The Friday Face-Off was originally created by Books by Proxy:
each Friday, bloggers showcase book covers on a weekly theme.
Visit Lynn’s Books (@LynnsBooks) for a list of upcoming themes.
Please visit also Tammy at Books, Bones & Buffy (@tammy_sparks)
thanks to whom I discovered this meme.

This week, the theme is “a grey cover”

One author came right away to mind. You remember the greyish atmosphere in The Spy Who Came In From the Cold?
Well, in many books by Georges Simenon, you find the same gloomy skies and atmosphere.
And it’s perfectly displayed on the cover for the last book I read by him (with one of my French students), at least in the edition I read it in:

Click on the cover to read my review

Alas, not too many other publishers decided to keep that idea on their cover.

Click on the picture if you want to identify the various editions
You can also right click and open image in new tab to zoom in

WHICH COVER IS YOUR FAVORITE? WHY?

I’m actually shocked to find some very bright colors on some covers, they really don’t fit. Unless the publisher wanted to play on contrast and thought a bright color would attract more readers!!
I like is #10 (Persian edition) for keeping the grey and setting up the main scene of the book – a woman is found dead in a church.
#11 is also playing with an important part of the plot.
#12 shows a train, the link is that in this story, Maigret travels back to the place he grew up, and that’s where the crime took place. This picture though could apply to many books. Just like #8, though they did keep it in black and white.

My favorite actually is #23. Would have been better in black and white, but I like how they focused on a major element in the plot, and as usual, I like the quality detailed artistic rendering.

Have you read this book?
WHICH COVER IS YOUR FAVORITE? WHY?
Next Friday: lips, or the impression left by a kiss