Now We Are 12: “A Real Killing”

Part of a series celebrating Killer Covers’ first dozen years.



A Real Killing, by James Pattinson (Robert Hale, 1976). This was the second installment in Pattinson’s seven-book series starring “Sam Grant, of the Peking Inquiry Agency and later the Grant Inquiry Agency.” The cover painting is by Eileen Walton.

Sisters in Crime Fiction

As the (so far) anonymous author of that fine blog, The Stiletto Gumshoe, observes, little is known about the artist sisters Eileen and Barbara Walton. “All I can deduce from dated work,” he or she writes, “is that Eileen Walton began working in advertising and editorial illustration in the mid-1950’s, her sister Barbara in book cover illustration in the late 1950’s, both of them the most prolific throughout the 1960’s, with their intriguingly evolving art seeming to vanish altogether by the late-1970’s. But then, they wouldn’t be the only illustrators who migrated from the rapidly shrinking cover art marketplace around that time, as photography and image-free graphic design swiftly dominated the industry.”

Do yourself a favor today and check out The Stiletto Gumshoe’s recent posts about the talented Walton sisters: here, here, here, here, and here. For more examples of their work, look in Nick Jones’ Existential Ennui blog and Steve Holland’s Bear Alley Books blog.

Six for Six: Death on the Nile

Celebrating half a dozen years of Killer Covers postings.



Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie (Fontana, 1960).
Illustration by Eileen Walton.

Small Is Bountiful

I generally confine news wrap-up posts to my other blog, The Rap Sheet. However, a number of small design-related items have passed across my desk recently that, while they may not justify posts of their own, might be of interest to some readers.

• UK comics expert Steve Holland has put together several collections of covers from old Fontana Books editions of novels, some of which belong in the crime-fiction category. He’s broken down many of them according to their cover artists (John Keay, Eileen Walton, and John Rose), but others are grouped by author (Laurence Meynell, Alistair MacLean and Ngaio Marsh).

• The Casual Optimist celebrates British designer Stuart Bache “wonderfully stark” covers for Spectre’s lline of John Le Carré novels.

• I’ve spent much of my career editing print mags, so I found this video in The FontFeed utterly delightful. You should, too.

• For authors who choose (or are compelled) to go the independent-publishing route, which means they may have a greater say in how their books are presented, Jane Friedman of Writer’s Digest offers “10 Tips for Effective Book Covers.” It’s hard to argue with her simple suggestions.

• The Book Designer’s Joel Friedlander talks with Joshua Tallent of Ebookarchitects.com about “many of the issues self-publishers face when they try to move their books to e-book formats.”

• And even before actor Daniel Craig stimulated debate over super-spy James Bond’s hair color, Pan Books’ 1955 paperback edition of Casino Royale introduced the idea of a blond 007.