Mystery Cover Evolution

Contrary to the oft-uttered phrase, you can likely tell a lot about the book you’re picking up based on the cover. For one thing, you might be able to guess at the genre. You may also have some idea of when the book was published. Over the last fifty years or so, book cover art has changed a lot. This is true across a wide mix of genres. A few years ago, we published a retrospective on the evolution of romance cover art. With the recent news that mass market paperbacks are facing extinction, we've decided to look into the cover art evolution of a few more of our favorite genres.

The origin story 

One of the earliest examples of a modern mystery novel is Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 novel, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841), which introduced the locked room concept, where the crime takes place in a remote or enclosed environment, as well as the first fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, a brilliant amateur sleuth.

A few decades later, Wilkie Collins further developed this formula with his classic English mysteries, The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868). In 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle created the beloved Sherlock Holmes, bringing massive, widespread popularity to the growing genre.  

1920s through 1940s: the Golden Age of mystery

Cover art has come a long way since the so-called Golden Age of crime fiction. Popular authors of this period included a group of British women writers dubbed the Queens of the Golden Age: Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, and, of course, Agatha Christie, who has been named the bestselling novelist of all time. Learn more about Christie in this 2020 post.

Unfortunately, many of the early covers from this era have been lost to time, but they were characterized by art highlighting the whodunit formula, including clues, country houses, and tense scenes. Art deco was a particularly popular style of some of these covers. In lieu of the originals, here are a few Golden Age mysteries that have been given gorgeous reprints paying tribute to the style of that era.

• The Wintringham Mystery by Anthony Berkeley—Originally published in 1927, this country house puzzler, also published as Cicely Disappears, received a gorgeous 2021 reprint featuring art by James Weston Lewis.
• The Perfect Alibi by Christopher St. John Sprigg (1934)—Chrissie Winter and Charlie Fischer are the artists behind a 2019 series of Sprigg covers featuring these elegant monochromatic scenes.
• Death in the Tunnel by Miles Burton—Published in 1936, this classic train mystery got a shiver-inducing new cover design by Chris Andrews in this gorgeous 2016 edition.
• The Bride Wore Black by Cornell Woolrich—This stunning 2021 edition of a 1940 mystery perfectly captures the appeal of the eponymous femme fatale at the center of the story. Cover designed by Andy Ross.

The mass market paperback 

In 1939, Robert DeGraff launched pocket books, small, cheaply produced paperbacks that were easy to take everywhere. This was a game changer for the evolution of book covers.

With the popularity of these lightweight, inexpensive volumes, a book's cover became a critical selling point. Publishing houses began investing heavily in art that would stand out on the crowded racks of paperbacks for sale at corner stores, magazine stands, and airports.

1950s through 1970s: the Golden Age of mystery cover art?

With the revolution that accompanied mass market paperback craze, the decades that followed saw some of the best mystery cover art. In fact, many of the classics from earlier eras got fresh reprints with flashy new covers. These often gorgeous artworks were designed to titillate and attract a largely male readership with provocative, gritty scenes involving shapely women, guns, and the suggestion of sex and violence. Here are some stellar examples from this era:

• The Red Tassel by David Dodge (1952 edition)—art by Robert Stanley (many of his covers featured his red-haired wife)
• The Corpse Came Calling by Brett Halliday (1954 edition)—art by Robert E. Schultz
• The Last Kill by Charlie Wells (1955)—art by Robert A. Maguire
• A Taste for Murder by F. Heard (1959 edition)—art by Ernest Chiriacka
• Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert Kyle (1960)—art by Robert McGinnis
• Anything But Saintly by Richard Deming (1963)—art by Robert K. Abbett
• The Girl with the Sweet Plump Knees by Thomas B. Dewey (1963)—art by Victor Kalin
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1971 edition)—art by Tom Adams
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1972 edition)—art by Tom Adams (the artist behind many of Christie's most iconic cover designs)
• Sleeping Beauty by Ross Macdonald (1973)—art by Hal Siegel

(Anyone else notice that more than half of the artists featured in this section are named Robert? Coincidence?)

The cozy mystery craze

In the 1960s and '70s, in response to the grittier, more explicit tone of hardboiled mystery fiction, a new subgenre emerged: the cozy mystery. Seen by many as an attempt to recreate the Golden Age of detective fiction, these whodunnits generally maintain a closed-door approach to sex and violence. The stories often feature an amateur sleuth and take place in quaint bucolic settings.

The cover art of the cozy mystery seeks to achieve a balance between intrigue and comfort. They may feature the prescient pet of the protagonist—a staple of the genre. Other iconography of this genre of covers include steaming coffee mugs, books, and tasty treats. Here are some excellent examples we found on our shelves. We were unable to find an artist credit for several of these covers.

• A Deadly Inside Scoop by Abby Collette—art by Amy M. Jones
• A Very English Murder by Verity Bright—artist uncredited
• Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala—art by Natalie Esquivel
• The Bookshop Murder by Merryn Allingham—artist uncredited
• The Plot and the Pendulum by Jenn McKinlay—artist uncredited
• The Crime that Binds by Laurie Cass—artist uncredited
• Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies by Misha Popp—art by Trish Cramblet
• A Spoonful of Murder by M. Hall—art by Nina Tara

In recent years, the cozification formula has been embraced by a variety of fictional genres, including fantasy and romance.       

Current trends

In our digital age, book cover art across the industry has taken on simpler, stylistic cover designs and larger text so that titles and images pop in a digital format. This shift has led to some gorgeous minimalist designs utilizing vibrant colors. Below are some of the recent mystery cover designs that we love. As you can see, the types of artwork represented are varied and beautiful, from bold, modern imagery to atmospheric, impressionist landscapes.

• My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite—art by Michael Windsor
• The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran—art by Alex Merto
• The Nightingale Affair by Tim Mason—art by Steve Godwin
• Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett—art by Kirin Diemont
• Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy—art by Will Staehle
• Hunted by Abir Mukherjee—art by Gregg Kulick
• You'd Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace—art by Paul Blow
• You Shouldn't Be Here by Lauren Thoman—art by Ingrid Michel
• Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter—art by Angela Faustina
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore—art by Hea Eun Han

We’ve had a blast unpacking the details of the mystery cover evolution. We hope you've enjoyed it too! Check out our fantasy cover evolution post and stay tuned for science-fiction up next.

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Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon