Hello from Western Australia - where I’m counting down the days to the release of the next Oxford Tearoom Mystery: A High Whisk Situation!

Join tearoom sleuth Gemma Rose as she heads to the Scottish Highlands with the nosy Old Biddies and her cheeky tabby cat Muesli. Get ready for lots of laughs and intrigue as Gemma tackles a murder in an ancient Scottish castle, learns to enjoy "a wee dram" and gets hands-on with some delicious Scottish baking!

I’m so excited to finally share the cover of the new book… what do you think?! 😊  

For all those who have written to tell me how much you love the “country house murder” type of story in Book 10: The Mousse Wonderful Time of Year – you’ll be delighted to hear that this new story is in the country-house-murder tradition too… except that it’s set in a Scottish castle! 😉 

As you can see, the cover art for A High Whisk Situation is in the new style and in fact, most of the previous titles in the Oxford Tearoom Mysteries have also had a makeover and are now sporting their “new look”. 

I’m really excited to show you these new covers! I love the look of them and can’t decide which is my favourite (it’s a narrow tie between The Dough Must Go On and Apple Strudel Alibi… probably the latter, I think, although mainly because I love the girl’s dress and want one like that myself – haha!). 

What's your favourite? (You can see the covers on Amazon HERE)

The paperback versions are currently still with the old covers and will probably remain so for a few more weeks, but they will eventually be changed as well.

Oh, don't get me wrong - I did love the quirky look of the old covers too, but I noticed that I often had people ask me if they were “children’s books” – possibly due to the bright candy colours and the large image of the cat on each cover. So I began to wonder if some confused readers were missing out on the series because they didn’t realise that my books are for adults. So I think a slightly different cover style might help new readers discover the series. 
 

Giveaway Winner!

Since I know a lot of people still like the old style covers, I ran a giveaway for a print set of the whole series in my last newsletter. All you had to do was leave a “real” comment on my blog post: Ghillies and spiky booby traps... 

And the lucky winner – randomly drawn from the blog commenters - is "Lisa".  Congratulations! My assistant Erin will contact you privately to organise how to send the prize.  
 

Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments and private messages telling me how much you enjoyed reading about my Scottish research trip. (Just to let you know, I have answered many of your questions and comments on the blog, in case you weren't notified by Wordpress.)

Since so many of you loved the blog posts & photos, and the giveaway was so popular, I will be running another one when I post Part 3 of the trip next week. 

So stay tuned for more of my Scottish adventures, which inspired this new book, and another chance to win a complete set of the series! 
 

New German audiobook!

For all my German-speaking fans, I’m pleased to tell you that the German audio version of Eischnee von gestern (Ein Oxford-Tearoom-Krimi 7) has just been released! You can download it from:

Audible |  Apple 

(it should also be available to purchase from Amazon DE)

And my German narrator will soon be starting work on the next book in the series: Im Strudel des Todes (Band 8), which is also due out in ebook and print soon. 

* A Note about “Beta Readers”

Some of you were confused when I mentioned sending the manuscript off to my “beta readers” last week. If you are in my Superfans Team, you are not a “beta reader” - so don’t worry, you didn’t miss out on a copy.

I know other authors might have different meanings for the term but for me, my “beta readers” are a small, exclusive group who read the rough early drafts and give me feedback on plot, characters and overall story structure – before I send the manuscript to my editor. 

They are not proofreaders and they are not the team who receive Advance Review Copies of my new releases. So if you are in my Superfans Team, you will receive an ARC of this new book, after it has come back from my editor and proofreader.  
 

(And if you’re interested in joining my Superfans Team, please contact my assistant Erin on: assistant@hyhanna.com )

Muesli Moments…

Finally, for the cat lovers here, I'll leave you with some recent photos of the "real" Muesli...

... cooling her tummy on a hot day...

... and enjoying the lavender bushes in the garden!

* This is the first year I've managed to grow English lavender without killing them. I finally realised that they don't want to be in the flower beds, wallowing in humus-rich, loamy soil - they want to be in the dreadful dry, deficient WA sand - who knew? 😉 Now they're not only growing but blooming their heads off. I guess it really is true that sometimes you can kill with love! 

(Oh, and in case any gardeners are wondering, that big purple thing in the background isn't a lavender- it's Salvia "Mystic Spires" - a fantastic plant that never stops blooming.)