Returning to my theme of umbrellas on book covers, I have hit a snag on this one. "Started Early, Took My Dog: A Novel" by Kate Atkinson. In this instance, the book cover showed up in a Barnes & Noble book review. However, there is nothing in the review to tell me about the place of the umbrella or even rain at all. Of course, it is always a dark and stormy night in detective fiction right? So, is that all there is? Thanks to Google Books and other sites, I can peek inside the novel and learn that one of the main characters in this story (NOT the private eye) does have an umbrella:
She bought a tweed Maxi code from Etam and a new umbrella. Ready for anything. Or as ready as she would ever be. Two years later she was in the police. Nothing could have prepared her for that. Bye Bye, Baby.Not much, but something. I had hopes reading one reader who picked up the book because, among other things, she has "a thing for umbrellas," and a commentator on another review loves "the umbrella on the cover. Could use one like that with all the rain we’re having." but no other hints appear.
The umbrella must be a powerful one, however, since unlike other books, the umbrella surfaces on the paperback edition also. However, a very different umbrella, not the loud black and yellow that yells out at us, but a much more subdued, more detective-novelly one, but not the black that would accompany an male detective, but a rainy green. [Side note: The British editions have no umbrella, so maybe this is an American thing?] So, please tell me: Do I have to read the book to find out about the umbrella's strength of image?!
