Official Cover Reveal

The cover for my novel, The Good Death of Kate Montclair, coming March 2023

I’m so pleased to reveal the official cover for my novel, The Good Death of Kate Montclair.

My thanks go out to Roseanna White for the brilliant design, with an assist from Rhonda Ortiz. Thanks also to my wife Amy, my “concept girl,” for insisting upon the presence of the tea and cake.

For me, the hand coming over the top, holding the teaspoon that makes one of the “o’s” in “Good,” is a masterstroke. Love the font, too. And the scarlet backdrop.

Roseanna did an especially fine job of capturing the illustration style of the covers I shared with her for inspiration: those of the Back Bay Books editions of Evelyn Waugh’s novels.

There is a jauntiness to these covers that I love. A note of sophistication. Of real human drama, but also a note of dark comedy. All qualities that I did my best to bring to The Good Death of Kate Montclair.

My novel is not a genre mystery, but it does have certain characteristics of a mystery and even of a thriller. This cover pays its respects to the menacing elements of a mystery without going the whole way into the genre. The title helps with that.

Books should be judged (in part) by their covers. Cover design is a genuine art, and a crucial companion art to the art of fiction. I’m so grateful that The Good Death of Kate Montclair will have this cover for its companion.

I would love to hear what you think of it.