What a delightful read! Dead Woman’s Shoes by Kaye C. Hill is a cozy/mystery with a lot of suspense and great characters including Kinky the chihuahua, a missing cat, a vet, a policeman, an entire drama club, and of course, an amateur sleuth, Lexy, who must sort it all out even though she is on the run herself!  There are twists and turns, capers–many threads woven into a completely captivating tale.   This one would have easily made my top 2008 list had I not already turned it in.  Guess it’ll just have to push over into 2009.

I plan on doing a full review over at BSC.  I may do a cover discussion also because there’s some interesting history with the covers.  Dead Woman’s Shoes is put out by a small indie publisher in the UK (Creme de la Crime).  The publisher wanted to give their books a distinct, recognizable look, thus all have the red borders with a black/white image and the black type at the bottom.  It is recognizable–the question is, is it a good idea?  I would imagine it keeps the cost of redesigning covers down, but does it help sell books?   I don’t shop by “cover” or even by publisher, but such an idea might help just like any branding–booksellers might recognize the cover design and decide to carry titles based on the fact that previous books have done well.  But if the covers are too similar, does a reader pick it up and think, “Oh I recognize this cover–I must have read this one?”  And does it allow for enough uniqueness between the various subgenres of the mystery world?   For example, I’d say this particular book is humorous and a cozy.  This cover certainly isn’t typical of such books–it doesn’t really convey the fun inside the book.  It reminds me of a two-color newspaper ad copy (not a bad thing necessarily, but not something that makes me think of a fun mystery caper either.)   Other books by this particular indie are mystery, but I think the subgenres range from suspense, thriller to cozy and probably lots in-between.

When I see branding ideas like this, it always makes me wonder how people shop.  If I didn’t know the history of this cover, I would likely be one to see the cover and think I’d read the book–no way would I realize that all books by this publisher had this lookalike thing going.  At best, I’d think all books with this style were by the same author and belonged in a series.  But that’s me.  What do other shoppers and readers think, I wonder?