The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie (Dell, 1970 and 1974)

Neil Bold in squooshed caps, for two cover variants of Dell’s paperback edition of The Man in the Brown Suit (Dell 5230), from 1970 (top) and 1974 (below). The detective novel by Agatha Christie was first published half a century before, in 1924.

The art is by William Teason (1922–2003), who designed Agatha Christie covers for Dell from 1956 until 1990. From the William Teason Estate:

In 1958 Bill got the break that would change his career. Dell Publishing Company had just acquired the rights to handle the Agatha Christie line. It should be noted that Dame Agatha did not want depictions of Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot on the covers of her books. When Dell gave Bill the assignment, he read the story and looked for clues to put on the cover, which became the beginning of a new format. Dell brought Bill’s work to the attention of Walter Brooks and Bill was hired to paint the cover art of The Man In The Brown Suit. Bill was paid $243.75 for doing two comps and the cover. He ended up doing well over one hundred fifty covers for Dell’s Agatha Christie series. […] How did Bill end up painting over one hundred fifty Christie covers if Dell only had the rights to publish less than thirty of her books? Because new covers were done for each mystery roughly every two years. Bill ended up painting The Man In The Brown Suit at least five times, for example, the fifth cover done in 1974.