The Best Book Covers of May

Cover art has always been an integral part of the crime fiction experience. No area of literature has dedicated more time and ingenuity to creating a graphic experience for dedicated readers and casual bookstore browsers alike. Provocative, inspired, and insightful, the best crime covers bring out new layers in the texts they enclose. Despite the occasional fallow period of stock photography and jumbo fonts, the art isn’t dead. It’s alive and well. To celebrate the tradition, each month CrimeReads editors highlight the very best covers from the newest books in crime, mystery, and thrillers.

Sujata Massey, The Satapur Moonstone (Soho Press)
Cover Design by Janne Agro; Cover Illustration by Andrew Davidson

A vivid, beautiful balance of color and shadows perfectly evocative of the rich atmospherics Massey has perfected.

Anthony Horowitz, The Sentence Is Death (Harper)
Cover Design by Will Staehle

Truly one of the most memorable blood drops in recent crime cover history.

W.M. Akers, Westside (Harper Voyage)
Cover Design by Owen Corrigan

The intricate layers of this cover are a perfect representation of a genre-straddling detective story that’s all about seeing what others miss and navigating a city simultaneously familiar and uncanny.

Liv Constantine, Last Time I Saw You (Harper)
Cover Design byJames Iacobelli

A lush color palette with the startling curl of the jewels, at once glamorous and threatening.

Randy Boyagoda, Original Prin (Biblioasis)
Cover Design by Michel Vrana

Quite simply, an explosion of color, light, and movement.