Penguin’s designers have done it again. This copy of The Strings of Murder buy Oscar de Muriel landed on our doorstep today and you can’t help but love its elegant, modern take on late Victorian typography, can you? The book has a rich matt finish that borders on feeling rubberised, and a nice tactile deboss pressing the title text out of the paperback jacket, emphasising the 3D effect the designer has created using a little hatching on the edges of the letters. Meanwhile, its been embellished with a mysterious illustration of plantlike forms, with eyes embedded in them, done by Roberlan Borges.
The book itself was written by a Mexican academic who’s settled in Lancashire, but has fallen in love with Scottish culture. He’s a violinist as well and in his debut crime novel a virtuoso player is murdered in his Edinburgh home in 1888. Three musicians were heard playing that night, but the body is in a locked room and we’re in for one classic Sherlockian mystery. While the Ripper is doing his work down in London, is the Edinburgh detective Inspector Ian Frey up against a supernatural force, or something a bit more visceral? A twisting plot, clairvoyants, bodysnatchers and the music of both Paganini and Tartini are all promised. To cap it off, Frey’s boss is called Nine-Nails McGrey…
The paperback is released 12 February at £6.39. Watch for our review.
