So, Which Will It Be?

N. D. Wilson, author of Leepike Ridge and 100 Cupboards, has a new novel due out this summer. According to the Random House online press release, the new book promises "an imagination-capturing adventure that inventively combines the contemporary and the legendary." Hoo boy, can't wait. Just my cup of tea from one of my favorite authors.

The only trouble is that the site suggests two entirely different titles and two altogether different covers for the same book. At first, I thought that these might be volumes one and two of a new series. But then, I noticed that the two alternatives have the exactly same plot description:

For two years, Cyrus and Antigone Smith have run a sagging roadside motel with their older brother, Daniel. Nothing ever seems to happen. Then a strange old man with bone tattoos arrives, demanding a specific room. Less than 24 hours later, the old man is dead. The motel has burned, and Daniel is missing. And Cyrus and Antigone are kneeling in a crowded hall, swearing an oath to an order of explorers who have long served as caretakers of the world's secrets, keepers of powerful relics from lost civilizations, and jailers to unkillable criminals who have terrorized the world for millennia.

Having read his previous books, I have a good hunch that in this one, Wilson is once again queueing up a rollicking ride through ancient mythology and modern Americana, through arcane mysteries and topsy-turvy paradoxes.

So, which is it? Ashtown or Dragon's Tooth? I dunno. What I do know is this: whatever the title and whatever the cover, this one immediately goes to the top of my summer must-read list.

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