Behold the new cover designs for In the Silence and Cruel Summer, alongside the already unveiled cover for The Shadow Men! Don’t they look smart in their matching outfits?

I think it can safely be said that Tim Barber at Dissect Designs did an outstanding job of creating three really eye-catching covers that have a unified look while still conveying the distinctive character of each novel.

The plan, at present, is for the new editions of In the Silence and Cruel Summer to be available to buy in paperback in about two to three weeks’ time, just ahead of The Shadow Men’s launch on Monday 18th October. To allow me to order and inspect proof copies, this means that the previous paperback edition of Cruel Summer will be unavailable to buy on Amazon from now until then. (The paperback edition of In the Silence is already offline, though second-hand copies of the old Bloodhound Books edition are still available for purchase.) When the new paperback editions of both go live, they will be available not just on Amazon but also through other online stores like Waterstones and Blackwell’s, and will also be available to be ordered by your bookstore of choice. Now that’s what I call progress!

The Kindle editions of both novels will also be getting a refresh at the same time as the paperbacks, with both including additional, reinstated material not present in the first editions. The revised text for In the Silence has been live on Amazon since the end of July, but Cruel Summer’s “second edition” will make its debut on Kindle at the same time as the paperback release. My hope is that Amazon will agree to deliver an update of the Kindle edition of Cruel Summer to everyone who already owns it, but that is by no means guaranteed (everything I’ve read on the subject suggests that it’s a bit of a crapshoot). Either way, I intend to make sure anyone who wants a copy of the revised edition and can provide proof that they own the previous version will receive a free ebook copy directly from me – including those who bought the paperback release and don’t mind owning the revised edition in ebook form. (Sending out free paperback copies would, I’m afraid, be too cost-prohitive.) In the near future, it’s my intention to also offer a free ebook copy of In the Silence to everyone who subscribes to the Mailing List. Stay tuned for more information on both fronts.

This is a really exciting time for the series, and I for one can’t wait to own physical copies of all three books in their new designs. In the meantime, it’s time to get busy with those proofs!