12th January 2012 Jeffery Deaver - Roadside Crosses In 2009 I was commissioned to photograph this cover for the publisher Hodder Headline. Below are two of the images that I shot to a brief. The top one was taken on a farm track in Northamptonshire, a location I had recce’d several years before. The second was near my home in South London.  Deaver is a profilic and hugely successful crime pulp novelist who has recently turned his hand to writing the latest James Bond novel, Carte Blanche. This book, part of the Kathryn Dance detective series, is the tale of a serial killer who leaves roadside crosses on America’s west coast, with clues pointing to his intended victims.  Most covers I have been involved in use images that only suggest at the story line and are usually one offs. However the art director on this cover was looking to match others already published in the series and give a dark foreboding image, looking at least somewhat American. However trying to get a location in the UK, particularly in mid-winter on very short notice, to look like a semi-suburban Californian highway on a summer evening is tricky.  Although I am not too wild about the design of the cover, it’s interesting to note that this book sold extremely well and was top of the bestseller charts for several weeks. Maybe designers of pulp covers know what they are doing after all!

12th January 2012

Jeffery Deaver - Roadside Crosses

In 2009 I was commissioned to photograph this cover for the publisher Hodder Headline. Below are two of the images that I shot to a brief. The top one was taken on a farm track in Northamptonshire, a location I had recce’d several years before. The second was near my home in South London. 

Deaver is a profilic and hugely successful crime pulp novelist who has recently turned his hand to writing the latest James Bond novel, Carte Blanche. This book, part of the Kathryn Dance detective series, is the tale of a serial killer who leaves roadside crosses on America’s west coast, with clues pointing to his intended victims. 

Most covers I have been involved in use images that only suggest at the story line and are usually one offs. However the art director on this cover was looking to match others already published in the series and give a dark foreboding image, looking at least somewhat American. However trying to get a location in the UK, particularly in mid-winter on very short notice, to look like a semi-suburban Californian highway on a summer evening is tricky. 

Although I am not too wild about the design of the cover, it’s interesting to note that this book sold extremely well and was top of the bestseller charts for several weeks. Maybe designers of pulp covers know what they are doing after all!

1 year ago  Notes (1)
  1. niallmcdiarmid posted this