OK, a confession. You might have already seen this one. Art in the Blood by Bonnie MacBird has been available in this beautiful hardback edition since August 2015. But this is the first time we’ve seen it and we’re blown away.
First off, the cover design is striking in terms of graphical impact, detail and print production values. A feint silverish vintage map of London lies behind the stencilled outline of Sherlock Holmes, subtly highlighted with a UV varnish that you might not be able to see from our photos. Lovely.
The second item of note here is the author’s background. Bonnie MacBird has written a Holmes story in the style of Conan Doyle, but did you know that she also co-wrote the original screenplay for the movie Tron? If that doesn’t give her some storytelling chops, I don’t know what does. This her debut crime novel.
Anyhow, here we have Holmes back in London, back on the white powder, and trying to recover from an investigation into none other than Jack the Ripper. It’s 1888. A letter arrives from Paris and the next thing you know he’s trying to solve the case of a missing boy in snow-covered Lancashire. The boy is the illegitimate son of a beautiful French singer. Paris assassins. A crippled art expert. A sadistic policeman. Child murders…
The paperback comes out 7 May but feast your eyes on this hardcover and its lovely detailing. You can buy a copy here.
When the jacket comes off you’ve got red metallic foil spine copy and a shiny Holmes logo.
Inside, the book’s designers have used special drop caps created by Cobalt C Creative. The book is set in typeface Sabon, which is based on the classic Garamond.
