If this cover is trying to teach you the secrets of writing a mystery, it’s doing a phenomenal job of hiding them—because absolutely nothing about this design suggests intrigue, suspense, or even the vague hint of a clue.
Welcome to Secrets to Writing a Mystery, a book cover that looks less like a guide to crafting a thrilling whodunit and more like a rejected PowerPoint slide from a corporate webinar titled “Synergy Through Storytelling.”
Let’s start with the color choice: a flat, lifeless purple background. No texture. No shadow. No motif. It’s not minimalist—it’s missing in action. This isn’t noir, suspense, or even cozy crime—it’s the shade of a sad LinkedIn header trying to be professional without knowing what the word “aesthetic” means.
The title layout is a crime scene of its own.
SECRETS
TO
WRITING
A
MYSTERY
Stacked like a broken elevator panel, with “A” hanging out awkwardly in the middle like it got lost on its way to a sentence. There’s no rhythm, no typographic flair—just a bold sans-serif wall of white text arranged for maximum indifference. It doesn’t whisper suspense. It doesn’t shout intrigue. It says, “I made this in Google Docs and didn’t check it twice.”
The subtitle, The Whodunit Structure, floats weakly underneath, as if even it doesn’t want to be associated with what’s happening above. And the authors’ names? Planted confidently at the bottom with bold titles like:
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“FOUNDER & CEO OF FICTIONARY”
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“FICTIONARY CERTIFIED STORYCOACH EDITOR”
We’re no longer talking about solving murders—we’re networking at a branding seminar hosted in a Holiday Inn conference room.
And then… there’s the angled line at the bottom right. What is it? A paper crease? A broken divider? A piece of clipart that wandered in from a geometry worksheet? It sits there like it’s trying to escape the cover entirely—and we don’t blame it.
The ultimate irony? A book about crafting mystery novels with structure and drama has a cover so devoid of those things, you’d swear it was intentionally designed to repel readers. It doesn’t just lack visual storytelling—it lacks any story at all.
This isn’t a case of “less is more.” This is a case of no is not a design direction.
If the first rule of writing mysteries is to grab the reader’s attention… this cover is one long, lavender “nah.”