Thrift Shop Book Covers: "Judas Country"

Judas Country was published in the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton as a hardcover in 1975. The edition that caught my eye was the Pan paperback edition published in 1977. The cover successfully portrays violence in an otherwise serene locale—the softly golden colors hint at sunset in a nicely rural, very Mediterranean, background shattered by a shot-up Beetle and a crouching man with a revolver. The artist: Harry Hants.

The opening paragraph:

“A few minutes ago the sky had been a place. Of clouds, winds, pressures, turbulence. Now, it was just the décor of a flashy Cyprus sunset. The propellers wound down and stopped with a brief, violent shudder, but I went on sitting there, running my hands over the still-unfamiliar avionics switches and trying to wriggle some of the stiffness out of my neck and shoulders. A small Ford van dashed up and stopped just in front.”

Judas Country is, like most of Mr. Lyall’s early work, centered around aviation and it is considered by many critics to be among his best novels.