Agatha Christie's book designs

In the crit yesterday a few people noticed i was having difficulty picking an appropriate type face for the indents. So recommended I look at Agatha Christie's book designs for inspiration.



I think these book designs work well at advertising the Mysterious tone set in the Agatha Christie novels. I have noticed they all use simple 'vector' like imagery set against a very dark background or dropped shadow.
The 'death on the Nile' book cover uses colour well at setting the scene of Egypt in the background. This hot calm, setting sun provides a contrast with the main foreground image of a suspicious man holding a subtle gun. The man is suspicious because he appears to be made up of dark shadow blocks.
I think the layout of text works well in the bottom image. The text appears to be spiraling towards the center of the page, guiding the viewer eye to a small vectored silhouette of laying down figure, which after having read the text you presume is a dead body (an instant way of setting the tone).
The text layout, in these round shapes also reminds me of other classic mystery imagery/objects such as the microscope and finger prints.