Peepers on Parade

I launched Killer Covers’ “Slice of P.I.” series on July 24, which (by no coincidence) was National and International Private Investigator Day. I’m ending it this morning, 22 days and 22 covers later.

Putting this series together has been an altogether delightful experience. It led me to explore some of the deeper recesses of my computer files, looking for book fronts that demonstrate the wide range of private eye fiction—both in time period and type—as well as an assortment of artists. (I always prefer hand-illustrated covers to photo fronts.) A few of the covers I’d wanted to include had to be eliminated, because I could not identify their painters, even with help from tech writer-turned-book art authority Tim Hewitt, who provided me with the scans of Lawrence Block’s The Sins of the Fathers and John D. MacDonald’s Darker Than Amber. But there were always others waiting to substitute. The issue, finally, was how long I wanted this series to run. My original promise was that it would last “seven days or more.” Within the first week, however, I had already gathered enough interesting covers (not previously showcased on this page) for three weeks worth of posts. I could probably keep going still, but I do have responsibilities elsewhere, including to The Rap Sheet, which has not seen much attention from me since I began this project.

So, as Marlene Dietrich sang, “let’s call it a day,” with the assurance that I shall return to the subject of elegantly illustrated private detective works. Probably sooner than later.

The Shadows Know

Book cover design trends come … and some go. Others, however, manage to stick around far longer than seems advisable. Take images of people shown from the rear, for instance. Or aerial photos of snow-shrouded forests. Or spooky-looking trees. Or figures, especially women, running in fright (a holdover theme, really, from illustrated Gothic horror fiction of the late 20th century). Publishers spend a lot of time studying what book-front features sell best, and they can be slow to abandon a fad that has outlived its welcome.

One that’s become particularly ubiquitous on American crime, mystery, and thriller shelves over these last several years is silhouettes of people in windows. An example is the cover—above—of Mark Stevens’ Two Truths and a Lie, being released today by Thomas & Mercer. It’s the author’s second case for TV journalist Flynn Martin, following 2025’s No Lie Lasts Forever. (Speaking of trends, have you noticed how often versions of the words “lie” or “liar” appear in recent novel titles? Could this be Donald Trump’s influence?) A plot brief calls Two Truths both “taut” and “haunting,” and explains that in its 462 pages, Martin confronts a serial killer who’s copycatting behaviors of her quarry in the preceding yarn. “Scandal. Conspiracy. Murder,” we are promised, with the précis adding: “Flynn hardly knows where to begin―and if her stalker has their way, she might not live to see the end.”

The fact of this being only the second installment in a continuing series could undermine any “might not live” anticipation. But let’s just move on ...

If my memory is correct, it was with the publication of Gillian McAllister’s 2022 page-turner, Wrong Place, Wrong Time, that I initially twigged to the frequent occurrence of shadowy profiles in artwork used for this genre. By the time Lauren Willig’s 2025 mystery, The Girl from Greenwich Street (based on the first well-recorded murder trial in American history, in which both Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr participated), saw print, I had already begun to amass a file of cover images. Today, I have well over 100 specimens of the breed in my computer files.

Fear not: I won’t inflict all of them upon you. The following 50 images should prove how overworked this motif is. All of these employ photographs, though I suspect a number of them have been manipulated, adding silhouettes where they did not originally appear.

Click on any of the covers below to open an enlargement.

This brand of ominous artwork has clearly played itself out. It’s time for book designers to move on to something different.