start reading!

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  34. I love maps in books. I especially love the copy of the map of Busman’s Harbor I received. I pull is out when I read your books!

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  36. I love maps in books and refer back to them all of the time. I also like a list of characters in the front of the book, like Sue commented above. I have the Busman’s Harbor Map, so will have to get the Chipmunk Island one as well. It is interesting that the map is on top of my TBR books, and I look at it frequently (and I probably already had known this but forgotten it) as I just realized Busman’s Harbor is in the shape of a Lobster. Wow! The book is on the way, so I don’t need it but thanks. Can’t wait to read it and I hope that Julia gets her love life back.

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  37. Yes, I do enjoy them. It’s like going on vacation to a new place and exploring it through the internet to see what’s there old and new to explore on an upcoming visit. Whereas a map lets you become visually acquainted with the town and location before exploring it through the words of a author’s story.

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  40. I like maps in books. Until I studied your map, I just couldn’t get a picture of Busman’s Harbor in my mind.

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  41. I love when maps are included. I am a very visual person so being able to see where places mentioned in the story are located always helps to make the area feel more real to me.

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    1. That’s an interesting aspect to this–being a visual person. I would say I’m a verbal person (obvious, I know) but I still appreciate having a visual representation as a supplement to the the words.

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  42. I love when there is a map in a book. It gives me a better picture of the place I’m reading about.

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  43. Hi! I love maps in books! I love that you showed the houses too! Ties it all together really well, thank you. Congrats on the new book!

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    1. The houses add a lot, in my opinion. It was tough finding them for the original map, but I’d described them over and over by that point. This time I’d only described them once, and during the copy-editing cycle, I had the opportunity to make small changes to match the images.

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  44. Congratulations on the new release! I can’t wait to read it. I join the many others who love maps in books, and I enjoy referring to your Busman’s Harbor map when reading the Clambake titles. Another author who does this well is Patrick Taylor — he includes a map of the Northern Ireland locations in his Irish Country Doctor series.
    Re: the cast of characters list, Daryl Wood Gerber includes them in the front matter of her mysteries, and they are helpful, especially when returning to a series after not reading it for a while or when reading titles out of chronological order.

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    1. I will have to look at Daryl’s lists. It’s too late to put them in the books, but perhaps I could put them on my website. The copy-editors helpfully make lists of every character name for each book when they work.

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      1. If I’m remembering correctly, I think Daryl groups the characters by main/recurring characters and those that are new to the specific title. She lists the name and a brief description for each.
        Ellery Adams does character lists in the Secret, Book, and Scone Society series and the Book Retreat mysteries. Maybe in her other series, as well.

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  45. I love maps in books. It helps me to visualize the town/area and make connections between the places. I am writing a cozy mystery and am drawing a VERY crude map just for me. I’ll keep your guy in mind if I ever want to get that detailed. Your books are Great!

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  46. I find maps a nice extra with a book as they can be helpful to visualize the area the author is writing about especially if you are not familiar with that area.
    I would love to start reading books from another “wicked author” and your new one seems like a good one. Congrats on the new release.

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  47. Congratulations on your new release. I do like maps in books. It kind of gives me a visual of the town and where the houses and businesses are located.

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  49. I enjoy maps in books (and love these). I also love it when authors provide character lists (particularly in books with lots of people to remember).

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  50. Really enjoy Maps and other author history in a book. It makes the story come alive a feels real, a place I’d want to visit.

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