Seven Covers, Seven Days: Day 7

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thanks to everyone who has commented and to write_out who is playing along. Check out their nifty covers, too.

Comments

[autumnia]

This would probably make good reading if stuck at home! Also, the illustrator made great use of primary colors for this cover.

And how big is this supposed 'big book'?

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Very true. I have read most of them and have a tall TBR stack but I might go back through them at some point.

It is big! 937 pages and 2 inches thick!

[ancientreader]

A whole book of locked-room mysteries! That is a treasure. And the cover illustration makes me wonder: did murder mysteries use to have a more equitable distribution of male and female victims? I get the impression that it's all women being murdered all the way down the line nowadays. I can barely stand to look at the mystery and suspense shelves anymore. "When a young woman is found bludgeoned to death ..." "When three young women ..." "When eight sex workers ..." Et sickening cetera.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Yes! I really love the puzzle aspect of the locked room mystery. And I checked (for commentor above), it's 2 inches thick and 937 pages.

I definitely get that sense (of female-victims) with modern-setting crime (especially anything labeled a 'thriller') novels. But I suppose it's true for historical crime, too. I sometime prefer mostly-male ensembles because I often cringe when they introduce women at all. They get done so poorly, I'd rather not have them at all most of time.

But, to give an example from this book, I took the first section (which is called Familiar as the Rose in Spring) and it's 8 of the most famous locked-room short stories. 3 of the 8 had female victims (Rue Morgue, The Speckled Band, and Lord Dunsay's Two Bottles of Relish.)

So I don't know.

BTW, I've been filling more spaces in my Book Bingo, and I found a Indian female lawyer-detective set in the 1920's which I like. And I started Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie (but I haven't gotten far).

[smallhobbit]

A very good choice - is the victim writing Edward or Dwarf?

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I think it's Edward but you never know, he could be writing angry notes in German :) !

[luthienberen]

An healhy assortment of authors. I imagine their are quite a number of ingenious crimes within those pages. The cover is colourfully dramatic <3

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

It's a good volume! Very dramatic cover, I agree.