The Killer's Cousin

U.S. Hardcover
(Random House/Delacorte, 1998)

Cover on the very first edition. I was very happy; the characters looked as I'd imagined, and I loved the subtle purple flames and petals in the background. The triple-decker house is from a photograph that I took and boldly sent to my editor, hoping they'd incorporate it into the cover design. They did.

Illustration by Craig White.
Jacket design by Vikki Sheatsley.

 

U.S. Paperback
(Random House/Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2000)

For the paperback, the cover design from the U.S. hardcover was split in half, mirror-imaged, blown up, and reassembled. Alas, the work was done carelessly; if you look closely you can see the black T-shirt of David's shoulder below Lily's blouse at the bottom left. Still, I think it's an effective cover and I like it a lot.

Illustration by Craig White.
Jacket design by Vikki Sheatsley.

 

Spanish: La Prima del Asesino
(Ediciones SM, trans. Carlos Gomez Zamorano, 2001)

The title means The cousin of the killer, but in Spanish there can't be a double meaning as there is in English, because cousin (prima) is female, and killer (asesino) is male. I think this cover is intriguing and it would make me pick up the book, but it depicts a scene that isn't in the book at all.

 

Dutch: Schuldig
(Kluitman Alkmaar, trans.
Anne Marie Hormann, 2001)

The cover here is very similar to that of the U.S. hardcover, with both main characters and the spooky house. The title means Guilty. I like both the title and the cover design.

This translation won Honorable Mention in the Golden and Silver Kisses 2002 program, from the Dutch Stichting CPNB. Congratulations to the translator (who is also editor and publisher), Anne Marie Hormann.

 

Danish: I Familie med en Morder
(CDR Forlag, 2001, trans. Marianne Linneberg Rasmussen)

The title means Related to a killer; literally, “in a family with a killer” —a very clever title that keeps the double meaning of the English original (thanks to Hannah Bernard for the title translation). I like this cover; the pensive study of David's face hints at the psychological aspects of the book.

 

British Hardcover
(HarperCollins Flamingo, 2002)

The British publisher chose to keep the original title, and I'm glad about that. I think this cover design is terrific; the bathtub (note the faucet and drain at the bottom) feels to me like a subtle reminder of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

US Reprint Edition, Penguin, 2009.

No, you're not seeing double and this is not a mistake. Penguin used the same obscurely menacing design that Harper UK used when they reprinted Killer's Cousin in 2009. (They just removed the tagline above my name.) I find this the strongest by far of all the Killer's Cousin covers, so I was very glad.