Mark Pryor--The Book Artist Official Cover Reveal

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  We have so much fun on Jungle Red--there's always something new and entertaining. Today we have a first ever (I think) for us--an official COVER REVEAL from one of our favorite authors, Mark Pryor. Mark is giving JUNGLE RED the first look anywhere at the cover of his upcoming Hugo Marston novel, THE BOOK ARTIST! I am a huge fan of this series so cannot wait to get my hands on this absolutely gorgeous book! Without further ado, here's Mark to tell us about it!

MARK PRYOR: There are many exciting moments in an author's life, and with a book release on the horizon there's much to look forward to. Top of the list is release day itself, and close behind is getting that big box of books from the publisher.

On a par with that, in my opinion, but months earlier, we first see the cover art for the next book. It's a little bit like Christmas except, with my publisher at least, I get to choose which present I want! (While my publisher has final say-so on which cover we use, they always consult me, and sometimes even listen!)

Oh, before I get ahead of myself, and since this is the topic of this post, please allow me the honor of sharing the cover for my upcoming mystery novel with you, the next in the Hugo Marston series, and say a big thank you to my friends at JRW for letting me do this exclusive reveal on their wonderful blog!

Here it is:

The fantastic artist at Seventh Street Books actually sent me three options, but this one was my immediate favorite. For one thing, all that color just makes it pop off the page. And I think the pinks and yellows tie in well with the title, and the subject matter of an artist.

The eternal question, of course, is how much difference does a good cover make? We all know the adage about how we shouldn't judge a book by one. But the reality is, we do. I know I do, absolutely. And I think it's OK, because a good cover can tell you something about what's beneath it, on the page. It can convey mood, and tone, tell you who one or more of the characters might be. But the most important role of a good cover, of course, is to make the browsing shopper pick it up from the shelf, or click on it while perusing online books. After that, it's up to the author to snag the reader's attention...

Now, I know many readers of this blog enjoy mystery series, like Debs's Duncan Kincaid / Gemma James novels, and those present publishers with their own challenges. Most notably: how do you keep the covers of a series consistent, but also fresh?

Take my first three books, all of which were basically black and white.

 

 

I loved them all but, as the number of books in the series grew, it became increasingly obvious to me and the good people at Seventh Street that we couldn't stick to black and white forever. So, while staying with the "obviously Paris" theme, we moved into richer colors with THE PARIS LIBRARIAN and THE SORBONNE AFFAIR. 

One of the mock-ups for the January release of THE BOOK ARTIST was quite similar to these but, once again, SSB and I went for something slightly different, the more colorful (dare I say braver?!) option. And as I said, I love it.

So I'm curious, JRW writers, how important are covers to you, and how much input do you try and give.

Likewise for JRW readers, how much attention do you pay to book covers? Are covers more important for stand-alone books than for series books (that you'd likely buy anyway)?

About THE BOOK ARTIST:

Hugo Marston attends the opening night of an art exhibition in Montmartre, Paris, and is less than happy about going until he finds out that the sculptures on display are made from his favorite medium: books. But soon after the champagne starts to flow and the canapes are served, the night takes a deadly turn when one of the attendees is found murdered.

Hugo lingers at the scene and offers his profiling expertise to help solve the crime, but the detective in charge quickly jumps to his own conclusions. He makes an arrest, but it's someone close to Hugo, and someone he's positive is innocent. Meanwhile, his best friend Tom Green has disappeared to Amsterdam, hunting an enemy from their past, an enemy who gets the upper hand on Tom, and who then sets his sights on Hugo.

With an innocent behind bars, a murder to solve, and his own life in danger, Hugo knows he has no time to waste as one killer tries to slip away, and another gets closer and closer.

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

BookPeople (where you can request a signed copy)

DEB: Mark, I can't imagine that you didn't make the right choice. I've liked your covers from the very beginning but this one is absolutely stunning! I would pull this off the rack--or off the Internet--in a heartbeat even if I'd never heard of Hugo, and that's what we all want.

READERS, Mark will be stopping in to chat today and I'm sure we have a lot to say about covers. 

And here's more about Mark--

Mark Pryor is a former newspaper reporter from England, and now a prosecutor with the Travis County District Attorney's Office, in Austin, Texas.
He is the author of the Hugo Marston mystery series, set in Paris, London, and Barcelona.

The most recent is THE SORBONNE AFFAIR, a "flawlessly constructed whodunit," according to Booklist. His previous novel in the series was THE PARIS LIBRARIAN, which the Toronto Globe & Mail says “has it all… a finely structured plot that’s one of Pryor’s best books yet.” The first Hugo Marston novel, THE BOOKSELLER, was a Library Journal Debut of the Month, and called "unputdownable" by Oprah.com, and the series has been featured in the New York Times.

Mark is also the author of the psychological thriller, HOLLOW MAN, and its sequel, DOMINIC, published in January of 2018. He also created the nationally-recognized true-crime blog 'D.A. Confidential.' As a prosecutor, he has appeared on CBS News's 48 Hours and Discovery Channel's Discovery ID: Cold Blood.

Cara Black: Murder in Saint-Germain

Cara Black is the author of 17 novels in her series of detective novels featuring Aimée Leduc, the fashionably attired, unfailingly intrepid Parisian private investigator. 

Jenn: I was lucky enough to meet Cara at ALA last year in Orlando and I am happy to report that she is as fabulous in person as she is in print. Being a lover of all things Paris, I am just thrilled that her latest Aimée Leduc novel is available this week!

In the latest book  Murder in Saint Germain, Aimée finds herself involved on the Left Bank.  Black's stories treat those who love Paris to vividly rendered scenes in favorite Parisian locations. This time some of them include the Ecole des Beaux Arts, the Jardin de Luxembourg, back offices of the Sénat, the church of St Germain des Pres, and the Closerie des Lilas, famous as one of Hemingway's favorite cafés. Complicating matters for Aimée is the fact that she is now the single mother of an 8-month old baby. 

What's the most interesting or surprising thing you learned about the 6th arrondissement--or maybe about Paris--in writing Murder in Saint Germain?

-Good question, Jenn, and hi Reds, thanks for having me back! 

I was lucky enough to be invited, after a lot of begging, to tour the Saint Germain area with Patrick, a commander in the Brigade Criminelle (elite Paris homicide squad). The Saint-Germain quarter was Patrick’s first ‘beat’ as a new flic after graduating from the police academy. It was fascinating to walk with Patrick on his old haunts in the quarter. He told me about his first cases, the investigations and we actually visited where they happened. It opened my eyes. ‘Here’ he said, ‘we found an old woman who’d been murdered and solved it by uncovering a robbery that had gone wrong’. He pointed to the rooftops and explained how a lot of burglaries happened via the skylights. He talked about policing at that time, in the 90’s, and how, as an effective flic, you needed to know your community and nourish your contacts. He used to see Marcel Carné, the famous film director of les Enfants du Paradis, who lived next door to the Commissariat. Monsieur Carné would always say bonjour to him!     

You've been in some very interesting situations in the course of researching your stories, and I must say I think you are almost as intrepid in pursuing your stories as Aimée is in pursuing villains. What's the funniest, or most unusual, situation you found yourself in the course of researching this book? 

-Stooping and crab walking in the old tunnels under the 

Jardin du Luxembourg! Seriously these tunnels traverse juste à cote to Boulevard Saint Michel and are deep underground. The underground tunnels are full of history and stories from rumored royal escapes to WW2 exploits. They also house air raid shelters used by the German Luftwaffe who were stationed in the Lycée Montaigne during the Occupation. There are still signs in German and rusted memorabilia. Oddly, the temperature is moderate and maybe it’s because the walls are limestone. It’s another world down there, quiet and full of the past.

Plot is of course of utmost importance in a crime novel. Do you plot your stories through to the end before you start writing, or does the plot develop organically along the way, as you are writing the story?

 -More organically. I knew Aimée was a single mom with an eight month old, she had unresolved guilt issues about her god father Morbier and she’d be doing computer security at Ecole des Beaux Arts. In crime fiction, policier, it’s about putting your protagonist out on a limb, chopping it down and they have to climb higher and higher and the branches get thinner and thinner. Putting your protagonist in conflict reveals their character. I’ve lived with Aimée for a long time and try to deepen her character and the problems she faces which I hope reflect what a contemporary Parisian faces. I met a female police officer, also part of an elite squad for lunch, I was dying to hear about her job, what it was like to work in a male dominated place. But she kept bringing the conversation back to her secondment to the Hague working on the Balkans with an international team for the International Court for crimes in the Former Yugoslavia. Her tales were harrowing and she suffered what we’d call PTSD. Only then did I realize that was part of the story I wanted to tell. Had to tell.

One of the things about your writing is a kind of cinematic quality to your descriptions of Paris as Aimée moves around it. You render not only the complicated action at the center of your plot, but also the background details. How do you do this? Do you take notes of actual scenes you observe while you're in Paris, or are you able to create these little vignettes out of your memory, or your imagination?

-In Paris, I take photos, record street sounds and in the cafes. I take a lot of notes and eavesdrop conversations on the # 96 Paris bus which goes from Belleville through the city to Montparnasse. It’s my favorite bus line because you traverse the city, right to left bank, and the passengers reflect it. Being a mapaholic and walking the streets at different times of the day inform a scene - it’s always important to visit a place at different times of the day to see how the light falls, the sounds, the morning bustle at the cafe, people returning from work stopping for an aperitif and paint the quarter as it lives and breathes.

Thanks so much for visiting us, Cara! Congrats on the release of Murder in Saint-Germain. So, Reds, are you like Cara and let your plot develop organically or do you plot your story all the way through to the end?