It’s time again for the Friday Face-Off meme, created by Books by Proxy, with weekly topics hosted by Lynn’s Book Blog.  The idea is to put up different covers for one book, and select a favorite.

This week’s theme is: Silhouette – an island, a person, anything you like

My brain is already in a Phantom place (because my book comes out in a week!) and when you hand me a prompt like “silhouette,” well…of course I’m going to think of a shadowy masked man.  Surprisingly, not that many cover artists think that way!  So I decided I’d bend the rules on this one a little, and feature a variety of books – but all versions of the Phantom of the Opera – with some shadowy silhouettes.

Not a person silhouette, but this is a city in silhouette, and actually kind of a cool cover.  I…can’t really recommend the book though…

This was not the shadowy man I was looking for – but definitely a silhouette.  Although I swear I’ve seen that mask on covers of Susan Kay’s Phantom. Speaking of which…

This is the shadowy man I was looking for, and even if it’s not fully a silhouette, it has that lurking in the shadows feel I was thinking of.

This silhouette is small but perfect – and, surprisingly, not actually the same book as the cover featuring Holmes above.  It never ceases to amuse me that there are two (!) books about Sherlock Holmes meeting the Phantom.  This one, in English, is The Canary-Trainer.

Apparently I have to go back to the original for a properly-silhouetted Phantom.  I like this cover a lot – it’s exactly the shadowy figure I was thinking of, plus I like that he’s placed in the recognizable setting of the Grand Stair of the Opera.