Montclaire Mysteries by E. A. Allen

Montclaire Mysteries by E. A. Allen

Most designers cringe at the moment their uncle or cousin asks them to offer up some free design work. I’m no exception to this. And when my own dad (who has spent the better part of the past decade writing mystery novels) began asking me to design his book covers, I wasn’t jumping at the opportunity.

However, I’m guessing persistence was one of those traits that made him a good intelligence officer. It was truly masterful the way he was able to twist almost any conversation into a grand inquisition regarding how long it might be before I designed something for him. It probably took a year or two of steady pressure, but soon enough there I was – pushing pixels for my dad. I imagined this was how foreign operatives felt after that fiftieth message from my dad. I would have turned coat and razed the Kremlin just to get him to stop calling.

But I’m also proud of what I do. So the result is a series of cover art over the last 6 years that has attempted to build and maintain a brand for E. A. Allen’s Edwardian era mystery novels, most of which feature detective Gerard De Montclaire, a hero who resembles a french version of Sherlock Holmes with far more emotional baggage.