Deciding on the cover for A Time to Kill

A Time to Kill Cover

Planning the cover is always an interesting process so I thought I’d share with you some of the variations drawn up by my designer. Most of the action takes place in and around the village of Llanberis which is in the heart of Snowdonia.

Llanberis is famous for the Dinorwig quarry that provided slates to roof properties all over the world. At the height of its success there were thousands of men working there. Now it is just a scar on the landscape.

All of the action in A Time to Kill takes place in or around Llanberis in the heart of Snowdonia. I thought you might like to learn more details about the area

Llanberis

Llanberis is known as Snowdon’s village as it lies at the base of the famous mountain and the train that goes to the top starts from the village.

It is a popular tourist areas and has numerous attractions including the Quarryman’s hospital where the first murder in A Time to Kill takes place. It is now a museum and it is situated above the lake near the village giving a wonderful view over the village and the valley surrounding it. Click here for a webpage about the Quarry Hospital.

Websites of interest

These are just a sample of websites that have interesting information about Llanberis and the surrounding area

http://www.llanberis.org/

http://www.visitsnowdonia.info/llanberis-50.aspx

I wanted the cover to reflect the industrial past of the area and obviously provide an air of mystery.

There were two final designs that I asked everyone in my readers club to give their preference.  They are the version at the bottom of this post. The blue version is of Llyn Padarn and the brown [the eventual choice] is of Barracks Mon – a terrace of dilapidated properties used to house quarrymen from Anglesey.

Alternatives

The designer came up with various colour alternatives and one of the things that caused us difficulties was the size of the figure. We settled on the final version as being the best compromise in the circumstances.
My thanks to everyone who took part in the vote to decide on the cover. My cover designer and myself really valued your input. And a big thank you to Mel Garside for using her photograph on the cover – https://www.instagram.com/melgarside/

The final two images were these below