Yes, it seems the time has come once more to begin pulling together our longlist of nominees for The Rap Sheet’s annual Best Crime Fiction Covers competition. 2014 saw a clear winner in Jonathan Pelham’s exquisitely melodramatic façade for the British edition of The Black-Eyed Blonde (Mantle), the latest high-profile Philip Marlowe pastiche, written by Benjamin Black (aka John Banville). But as we look over the book fronts produced this year, it’s harder to spot a similarly inevitable champion. There are myriad outstanding choices--and maybe more than we realize. So we’d like to solicit your help in making sure we haven’t neglected any worthy contenders.
You’re all well read and extraordinarily sharp-eyed, right? Well, which crime, mystery, and thriller book fronts--first released in 2015, in either hardcover or paperback, from either side of the Atlantic--do you think really stood out from the crowd? Which have demonstrated remarkable use of typography, photography, and/or original illustrations? If you’d like to see the jackets that have drawn our attention in the past, click here. Then drop us an e-mail note with your best-cover picks for the present year. Be sure to include the name and author of any novel you suggest, plus--if at all possible--a link to where we might view the cover artwork online. Working from your choices as well as our own finds, we’ll collect 12 to 15 covers we think are deserving of recognition, and post them in early December, inviting everyone to vote for their favorites.
Let us know soon which covers you think merit particular appreciation.
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