Friday, October 23, 2009

The Killing Circle


by Andrew Pyper // Picador

Cover photograph by Jon Shireman

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE CRIME BOOK

Patrick Rush is a single father, unhappy with his career, devoted to his young son but haunted by the loss of his wife, when he joins a local writing group. In the candlelit studio where the circle meets, he finds one writer's work far more powerful than the others—a young woman named Angela, who writes about a girl stalked by a killer named the Sandman. But Angela's stories may be more autobiography than tall tale: soon the members of the group are being hunted by a shadowy figure resembling the Sandman, and the line between fiction and real life beings to dissolve. When his own son is taken, Patrick is forced to chase down the Sandman for himself and to discover the ending to his own terrifying story.

A sheet of writing paper with a delicate semi-circle paper-cut wound came to mind as I was talking with the editor. With a bit of blood pooling up behind it and beginning to run.

I emailed a quick, concept sketch to Jon Shireman to photograph:


And voila! With hole-punch wounds on the spine:

10 comments:

James Perales said...

Awesome! Love the concept. The book sounds very good. I want to get a copy.

C. Tobias said...

awesome, awesome, awesome. nice work Henry.

Andrew Pyper said...

As the author of The Killing Circle, I can say this is my favourite English-language cover design of all my books. (The Japanese, however, take the prize for sheer surrealism...)

Thank you, Henry!

elizabeth avedon said...

Very Cool!!

H3NR7 said...

Thanks guys.

Thanks Andrew: Do you have a link to the Japanese edition's cover?

Hi Elizabeth!
Here's an interview with Elizabeth that appeared in A Photo Editor

go said...

oh so beautiful.

H3NR7 said...

I know you are OG, but what about my cover? ;)

go said...

touché

Gould said...

Is it me or the J.Lethem's book cover for Chronic City is a rip off of your Bonfire's???

Anonymous said...

I always like it when your designs are clean and simple - so much more powerful.