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Does this cover work for a thriller?

Let me present my proposed cover for my new thriller novel – “The True Virus”. Will this work as a cover for a biotech thriller novel? Also, does it convey the synopsis below?

Synopsis.

After the main CIA computer is hacked into, John Brookfield a CIA computer specialist, travels to Israel to work with Sarah Stein the Co-developer of DNA computer technology to find out if the DNA component of the CIA system has been compromised. John is shocked when the cell phone of a fellow CIA agent in Israel is hit by a bullet and explodes in his hand. Soon after an epidemic breaks out and the agent dies. With Sarah’s help, John discovers that a Hamas bioterrorist is the hacker who programmed the CIA’s system to produce the real live virus that caused the epidemic.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Holland on February 6, 2014 at 11:56am

I agree with DM Yates on the background color. Red and black, or Red complimented with low saturation Greens would more clearly portray "Thriller." The use of the flags is a bit too explicit. You don't have to pack in every element of the story. If you do use flags, perhaps incorporate them into the background in such a way that they aren't immediately recognized (like an overlay of an enlarged portion of the flag). I like the biohazard symbol. Maybe it could be the focus? Large and menacing.

These are just thoughts. Cheers!

-Rick

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Permalink Reply by Joleene Naylor on February 9, 2014 at 9:54pm

I agree on the colors, and for the font you might want to try something like Impact - a nice thick sans seriff font, as those usually "mean" action. I like the dna strands, myself, and think you could keep them or do as Rick suggested and make the biohazard symbol the main focal point, like take a single one of them and make it large. some random ideas.

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Permalink Reply by Bethany Leftwich on February 20, 2014 at 12:03pm

Good work, but as others have said, the coloring somewhat betrays the theme of your novel. I believe the fonts make sense, but the purple background coloring would make more of an impact if it was a black background instead. The solid black background would allow the flags and DNA strands to stand out better, I think.