It’s here! The beautiful new cover for Burke in the Land of Silver.

Ahead of the publication of two new James Burke stories later this year, I’m republishing the existing three. First out of the blocks is Burke in the Land of Silver which is publishing on 19 June and is open for pre-order now.

Covers of historical novels are always a sore point with writers. The traditional publishing model means that authors have little, if any, control over the covers, which often have historically inappropriate images. (Accent Press was a brilliant exception to this rule.) Self-publishing means that I have control over the cover design and I love the job David Slaney has done here.

The story is set in Argentina and the knife shown is a typical gaucho knife which I bought in Buenos Aires. The beautiful hilt is rather more decorative than most working gauchos (cowboys) would carry, but the weapon is pretty much what Burke would have met in his adventures. Gauchos typically carried knives and were prepared to use them. It was a culture of machismo and knife fights were not unusual.

The map of South America dates from 1797.

The musket is French and from an image sourced by Paul Bennett.

I know a lot of people who read this blog are also writers. If any of them want to commission covers from Dave Slaney (who also did the cover for Dark Magic) you can contact him at daveslaney8@hotmail.com.

I had hoped to give you a link to pre-order the book, but (after about a year getting the world-wide rights back) Amazon have just given me another hoop to jump through. Burke in the Land of Silver should, despite this, be available to pre-order in the next few days. Check back here for details.

Conveniently, I’ve just installed an exciting new button on this page. If you click the green button at the bottom left of the screen (or on the pop-up) you should get automatically notified of new posts, so you’ll get news of how to buy Burke in the Land of Silver just as soon as I publish the details.

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