What is the WORST Mystery Book Cover You’ve Ever Seen?
It’s been said that you can’t judge a book by its cover, and there’s a lot of truth to that. Unfortunately, a bad cover can put a potential reader off, and in my experience, one doesn’t want to look at a cover that just looks disgusting. I’m not a fan of some of the midcentury covers that are particularly lurid, featuring corpses in various states of undress and clear indications of violence.
Unfortunately, a lot of book covers these days are boringly generic. Most contain an image of dubious connection to the book, and in most cases, one could swap them without causing any confusion. I’m not saying that every cover has to be iconic, but way too often, the cover’s bland and forgettable.
I’m a big fan of Tom Adams’ Agatha Christie book covers. I think his art is distinct, evocative, and interesting. It’s often beautifully done, as well. This cover for A Caribbean Mystery, however just unnerved me. It looks like there’s a decapitation, though there isn’t one in the book. I can think of at least a dozen Tom Adams covers for Agatha Christie novels that I’d hang up on my wall. Not this one.
But for me, the mystery book cover that I disliked the most is the first one I ever saw that was actually a spoiler for the book: Dorothy L. Sayers’ Strong Poison. The heart of the mystery is figuring out how the victim was poisoned. This cover pretty much spells out the vehicle for the arsenic.
Is there a book cover for a mystery that you really disliked?
–Chris Chan
I had to stick paper over that cover before I could read the book!
ReplyDeleteThe Tom Adams cover depicted is certainly unnerving but it also gives a clue to the solution without giving the game away.
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