Title: Mystery Walks the Campus
Author: Annette Turngren
Cover artist: Harry Schaare
Yours for: $6
Best things about this cover:
- "Mystery" would be a pretty cool girl's name, come to think about it.
- This is a great cover painting. No, really. It's clearly geared toward a female audience (i.e. the woman is in serious student mode and decidedly non-tarted-up), so it doesn't have what we'd normally call "Great Girl Art (GGA)," but she's *really* well rendered. I love art that conveys tension through small movements, especially as those movements are captured in clothing. I'm mesmerized by her right foot, as well as the flow of her jacket and the wrinkles across the front of her skirt. Her environment is pure noir. All rain-slicked pavement and moonlight/streetlight. Good stuff.
- This reminds me of a specific part of the U Michigan campus—specifically, where campus proper meets South U. Ave. But I'm guessing this also looks like about a million campuses.
Best things about this back cover:
- Endicott! I live near there.
- You gotta love a mystery that turns on "the mutterings of a parakeet." I imagine the parakeet pacing in his cage, smoking and then occasionally saying something about what you can do with your desire to hear him "sing."
- I like how excited the Christian Science Monitor is about addiction and compulsion.
Page 123~
They took a cab home, and Wendy tried hard to be pleasant—and sympathetic about the headache. But she had a feeling it was as non-existent as Sky's hay fever had been the night of the barbecue supper. Sometimes I'd like to shake her, she thought.
As if Sky's name alone isn't reason enough to want to shake her.
~RP
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]
4 comments:
Now I want to read it to find out what the parakeet is muttering...
Best part about the girl is the way she's so obviously trying not to look over her shoulder but still find out what's behind her. The angle of her head, the way her eyes are turned (and we can see that even in this scan!), it's all great. Except maybe her left arm, I'm not sure what's going on there.
The guy in the archway is pretty good, too. Tryin' not to get wet, although she doesn't seem to mind. He'd be a little more menacing if his trench coat weren't lime green, though.
Love the muttering parakeet. Your comments on the cover are pithy and hilarious! This is a blog I must revisit. Often.
So, if no one knew anything about the missing girl, who knew she was missing? The parakeet? The parakeet's got a faded snapshot of some girl stuff in his appartment and Wendy's off on a search for the missing girl? Why doesn't she go back to her search for the Lost Boys.
Man, I'm such a badass that I put in 15:08 for 15:04 for the portion of the captcha Google is tyring to translate. I think it's time I got a hog and a meth addiction.
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