This book cover was inspired y the plot of the novel. I did not want to create another stereotypical Sherlock Holmes cover by having a silhouette of Holmes and Watson or Holmes in a deer stock hat smoking a pipe, which was my initial concept.
I decided to create a border around the book because I wanted to create an old English library ambience ib the book, which is also why I chose a dark scarlet tone for the cover as well. The ribbon coming out of the pill was inspired by a quote from the novel - 'There's the scarlet thread of murders running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.'
The ribbon comes out of the pill because that is the cause of the scarlet thread of murders.
