So bear with me on this. First, look at the cover for Secrets of Greymoor. Looks like a middle grade Victorian era Nancy Drew type story, right? A mystery is afoot, some thrills and chills (of a MG sort) and a girl heroine to sort things out. Here's the description:

No one ever talks about Hattie’s grandfather, who’s been hidden in the Utica Insane Asylum ever since he squandered Grandmother’s fortune and started hearing voices in the walls. When a telegram arrives with news of Grandfather’s death, old wounds are reopened and financial ruin looms once again. But it’s not until Hattie intercepts a threatening notice from the tax collector that she realizes they’re in danger of losing everything -- including the family estate. A mysterious book containing a code written by Grandfather leads Hattie to believe that Grandmother’s fortune may not be lost after all, however, and though she works feverishly to crack the code, every step forward leads to another riddle. Are the contents of the book simply the ravings of a madman, or is it possible that there was more to Grandfather than met the eye?

In this nineteenth-century mystery, a spunky girl strives to decipher a code in order to recover her family’s lost fortune.

The book is indeed a nice little story about a very plucky girl and in some Little Womenish ways it says a lot about not letting your place in society define you and being true to yourself and making friends who care about you and not who they think you are. But as for feverishly cracking a code and the "ravings of a madman"? Not so much. In fact the smallest part of this book is the mystery which has me wondering just who designed the cover and wrote this description.

There is a hidden book in Greymoor which Hattie finds on pg. 33. She quickly determines it is in some kind of code and then starts trying to decipher it on pg 54. (The interim pages are full of other events not mystery related.) She tries for two paragraphs and then goes to work on valentines for her friends at school. On pg 71 she gives the code another shot and cracks it on pg 72. By 76 she has figured out what it points to but doesn't quite have the secret yet. She returns to it on pg 85, and on pg 88 has sorted out that her grandfather's secret is more sentimental than monetary. And from then until the end (pg 166) the secret figures not at all in the plot. The book settles into what it has been all along, a story about a family surviving under tight economic circumstances and forced to make hard choices. Hattie is all things smart and sweet although she makes a few serious mistakes in realm of friendship. In the end, as in Little Women, it all works out. But as to the "secret of Greymoor" - not so much. The mystery is about ten pages in the whole story and other than a serious marketing ploy I can't imagine why the book is being sold as it is.

I requested this book for my mystery column thinking it would be some gothic fun but obviously I won't be reviewing it there. What's frustrating is that it is a solidly written family story that has a lot of appeal - the mystery is a little something extra. If you buy this book expecting something else though - something based on the cover or description - then you might not be so happy with it.

Of course this isn't the only book I've read recently that has a cover at odds with its story. I've already covered After the Moment - a coming of age story completely from a teen male perspective that does a great job of writing about a first love gone wrong that sports a yellow cover with a girl placed front and center. In other words - a cover that will makes most teen boys walk right by.

I'd love to know how many teen boys read John Green's books now that they are sporting covers full of teenage girls. Both An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns are all about the girls looking right at you which seems like a choice aimed at female readers as opposed to the teen boys who might enjoy those male protagonists. I'm sure some teen boys do read them (yes, yes, yes I know it can happen) but really - why on earth is a girl (apparently Margo) the focus of the Paper Towns cover when reading the book makes it clear that the clues and the chase (and the paper towns!!!) are the point of the story. In fact by the end Margo is just.....well, she really isn't what it's all about anymore but you wouldn't get that from the cover.

Why not a cover with a map on it? Or a bunch of brochures? Or even some sort of stylized Orlando setting? And why not a road trip type cover for Katherines? Are we going for what is easy or simple or just flat out not creative? (Or are there just tons of extra pictures of girls out there that can be had cheap and so are acquired for covers?) (Maybe these are just the heads for all those headless covers that keep showing up.)

I have in front of me a book that is not a mystery but has a mysterious cover and a book that is an actual mystery that has a cute girl smirking at me with come hither eyes. These are things that frustrate me as I know that regardless of how much we all try, we do judge books by their covers and sometimes, I think we get pictures that are way way (way) off the mark.