Since I first noticed this pattern of into-the-distance-looking back silouette characters on book covers, I can’t stop seeing them. They’re almost always men, almost always frontlit (by a setting sun, a light at the end of a tunnel, an explosion, a nebulous color splash, etc.), almost always straight-shouldered (as though bracing against danger or an uncertain future), and of course almost always solitary.

***

“Eidswick (The Language of Bears, 2017) portrays his protagonist with great depth; Strait is a stoical combination of grit and emotional vulnerability. In addition, the author artfully raises provocative questions about the fraught relationship between race and institutional power. Finally, there’s plenty of gripping action here, cinematically depicted.” – Kirkus Reviews