Clued in Mystery Podcast
The Clued in Mystery podcast explores mystery and the different ways we enjoy the genre through books, TV, film, and podcasts.
Your hosts Brook Peterson and Sarah M Stephen love reading, watching, listening to, and talking about mysteries. Join us as we celebrate good mysteries everywhere.
Judging a Mystery by its Cover
While we’re told not to judge a book by its cover, sometimes we can’t help it. In today’s episode, Brook and Sarah discuss how a book’s cover signals what we should expect between the pages.
Discussed
Sue Minix
Lynn Cahoon
Leanne Dobbs
Thursday Murder Club (2020) Richard Osman
Agatha Christie
For more information
Instagram: @cluedinmystery
Contact us: hello@cluedinmystery.com
Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
Sign up for our newsletter: https://cluedinmystery.com/clued-in-chronicle/
Join the Clued in Cartel for as little as $12 USD/year: https://cluedinmystery.com/clued-in-cartel/
Transcript
While we’re told not to judge a book by its cover, sometimes we can’t help it. In today’s episode, we discuss how a book’s cover signals what we should expect between the pages.
Discussed
Sue Minix
Lynn Cahoon
Leanne Dobbs
Thursday Murder Club (2020) Richard Osman
Agatha Christie
For more information
Instagram: @cluedinmystery
Contact us: hello@cluedinmystery.com
Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
Sign up for our newsletter: https://cluedinmystery.com/clued-in-chronicle/
Join the Clued in Cartel for as little as $12 USD/year: https://cluedinmystery.com/clued-in-cartel/
Transcript
This transcript is generated by a computer and there may be some mis-spellings and strange punctuation. We try to catch these before posting, but some things slip through.
| Sarah | Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I’m Sarah. |
| Brook | And I’m Brook and we both love mystery. |
| Sarah | Hi, Brook. |
| Brook | Hi Sarah, how are you? |
| Sarah | I’m doing really well. How about you? |
| Brook | I’m great too. And I’m looking forward to this conversation. This is a topic that has been on our list for a really long time. |
| Sarah | Yeah, it has. And it’s one of those things that is a really interesting subject when you start to dig into it. |
| Brook | And we’re talking about the cover of a mystery book. And so, you know, the English idiom warning us not to judge a book by its cover is wise advice when it comes to people, organizations, or maybe even a new restaurant. You know, it’s not the best idea to make quick decisions based on outward appearances alone. |
| Brook | But this just might be a false metaphor because in fact we do and possibly should decide which books to pick up based on their covers and the details contained there. Now, more than ever, when most books are sold online the small thumbnail image representing the story is immensely important. |
| Brook | It’s one of the only ways for potential readers to assess the book’s intrigue, tone, and possibly themes. And who doesn’t love the images that give us those first clues to the story? |
| Brook | Today we’ll discuss the valuable information a book’s cover provides to readers about a mystery story, things like its subgenre, tropes, and spook level. We’ll also take a look at trends in cover design, from the early days of crime fiction to the popular covers we’re seeing now in the early 2020s. We’ll talk about some of our favorite types of covers for mystery fiction and how sometimes a cover can lead us astray. So, Sarah, where should we begin? |
| Sarah | Well, what a great summary, Brook. And there’s, as you say, so much to talk about. Do you have a favorite book cover? |
| Brook | I don’t know if I have a specifically favorite singular cover, but I do have some styles that I that I am drawn to. I was thinking about how um much the the images can really get me excited about a story. And I think it comes back to, you know, when we’re kids, we read picture books and we get to see lots of pictures and then we graduate to chapter books and you just get a image maybe once a once a chapter or even less. And I can remember flipping back to those pictures because I wanted to ah compare my imagination with what’s happening you know on the in the image. And then eventually we get to the point where all we have is the cover. |
| Brook | I think that’s what draws me to a very illustrated detailed cover, like maybe it’s a drawing room setting or an image of the big mansion on the hill or whatever, because then I can refer back to it. um I do also enjoy like a really great graphic cover that’s just ah a simple cover, but time and time again, I i get sucked in. Some of the authors um in the mystery space who have covers like that are Sue Minix, Lynn Cahoon, or Leighann Dobbs. They have these um very detailed, intricate covers. I think, in a sense, they’re falling out of fashion, but um i still I still enjoy them. |
| Brook | What about you? Do you have either a favorite cover of all time or just a ah type of cover that always tends to hook you? |
| Sarah | So this is a good question. And it’s something that I have thought about Brook. And i I’m not sure. Like I really like the um kind of current trend of very simple covers. You know I think about Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club. And you know it’s a very simple cover. |
| Brook | Mm hmm. |
| Sarah | And yeah so ah that ah I am drawn to. And you can see, you know, if you were to look at a list of um recent mystery releases, you can see how that style of cover, you can see how Richard Osman’s cover has influenced other releases. |
| Brook | Absolutely. It’s, it has kicked off one of those trends that we’re seeing in the, in the early 2020s now, where we’re currently recording. Um, yeah. So, a very stark or light-colored background with mostly red. |
| Sarah | Yeah, it’s got that red frame. And I think the um subsequent books in his series have had a different color frame. I think maybe the second one was blue. The fourth one was green. I don’t remember actually what the third one was. But, you know, and they all feature, I think they all feature like a little fox on them. And the title of the book is you know kind of handwritten, um which. I think the font that is selected in a cover can also be a real signal in terms of what to expect the book to to contain. |
| Brook | Absolutely. Yes font is so important. I think really we come down to probably three things which would be colors which we’ve you know just highlighted um the fonts and then whatever images and that like just looking at that those Osmond covers that you mentioned. So the colors there’s a strong leaning towards red or like vibrant colors and i think that’s pretty typical in mystery. The font which we can get into and then his image is a fox and i think that’s so mystery like you know “clever like a fox” these kind of things and oftentimes you’ll see you know a dagger, maybe a fedora, a gun, and those kind of just iconic um images that may or may not have a direct line to the story, but it’s our signal that this is a whodunit, right? |
| Sarah | Yeah, and and just you know thinking about images, you know if you see the silhouette of a woman, maybe in a period dress, it gives you a sense that it’s probably a historical fiction, and her style of dress will signal what era it’s from. |
| Brook | Mhm. |
| Sarah | So is it Victorian? Is it Second World War. But, you know, she’s you see her back and she’s staring off into a cityscape or um a bridge or something like that. It’s probably going to be a historical fiction with a strong female lead. |
| Brook | Right. Right. And i I like that you mentioned that she’s maybe, you know, maybe it’s her silhouette. Maybe she’s looking away because if you want to consider the fact that a romance novel might have a woman in period clothing on the front as well. But the details will tell us, are we looking at a mystery or are we looking at a romance? And there again, we’re going to go back to the font, what fonts have been chosen for the title and the author name. |
| Brook | um Colors are going to be important. And then like you say, she’s looking away or there’s this mysterious air. She’s not um perhaps embracing her lover, which would give us the romance, right? |
| Sarah | Exactly, exactly. And there’s also, ah you know, you’ll see a male silhouette, which ah you know sometimes you see a male silhouette and he might have a weapon in his hand, which would signal it’s more of an action thriller type book. |
| Sarah | You mentioned, you know, ah dark in thrillers, the colors tend to be darker choices. |
| Brook | Yeah. |
| Sarah | But if you’re looking at a cozy or a cutesy mystery, it’s going to be much brighter, lighter colors, a little warmer, a little more inviting. |
| Brook | Mm hmm. Exactly. We know by looking at that, that this is going to be still a mystery, but lighthearted or a darker grimmer story. And I think it’s really important that um the author or the publishing company, whoever’s making those choices, ah stays true to that. |
| Brook | Because have you ever been tricked? You pick up a book and you have a sense from the cover that it’s going to be one thing and then when you get into it, it’s not. |
| Brook | I think this is ah a bigger risk in the lighter hearted because if somebody picks up a cover like that and then they get in there and it’s ah there’s a lot of violence or a lot of gore, they’re they are going to feel like they’ve been tricked and that hasn’t but and the cover hasn’t lived up to their expectations. |
| Sarah | Yeah, that’s a great point, Brook. You know, when a publisher is selecting the cover, they need to be really careful that they’re not jumping on a trend that doesn’t match with the content of the book. And so you asked if I’d ever been tricked and I can’t think of any specific examples. |
| Sarah | I think I’ve more been tricked by a description. And maybe it is a combination of the description and the cover where I’m expecting one thing and it was absolutely not what I ended up reading. And yeah, that’s a pretty disappointing experience for a reader. |
| Brook | And, to be honest, that that copy that the information on the cover is part of the cover, isn’t it? And the whole package kind of needs to coincide and ah give us the sense of what this book is going to be about I’ve got to I got to thinking about that You know the the copy so to speak of the covers because I got curious to look back to see okay. What were the original? You know the the OG mystery publications in the 1920s. What did those covers look like? And honestly, they were very simple. Just the title and maybe one image. |
| Brook | And I got to thinking about how ah those readers had a different experience. They were probably going into the bookstore, picking up the book, able to read the front and back flaps. you know. And maybe a cover wasn’t quite as much of a um selling point as as it is. Where we’re shopping online yeah where we’re shopping online and scrolling and you and you know authors really just have to hook someone with that image in order to get them to go deeper. |
| Sarah | Yeah, that’s that’s a really great point, Brook. Ah I I do like those older, really simple covers. Like I said, like I i am drawn, I think, to a simpler image. I’m also really drawn to covers that have yellow, which is often that’s a signal that it’s a thriller, right? A domestic thriller or a psychological thriller. |
| Brook | Interesting. Yes. And we don’t necessarily see yellow a lot in the, you know, traditional whodunnit. Like I say, there’s a lot of red, blue, purple, black. Right. So for some reason, thriller and yellow go together. |
| Brook | I think that those covers also have tend to have a real feel to them where you have a large title and then some sort of ah kind of almost vague sense of the setting. |
| Sarah | Yeah, you know, a house or a window, if it’s a domestic thriller, right? You’re getting a lens into someone else’s life. Whereas with the, you know, cozy covers that are a little bit more illustrated, you might have a pet on there. You’re going to have really bright colors, maybe a storefront. And the font is going to ah possibly be cursive or a little loopier. |
| Sarah | I’m not sure what the technical but the technical word for it is. But in a thriller cover, it’s going to be all caps, a really strong and powerful font that they’ve chosen. |
| Brook | Yeah, I was listening to an interview with a cover designer some time ago now, but I enjoyed her comment so much. She was talking about the importance of font and I can’t remember the phrase that she used as an example title, but will use, um “I’ll always be there”. |
| Brook | And she said you know if you had a cursive very flowing font and the title “I’ll always be there” is on the cover you get a feeling. |
| Brook | And then if you had a font that was very bold, maybe that ah hint of horror to it, and “I’ll always be there”, connotes a very different kind of story. And so she was just explaining how important it is to choose the right kind of font that’s going to give the potential reader the idea of what they’re getting themselves into. |
| Sarah | Yeah, your first example, it almost could be like a romance. Whereas the second one is much more of a ah thriller, threatening kind of title. |
| Brook | Yes. |
| Brook | Some of the most iconic mystery covers are the noir covers from like the 70s and 80s. You’ve typically got that damsel in distress or femme fatale on the cover. Perhaps scantily clad, ah but very vibrant colors, bold text. And this is where you’ll probably see a fedora, if not a guy in a fedora and a weapon of some sort. |
| Brook | I just feel that these covers portray such a sense of danger and urgency. Like the artists were just able to really portray that feeling to ah to a reader. And I think that they’ve probably influenced a lot the the covers that we still see today. |
| Brook | They’re technically an art form in their own right. I think there’s actually been, ah you know, shows of the cover art from these noir ah stories. |
| Sarah | Oh, I believe it. And, and you know, if you think about the trajectory of mystery going, moving from the Golden Age to noir and hard boiled in kind of the forties and the fifties and the sixties. Um, those more visually appealing covers emerged. |
| Sarah | I can i can see how how that would be a whole you know a whole art. |
| Brook | I was interested to find that even Agatha Christie’s titles had been recovered in that era to reflect and had some of those you same cover looks. Um, and that’s actually a great thing to note is how well the Agatha Christie company has done at recovering and staying up with the trends. I mean, you’ll see ah her, you know, classic books right now, and they probably have the 2020-esque covers and that’s just continuing to, you know, bring in new readers and and in attract new readers. |
| Sarah | Yeah, the Agatha Christie estate is a great example of a publisher that has kind of in evolved with cover art. And yeah, the ones that kind of the current releases from them all feature Agatha Christie’s signature as like that’s how her name appears on the book, which I think is a really nice, a nice way of doing that. ah And they, you know, if you looked at several of them, you could see they all belong to the same group, which I think is a really important thing when you’re looking at a book series, right? We talked about the Thursday Murder Club and that they all have the fox and the way that the book title is written is very similar and they all have that colorful rectangle, right? Whether it’s red or green or blue. um And you can say, “okay, well, this is all part of the same series, so I’ve read the first one; I know kind of what to expect in in the second one”. |
| Brook | Right. They all go together. And I also think it’s really helpful when they’re, they’re clearly connected, but they have enough, like you’d be like, Oh, the red one. I’ve already read the red one. Now I need to, you know, ah sometimes they’re so similar that it’s hard to um keep them straight. But I really enjoy that if um they have enough of a difference that I, I can kind of track. |
| Sarah | I’m just thinking a little bit more about kind of the imagery and what it might convey. When I’m on a YA reading kick, you know, I will see a lot more of things that I would associate with younger people. I just finished one that was about cheerleaders, and so there was a ah cheer uniform. Or you might see something else that you would associate with school because they’re typically in school. The drama of of being a ah high school student is is part of the ah story. |
| Brook | Mm hmm. Yeah, really important details before you pick it up and to know what where you’re going. And again, I would be flipping back to look at the images to compare my imagination with what’s on the cover. |
| Brook | Well, Sarah, this was so much fun. A book cover is so important to a mystery, so I’m glad that we finally got this off our list and talked about it today. |
| Sarah | Yeah, it was, it was great. And it would be great to hear from listeners if they have a favorite book cover or something that they really look for in a book cover to signal what it is that they are going to be reading. |
| Brook | Yes, I would love that. So, thank you everybody for joining us today on Clued in Mystery. I’m Brook. |
| Sarah | And I’m Sarah and we both love mystery. |
