Le Village #3

Subtitled La Princesse blanche and described as "un conte de fées dans un nid d'espions" — a fairy tale in a nest of spies — this 2011 entry in Marchal and Rodolphe's Le Village series sets an arresting mood from its very first glance. The cover presents a pale, blue-gowned figure astride a white horse, moving through a snow-covered winter forest beneath a full moon, while in the stark foreground lies a body, a pistol, and a spreading pool of blood. The collision of something almost ethereal with something brutally grounded makes this one of the more visually striking covers of 2011's Franco-Belgian thriller landscape.