Well I’m officially a genius. I was impatient to read The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest which doesn’t get released in the US until May 25. So I ordered it from Amazon UK where it’s been out since last year. It just arrived today.

Which is great. Only problem is that the cover is terrible. Not only is it plain and completely uninspired (is that plain ol’ Helvetica?) but it breaks one of my personal book cover rules. Never show a picture of the main character. Creating the character image is strictly up to me. I don’t want a hint of what the character looks like beyond what is described in the words on the page.

“Let’s see, I’ve got it. For the third book we’ll just put a picture of Lisbeth Salander, and make sure you can see her tattoo so we know who it is. Set it against forest green, that’s the color of my SUV, and oh yeah, make sure the model has raccoon eye shadow.”

What’s a shame is that the US versions have such lovely covers with really nice typography.