P.J. Murphy's Writer Site

Well, technically it’s number two, as for some reason I’m publishing my completed novels in reverse order, like a pop star trawling through his back catalogue.

If you want to know the real reason, check out this blog post from a little while back.

For now, let’s focus on the cover. It’s a bit different from my previous novels, as I’m genre-hopping like an amateur. This one’s firmly literary fiction, coming of age, so I wanted to reflect the more serious intent. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its humour, which is similar to that of Dead Letters (in fact, I considered making the protagonist the same person, but some of the background didn’t add up).

To get it together, I worked with an artist named Marta, located through Fiverr, a service I used to find the previous two cover artists. I had only a vague idea of what I wanted, but she asked plenty of questions to help refine the idea. We worked off the shadow theme, incorporating the two main characters – not very subtle but, hey, subtlety’s overrated! We also see the city of Cambridge, which plays a prominent part of the story.

The back cover is beautiful, but I’m not going to show you that now, as I’m a big tease. Instead, here’s a glimpse of the blurb.

If you can believe in a person, their world comes with them: the events they lived through, the miracles they witnessed, the lessons they learnt.

 

On a frozen Cambridge night at the turn of the millennium, sixteen-year-old Nick becomes the reluctant saviour of a homeless man named Peter. In the weeks that follow, Peter introduces Nick to his faith, which offers Nick certainty just when he needs it. But as Nick learns more about Peter, doubts emerge about the path he has chosen.

 

Can Peter help Nick cope with his parents’ separation? What about his budding relationship with the headstrong Jo? And let’s not start on the looming threat of exams. Who truly needs who, as the long winter continues?

Yesterday’s Shadow will be released in paperback and on Kindle in February. If you fancy spending money and having nothing to show for it for a couple of months, you can pre-order it here.