Facing Front - THE SENTRY by Robert Crais

 The Sentry is the latest from thriller author Crais, featuring Cole and Pike, a team of do-gooders/detectives in the Los Angeles area. I really like Crais' books, but I've never really liked his covers. Take this one, the US cover. It has a photo of a freeway, a sunset and some palm trees, all layered with varying opacity with the trademark "New York Times Bestseller" block capitals. I do like the layers of oranges though, so it gets bumped a notch.

3/5

I think this is the UK cover, but I'm not 100% sure. It's a little more creative, but I actually like it less. The figure in the foreground looks nothing like the character of Joe Pike (For one thing, he never seems to wear anything with sleeves) and so far in the novel, a bridge hasn't featured once. The weird pointy middle prong of that E bothers me too.

2/5

Facing Front - BURN by Linda Howard

US Cover

 This is the US cover to Burn. As best I can tell, it seems to be the image they used for the Hardcover and the Paperback version. (I own the paperback) There's really very, very little I can say about this image. It stinks. It stinks of typical covers for US thrillers. "Ooh, the title is fire related, and it takes place somewhere tropical. Quick, get me an image of some babe on cement and add some orange layers!"

1/5

Unknown Cover

 I found this cover on Google, but I was unable to track down what version it was. My guess is some reprint cover or something similar. This makes the book seem like more of a kidnapping thriller, but that might just be because it reminds me of the scene in the first Craig "Bond" movie. I like this cover better, but the cheeky "Edge of your seat" blurb next to a photo of a chair by some random person named Bella, and the overly bright fuchsia colors bring my score down.

2/5

UK Version

   This is more like it. Once again, I have to tip my hat to the UK cover, which seems enigmatic and a bit dangerous. The water is beautiful, the colors are odd and the outfit is... European. I'm not a fan of the strangely damaged font they used for Howard's name, but a pretty strong cover. And I'd feel a bit less silly reading it. Unless the person that saw me had read a Linda Howard novel before. Then they'd be right for thinking I'm silly for reading one.

3/5