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.

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.