Covering Covers: Kill the Dead - Richard Kadrey

Cover Artist: Unkown (but Incredible!)

October 5th marks the publication of the Kill the Dead, Richard Kadrey's second James Stark novel. This gritty Urban Fantasy series is perfect for the genre reader who wants to cut the romance part of paranormal romance out of the genre with a rusty dagger. Book One, Sandman Slim, made quite a splash last year with it's dark tone and violent content especially with fans of The Dresden Files or the Joe Pitt casefiles.

I don't think I've seen a better Urban Fantasy cover that this one. It's unique. It's creepy. The color scheme is fantastic (I love the pale green with the strong orange, very suggestive of Halloween Horror. The silhouettes of buildings and birds against the tornado lit sky is intense. A flock of birds suddenly taking off subtly suggests gunshots, explostions, or some other type of sudden disturbance. But who and what? Not to mention the lack of the trademark trampstamper.

If you read Sandman Slim and are curious as to what James Stark is up to in the sequel, here's the publisher's description from Eos:

What do you do after you’ve crawled out of Hell to wreak bloody revenge? If you’re Stark you turn to bounty hunting, tracking and descimating whatever rogue monsters you’re paid to kill. Stark hates the work, but he needs the money, especially the big bucks Lucifer is offering. In town as an advisor on a biopic of his life, Lucifer needs protection, and he wants Stark as his bodyguard. But the gig isn’t all bad; there is the very sexy, very hot French porn star Brigitte Bardo, a friend of Lucifer’s in LA to remake her reputation as a legit actress. While it isn’t love, it’s pretty damn good, and after 11 years of demonic chastity, it’s enough for now.


Stark has enough trouble juggling a diva devil and a sorching French bombshell.without a zombie plague to complicate matters. And just what happens when a human-angel half-breed is bitten by the living dead? His human side begins to die, transforming him into an unstoppable angel of death—a killing machine devoid of emotion or thought, with no regrets or future to worry about. Not a bad way to be when you’re choices are limiited. Now, Stark has to decide . . . if he does finds a cure for the zombie infection, will he take it?

Kill the Dead and it's fantastic cover hit shelves on October 5th from Eos (HarperCollins). If you know who did this fantastic cover, please let me know so I can give them the credit they deserve.