The Cool Cover Art of SUE HENRY's Alaska Mystery Series

"IDITAROD: A grueling eleven-hundred-mile-long dog sled race across a frigid Arctic wilderness -- a torturous test of endurance, skill and courage for a $250,000 reward."

FIRST published in hardcover by the Atlantic Monthly Press in 1991, Sue Henry's debut novel Murder on the Iditarod Trail would go to win both the Macavity Awards and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel in 1992. The book probably did as much to help popularize Alaska's eclectic, almost obscure dog-sled racing event The Iditarod as anything the national press did with its reportage.

Henry highlighted every aspect of the race too in fascinating, eye-opening detail: sleds, gear, clothing, food, drink (coffee, coffee, coffee), weather (snow, wind, snow), temperatures (cold, cold, cold), terrain, wildlife, check-in stations, media coverage, security measures, prize money, contestants, rivalries, gender issues, hours awake, hours asleep, stamina, and of course dogs and more dogs, and each dog as much an athlete as any Olympian.

Henry gave us a unique murder mystery to solve as well, and a burgeoning romance. But it was her insider's perspective that impressed me the most, which helped illuminate an event that's unlike anything else I can think of, an event that ruggedly incorporates man and beast and nature and equipment in an exciting test of willful determination.

"One by one the top Iditarod contestants are dying in bizarre and gruesome ways---and Jessie Arnold, Alaska's premier female "musher," may be next. Sergeant Alex Jensen is determined to track down the murderer before more innocent blood stains the pristine Alaskan snow. But the hunt will inevitably lead the dedicated State Trooper into the frozen heart of the wild---where merciless nature can kill as fast as a bullet... and only the Arctic night can hear your final screams."

The mass-market paperback edition of Murder on the Iditarod Trail was published by Avon in March, 1993. The cover art was not credited, nor is there a visible signature. In 1996 the book was adapted into a "Made-for-TV", starring Kate Jackson and Corbin Bernsen. Jackson, a fan of the book, bought the film rights to specifically star in it. 

Sue Henry, a longtime college administrator and instructor at the University of Alaska, went on to write eleven more successful novels in the Alaska Mystery Series (sometimes labeled as the Alex Jensen or Jessie Arnold Mystery Series), with the thirteenth, hopefully, still pending.

After Murder on the Iditarod Trail (1991), they are as follows:

• Termination Dust (1996)
• Sleeping Lady (1996)
• Death Takes Passage (1997)
• Deadfall (19980
• Murder on the Yukon Quest (1999)
• Beneath the Ashes (2000)
• Dead North (2001)
• Cold Company (2002)
• Death Trap (2003)
• Murder at Five Finger Light (2005)
• Degrees of Separation (2008)
• Cold as Ice (pending since 2010)

Several artists had a hand in producing the excellent cover art on both the hardcover and paperback editions. Some were credited (hardcovers) and some were not (paperbacks)...

Chris Hopkins, a graduate of Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, produced the cover art on the hardcover edition of Termination Dust, Sue Henry's second book in the series, which was published by William Morrow in 1995. Hopkins is recognized for his brush-painted depictions of American perseverance, such as the Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during WWII and the Tuskegee Airmen, as well as some awesome movie poster art, among them such classics as Return of the Jedi, Labyrinth, The Abyss and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

"It is said that when the first snow of early winter---the "termination dust"---starts to fall, it's time for visitors to leave Alaska's wonders behind. For some, it's already too late." "Jim Hampton's Yukon vacation takes a turn for the worse when he discovers a prospector's diary from the 1800s. And it dies when the rugged outdoorsman is arrested for the gruesome slaying of a controversial ex-Senator. But Alex Jensen isn't convinced of Hampton's guilt. And the dedicated state trooper is ready to track the bitter truth through the treacherous snows of the Yukon Wilderness---and in the pages of a mysterious, hundred year old journal, which describes crimes remarkably similar... and deadly."

 

The paperback edition of Termination Dust was published in May 1996. A cover artist for this edition was not credited, nor is there a visible signature.

Joe Burleson painted the evocative jacket art on Sleeping Lady, the third book in the Great North series, which was published in hardcover by William Morrow & Company in 1996. The Sleeping Lady, known officially as Mount Susitna, can be seen in the far background, so called because of its resemblance to a recumbent woman. Burleson, an often times surrealist illustrator, has produced more than 200 book and magazine covers, mostly in the science-fiction and fantasy fields but also in mystery too.  

"Alaska State Trooper Alex Jensen is faced with solving the mystery of what became of pilot Norm Lewis, whose plane disappeared six months ago in the vast white wilderness. Even more puzzling is the discovery of the broken hulk of his Cessna, half submerged in the icy waters of the Spring thaw---with the frozen body of an unidentified woman strapped in the passenger seat. Norm is nowhere to be found, and his wife, Rochelle, a pilot herself, has flown in, demanding to be included in the search. Jensen and Rochelle begin their probe, an emotional trek through the forbidding Alaskan wilderness---a trail that turns even more ominous as they follow the fateful path of a man who has vanished without a trace, leaving behind a bundle of troublesome secrets, unanswered questions... and some dangerous connections in the business of murder."

Mount Susitna rises 4,396 ft from sea level and is a major landmark in the Anchorage area. It was given its name by the Dena'ina, the Native Athabaskan people of the south central Alaska region, but its English translation is actually Little Mountain and not Sleeping Lady. In glaciology, Susitna is a roche moutonnee, a landform created when a glacier flows over a resistant, high bedrock body, creating a smooth-sided and teardrop shaped feature aligned with the direction of the flow.

The cover art on the paperback edition of Sleeping Lady (Avon, 1997) certainly embellished, as well as exaggerated, beautifully too I might add, Mount Susitna's legendary profile. The book does not credit the artist, nor is there a visible signature.

Rick Lovell painted the jacket art on Death Takes Passage, the fourth book in the series, which was published in hardcover by Avon in August, 1997. A graduate of Auburn's School of Architecture and Fine Arts, Lovell actually began working in the commercial art field while still in high school, a time when most of us are still searching for a clue. By 1981 he had begun freelancing full time, producing art and illustrations for such varied clients as Anheuser Busch, AT&T, CNN, Disney, Nike, Kellogg's, Nestle Foods, Simon & Schuster, Bantam Books, Avon Books and Pocket Books, among others. For the last 17 years he has been a faculty member at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, where he has been an inspiration to hundreds of art students.

"History is repeating itself one hundred years later on Alaska's breathtaking Inside Passage. Re-creating the famous Voyage of 1897, the Spirit of '98 is setting sail from Skagway, Alaska, en route to Seattle, Washington, carrying two tons of Yukon gold. Alaska State Trooper Alex Jensen and his love, famous female "musher" Jessie Arnold, are among the excited participants. The Grim Reaper is a passenger as well. Dressed in period costume, Gold Rush buff Alex Jensen is only too happy to be representing the Troopers on this historic journey through a giant maze of scenic straits, harbors, and inlets. But the strange disappearance---and probable death---of a crew member pulls Alex rudely back to the present. As the only law officer in the vicinity, it is now his duty to unravel a twisted skein of lies, greed, and lethal shipboard secrets---before the Spirit's fateful encounter with murderers aboard a stolen ketch writes a grim new chapter in Alaska's history."
 

For Avon's 1998 mass-market paperback release, Rick Lovell added (or perhaps the art department did), an eagle and a whale to his cover painting, giving it both a lift and a splash!

Phill Singer produced the jacket art on Deadfall, the fifth book in the Great North series, which was published in hardcover by Avon in August, 1998. Singer graduated from The School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1989 and then began creating advertising art and book cover art for clients such as Forbes magazine, National Geographic magazine, Celestial Seasoning, Avon, Harper Collins and Viking Books. Today he produces mostly fine art, combining surrealism with his love of wildlife and other natural imagery, but he also likes to incorporate objects and humans.

"Iditarod musher Jessie Arnold is being stalked and terrorized by an anonymous enemy. First, one of her sled dogs is badly injured in a steel trap and an ominous note leaves no doubt that the trap was set with malicious intent. Threatening phone calls and unsigned messages follow---pressing Alaska State Trooper Alex Jensen to urge Jessie to go into hiding while he tries to track down the source of the threats. Finally, a near fatal car crash convinces Jessie to let Alex fly her to an isolated island more than two hundred miles away. There on desolate, windswept Kachemak Bay, Jessie hikes the island trails with her lead dog Tank, marveling at the splendor of her solitude. But in a wilderness filled with hazards and hiding places, she soon discovers she is not alone. With Alex searching for a madman hundreds of miles away, Jessie is on her own... playing a deadly game of hide and seek with a killer."
 

Singer created a new outer cover illustration on the paperback edition (Avon, 1999), and then a die-cast keyhole was added to guide the buyer to his sweet stepback illustration underneath, wisely carried over from the hardcover's jacket. 

Phill Singer also produced the jacket art on Murder on the Yukon Quest, the sixth book in the series, which was published in hardcover by Avon in 1999. 

"Jessie and her team of dogs are competing in the toughest dog sled race in the world---the Yukon Quest. Alone in the vast white wilderness, she's suddenly facing a danger worse than anything Nature has to offer. A young novice racer she met at the start of the race is abducted, and the girl's frantic father is warned that no one but Jessie Arnold is to be told or the girl will die. Jessie's in the competition of a lifetime as she forges ahead in a desperate race against an unknown kidnapper who will stop at nothing. Speeding through the twists and turns of the icy, broken trails, Jessie has no time for fear. For somewhere in that lonely landscape, a killer waits for a chance to unleash his murderous rage on anyone who dares to get in his way."

Here Singer provided new outer and inner art for the paperback edition of Murder on the Yukon Quest (Avon, 2000). This and Deadfall are the only paperbacks in the series that were given stepback illustrations with die-cast keyholes.

The paperback edition of Beneath the Ashes, the seventh book in the series, was published by Avon in 2001, following the hardcover edition by William Morrow in 2000. Both edition's had the same illustration by artist Phill Singer. 

"In the lingering chill of the early Alaskan Spring, famed "musher" Jessie Arnold confronts the charred remains of a favorite local pub, destroyed by a suspicious blaze that claimed an innocent, unsuspecting life. This lull between racing seasons is meant to be a time of grueling training and conditioning for Jessie and her dogsled team---but instead it has become a time of fear. Because the burning has only begun, and its flames will scar and blister Jessie's world in ways she can barely imagine. And in the wake of more death, her next race will be one for survival---as she struggles to determine whether a desperate friend is a terrified victim... or a killer."

Pat Bailey produced the jacket art on Dead North, the eighth book in the series, which was published by William Morrow in 2001. Bailey, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a former college lecturer, is mostly a fine arts painter now, but in the early days he was a prolific award winning illustrator, producing work for book publishers, record companies, movie studios, distilleries and national magazines.

"With her cabin a pile of ashes and life in pieces, champion Alaskan "musher" Jessie Arnold has gratefully accepted a friend's proposal that she drive his motor home up from Idaho, along the Alaska Highway---a breathtaking, two thousand-mile-long route winding past hot springs, glaciers, and ice-blue lakes. But the idyllic trip takes a dark turn when a teenage hitchhiker brings terror aboard. Frightened and alone, Patrick Cutler disappears just before the police inform Jessie that the young runaway is wanted in connection with two shocking murders. Suddenly she is cast into a raging maelstrom of dark secrets and deadly consequences. And the cold and empty road she's traveling could be leading her not to her home... but to a grave in the trackless wilderness."

The paperback edition of Dead North was published by Avon in May 2002. The cover art on this edition is not credited but I believe this is more of Phill Singer's excellent work.

Cold Company, the ninth book in the series, was published in hardcover by William Morrow in 2002. (Note: this is a stock image, so I haven't found out who the jacket artist is yet but a good guess would be Phill Singer, unless this is instead an actual photo). 

"Famed Alaskan "musher" Jessie Arnold thinks she's finally put her dark past behind her. But the excavations on her new cabin unearth a decades-old skeleton entombed in a crumbling basement wall---along with a butterfly pendant necklace worn by the alleged victim of a brutal serial slayer who preyed on area women twenty years earlier. Pulled once more into a murder investigation against her will, Jessie fears a grim, half-forgotten nightmare has been reborn. For, in this stark and lonely place, in the first days of the all-too-brief Alaskan summer, another woman has disappeared without a trace. The signs suggest the unthinkable: an insatiable human monster has returned. And the clues she's uncovering hint that Jessie Arnold may well be his next victim."

Avon's paperback edition of Cold Company was published in 2003. I believe Singer should get the credit for this high-flying cover too.

Phill Singer also painted the moonlit jacket art for Death Trap, the tenth book in the series, which was published in hardcover by William Morrow in 2003.  

"Recovering from knee surgery that will cause her to miss the upcoming dogsled racing season, champion "musher" Jessie Arnold feels empty and bored---so she grabs an opportunity to fill her days manning the Iditarod booth at the Alaska State Fair. But murder becomes an attraction here as well---an especially brutal one---when the corpse of a small-time hoodlum slain by a double-blade axe blow to the skull turns up on the fairgrounds. Jessie shouldn't get involved, having already seen too much violent death in her lifetime. But strange Connections are linking the killing with a child's kidnapping... and with the sudden disappearance of her own beloved lead sled dog. Soon friends old and new will be pulled in as well when the unthinkable occurs: Jessie herself vanishes without a trace."

   

Singer's jacket art was carried over and flipped onto the mass-market edition published by Avon in 2004. And in keeping with their new cover design that began with Dead North, the artist added an owl in flight, giving the cover an extra bit of flight.

Rob Wood produced the jacket art on the hardcover edition of Murder at Five Finger Light, the eleventh book in the series, which was published by New American Library in April 2005. His painting was again used on the mass-market paperback edition, issued in 2006 (Berkley Onyx). Note the subtle changes within the three versions (horizon line, lightning, lighthouse illumination, etc.). Wood, the recipient of a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Georgia, is an award winning illustrator who, in addition to his excellent fine arts painting, has produced dozens of memorable book covers for authors all across the fiction spectrum: Stephen King, Ann Tyler, Peter Straub, Jean Auel, Wilbur Smith, Peter Benchley, Whitley Streiber and Steven Thayer, among many others.

"Jessie's friends Laurie and Jim have acquired their dream---an old lighthouse on the Alaskan Inside Passage---and they've decided to throw a party. Not a party in the typical sense, but one where guests earn their keep by scraping, painting, hammering and generally restoring Five Finger Light, named after the long, low islands over which the house stands guard. So Jess Decides to leave Alex alone for a few days and help Laurie and Jim. With the company of old friends, the smell of fresh paint in the air, and a view to die for, Jessie won't soon forget this weekend---especially when she stumbles across a dead body. The death seems like an accident. But even as a frantic Alex learns that someone's cut the phone lines and wrecked the radio, Jessie realizes there's a killer loose on the island. Worse yet, the killing spree might not be over---even though the party certainly is..."

 

David Schleinkofer, a graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, produced the jacket art on the hardcover edition of Degrees of Separation, the twelfth book in the series, which was published by New American Library in 2008. His painting was again used on the mass-market paperback edition, issued by Berkley in 2006. Schleinkofer first came to my attention back in 1978 with his evocative cover art on Ian Summer's seminal art book Tomorrow and Beyond: Masterpieces of Science Fiction. Since then he has embarked on a distinguished career in both publishing and advertising, specializing in science fiction of course but also in gaming and advertising products. 

"After months of recuperating from knee surgery, Jessie Arnold is eager to begin training for this year's Iditarod. With the loving care of Alaska State Trooper Alex Jensen, her convalescence wasn't as painful as it could have been, but she and her dogs have a lot of work to do if they're going to qualify for the race. Jessie's first practice run goes smoothly until her sled hits a bump along the trail---a snow-and ice-shrouded dead body bearing a gunshot wound. The victim is Donny Thompson, the youngest son of a mechanic from the nearby town of Palmer. What Thompson was doing on a musher's trail without any evidence of a sled and dogs is anyone's guess. But what worries Alex and Jessie more is how close to their home the man was killed..."

 

Cold as Ice, the thirteenth book in the series, was supposed to be published in 2010 by Obsidian, but it appears to have been postponed indefinitely for reasons not yet made public. Certainly age and health could be a factor, with Ms. Henry being around 80 years old as of this posting. Nevertheless, David Schleinkofer went ahead and produced an outstanding cover painting for the proposed book, in the hope that it may yet see fruition. 

"After she puts her vacation on hold to investigate a person's mysterious death, Jessie Arnold's search for the killer will take her and her husband Alex from the glaciers of Alaska's Prince Island Sound to the back alleys of Anchorage."

SO, instead of fretting about this book's absence, let's instead raise a glass to Sue Henry and her already significant and award winning accomplishments in crime fiction, which include an additional 4 book "recreational vehicle" mystery-travel series labeled Maxie and Stretch, and to those way cool cover artists who helped her achieve fame along the way.

  "SALUTE!"

[© May 2020, Jeffersen]