Hard-boiled crime fiction / spy thriller book cover design

I’ve been working on THE SECOND BAT GUANO WAR, a hard-boiled spy thriller.

From the author, “Emphasis on the hard-boiled. The cover should appeal to readers who like hard-core hardboiled fiction, not espionage buffs. If you like staring into the gritty maw of flawed humanity, you’ll like this book. But if you love Le Carre, that’s no guarantee you’ll want to touch this book. Dig? Readers who love wisecracking dark anti-heros will eat this book up.”

Here’s what we came up with. I think we’re going with the first one – bolder text, very clean and powerful. The others are a lot of fun, but probably too confusing/distracting.