Friday Face-Off is an idea originally thought up by Books By Proxy which I stole from the fantastic The Tattooed Book Geek. The idea originally was to compare UK and US covers based on an assigned theme each week and choose the winning cover. I will be twisting it slightly: not specifically US and UK covers, just different editions.

This weeks’ theme is a cover featuring a key: “Where there is a Key, there is yet hope.”

For this theme I have selected Dean Koontz’s The Key to Midnight.

Cover A:

Cover B:

Cover C:

Cover D:

Cover E:

Cover F:

And the winner is… COVER D!

I know I have stretched the theme a bit this week, with the link to a key being the keyhole on cover A. Cover D, however, intrigues me. The colours, the art style and the imagery – the lounge bar and hand with syringe. All of these things come together to draw me in.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my winner, or does one of the others work better for you? Let me know in the comments!

Next week I will be looking for a cover featuring a skull: “Sometimes skulls are thick. Sometimes hearts are vacant. Sometimes words don’t work. ”