š¶ The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead cover reveal š
And a couple of other things, but I know what you're here for
The cover to The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead, the second book in my award-winning murder mystery series, is here!
Gwinny Tuffel is preparing for her first acting role in a decade in the West End, but she is still dog-sitting on the side to keep the wolf from the door. So, when ageing rock star Crash Double needs help with his Border Collie, she jumps at the chance. After all, looking after the charming Ace on Crashās Little Venice houseboat shouldnāt be an onerous task. But thatās before the singerās dead body surfaces during the annual Canal Carnival festivities.
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While the police dismiss the death as an accident, Gwinny suspects murder most foul. With a medley of suspects and some far-fetched motives to make heads or tails of, it is up to Gwinny, with Aceās on the ground knowledge, to make sure the killer faces the music!
Once again the cover is by the fabulous David Wardle, who continues to do us proud.
Already, some lovely people have said some lovely things about the book:
"The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead is a dog-lover's treat and Gwinny is a delight"
SJ Bennett
"Antony Johnston has done it again ā funny, endearing and a juicy mystery to solve, it's the very best of modern cosy crime magic"
Jonathan Whitelaw
"Rejoice, dear reader: the great Gwinny is back on the case, with a new (utterly endearing) canine companion in tow! Antony Johnston is brilliant at crafting charming characters and shrewd, satisfying mysteries. And like the boisterous Border Collie at its heart, this excellent new novel never loses its sense of fun. The Dog Sitter Detective series is cosy crime at its very best"
Tom Mead
Win a signed copy!
Over on Instagram, Allison & Busby are giving away a limited number of signed copies of The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead. All you have to do is like their post (click the preview below) and comment with your favourite dog breed:
Red Pen(cil)
Meanwhile, Iām currently proofreading the bookās galleys* on my iPad, using a Logitech ācrayonā stylus. Iām old enough to remember proofreading printed-out pages of magazines, which weād mark up with a red ballpoint pen, and I still have a lot of muscle memory attached to that process. But almost no publisher actually sends out printed galleys any more, so this is the closest thing to it Iāve found š
*Galleys are proofs of the final, typeset pages exactly as theyāll appear in the book. Itās amazing how many new errors you spot in galleys, which you somehow missed a dozen times over when it was in a Word documentā¦
Words of 10,000 ms
Finally, Iām already hard at work on a third DSD book (working title The Dog Sitter Detectiveās Deadly Rival) and recently cracked 10,000 words on it. 10k always feels like a significant milestone āĀ itās a Rubicon, if you will, the point where I figure that, yes, this is definitely going to be a book and thereās no turning back now.
More on that book in the future. For now, please pre-order The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead from your favourite bookshop. If you prefer to shop online, remember that I now have a Bookshop.org store front where you can buy my books, plus others I recommend.
Hear Our Roar, Hear Our Sound
Right now, authors are all scrambling to figure out which social media platform will eventually āwinā the ongoing battle for supremacy. For the moment, you can find me on just about all of them.
Search for my username @antonyjohnston, or check the Contact & Follow page of my site for links to the most popular networks: https://antonyjohnston.com/contact/