The client had a very clear image in mind when they contacted me to design the cover for this mystery novel and asked that I design it in the style of my "PopCulture.gif" series. This meant simple illustration and flat style with use of gradients. I wanted it to feel fun and light with a touch of macabre. Almost like one of those vintage postcards one might send back home while on vacation, except there's the image of a woman being horribly sunburned. What fun!
Synopsis from Amazon.com:
"For twenty-year-old Li Johnson, a job as a cruise ship waiter was supposed to be a way to get over his father’s death and earn enough money to go back to college. Instead, Li is struggling to maintain his sanity while coping with the demands of a sadistic maître d’ and a boatload of entitled rich jerk passengers. Li just wants to keep his head down and survive his job from hell, but when he finds a passenger sunburned to a crisp on the Sunbathing Deck, something about the scene just doesn’t add up. Before he knows it, Li is on the track of a murderer … and if Li doesn’t find the real killer soon, he might just get framed for the crime―or worse, lose his crappy job.
A brand-new classic in the amateur detective genre, Sunny Side Up is a traditional murder mystery for the 21st century, with a glamorous setting, a gallery of suspects, clues that will keep readers guessing to the last page, and a delightful new hero in Li Johnson, the millennial minimum wage manhunter, who brings sleuthing to the service economy."
A brand-new classic in the amateur detective genre, Sunny Side Up is a traditional murder mystery for the 21st century, with a glamorous setting, a gallery of suspects, clues that will keep readers guessing to the last page, and a delightful new hero in Li Johnson, the millennial minimum wage manhunter, who brings sleuthing to the service economy."
Sunny Side Up is available for pre-order here