Diana Gabaldon, 
the Outlander novels,
and An Echo in the Bone
An Echo in the Bone is the seventh novel in the wildly popular, NYT #1 bestselling, internationally award-winning Outlander series—described by Salon.com as "the smartest historical sci-fi adventure-romance ever written by a science Ph.D. with a background in scripting Scrooge McDuck comic books."
The striking thing on the cover is a caltrop (and not, as one wit suggested to me, a Celtic chicken-foot).
You see that the caltrop has four tines? Well, there are four storylines in this book, past and future, welded together by the heat of the American Revolution—and every one of 'em has a sharp point.
Publication dates
September 22, 2009
US, Canada, Australia and New ZealandNovember 27
GermanyJanuary 7th, 2010
UK (but see note from UK publisher on getting a free copy in September!).