Thursday, April 16, 2009

Peter Mendelsund: The Missing

Apart from being graceful and pretty, I love how this cover combines the old riverboat scene with a geometric form. It's also nice to see such small type. This novel takes place in post WWI New Orleans, where young girl is kidnapped and a man who feels responsible goes looking for her . The man's own son has died, and I'm guessing the ambiguous silhouette may refer to this child as well. I'm pretty sure this was printed on reverse side.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Charlotte Strick: Shadow and Light


This is a mystery set in Berlin between the world wars. When an executive of the Ufa Film Studios is murdered, a detective must inflitrate Berlin's sex and drug trade and Hitler's Browshirts to find the killer. I love the period detail here - from the frame to the awesome title font. And those searchlights rock. The cover is printed on metallic paper so it has a great sheen, and the border is gold foil.