A suspenseful new mystery from local author Lily Malone has hit the shelves in time for Christmas, and the talented novelist’s latest offering comes with a list of local connections.
Set in the South West town of Cowaramup, Who Killed the Bride? centres on the search for a thief who has claimed one of the town’s famous and much loved fibreglass cows.
The sassy, funny first novel in the Butterfly House series sees two friends set out to establish a business in Cowaramup, offering murder mystery nights at the aforementioned historic Butterfly House.
“Picture a two-storey stone house on a hill with a backdrop of jarrah and marri native bush, with views overlooking a vineyard, and you have Butterfly House,” said Ms Malone.
“Throw in a main character who is looking for love in all the wrong places - ala Bridget Jones - and you have a light-hearted story that hopefully will give locals and visitors a giggle.”
“It was a throw-away comment by Wendy Sibly [of store and gallery Mukau] months ago that gave me the idea to self-publish and keep it local, rather than go the route of publishing with a traditional publisher,” Ms Malone said.
A friendly discussion about the project led to Mrs Sibly offering to stock the book at the store, and Ms Malone had soon recruited friend and artist (and Wendy’s husband) Kerry Sibly to design the distinctive cover.
“All my writing colleagues absolutely love Kerry’s cover - I’ve had heaps of social media feedback about it from other authors,” she said.
Kerry and Wendy Sibly have been operating the popular gift, art and homewares emporium for nearly five years and said they were always keen to support local creatives and enterprise wherever possible.
“It just makes sense, the book has so much connecting it to the town and we see loads of visitors every day keen to take home a little piece of Cowaramup on the way home,” Mrs Sibly said.
Artist and designer Kerry said he was proud to offer his creative skills to the project but assured readers that no bovines, real or otherwise, were hurt in the writing of the book or the cover design.
Who Killed The Bride is on sale now at Mukau or via lilymalone@mail.com