Mark,
I do not know what cover you liked best, but the first cover in comparison to the new cover allows me to post an totally personal image reaction.
I saw the first cover and felt like this:
The link for Caroline Keene's "The Message in the Hollow Oak".
Intrigued at first by the old style nostalgia...
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...tery+detective+novels&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N
Then I did a close-up, enlarge image of the Clark Gable-style gentleman with the card, and kind of felt like this:
It's the link for the "Case of the Crumpled Knave". Somehow the Clark Gable figure seemed to imply some sleight-of-hand card game or associations with questionable behavior and cards--at least to me.
At worst, cards in the popular imagination might be presented like one of the covers below.
http://www.vintagepbks.com/belarskicovers.html
Now I see the new cover, and feel more like:
http://images.google.com/imgres?img.../images?q=heart+image&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N
I think the new cover reflects your work more as a contemporary, fresh look at personal tarot topics. The old title "Putting the Tarot to Bed" and the gentleman with his
A-OK sign reminds me of very period movie posters and the detective novel covers.
Now I'm changing the subject a bit, because I remember the cover art when I saw the first book published, "Putting the Tarot to Work." It had such a nostalgic cover, my first reaction was, "oh, nice to reflect conservative values and something safe." Probably the publisher is presenting a nice, safe and old-style message. And I would pass by the title at the bookstore whenever I saw the cover. Knowing the author name put that title in my order bin through Amazon.com, but I ignored the cover.
Perhaps it's because I saw a recent scan of something like the "Housewives Tarot (?)" which had the air of nostalgia novelty. So in bookstore browses, just wasn't into the cover art...
Regards,
Cerulean
P.S. This was meant to be my silly feeling only. I just feel the last cover posted reflects my feeling of what Mark McElroy's text presents. I do not want to hurt anyone's feelings. If you let me know my samples were inappropriate, then I'm a poopyhead and I'll remove the links.