This is the Japanese cover for the third novel in Lavie Tidhar‘s Bookman Histories, THE GREAT GAME! It is due to be published by Hayakawa Shobo, on April 24th, 2014. In case you were interested, here’s the short-but-sweet Japanese synopsis…

権謀術数渦巻く欧州大陸に巨大機械が出現、壮絶な攻防戦が幕を開ける! 三部作完結篇

(Rough translation: Gigantic machines appear in continental Europe, and a fierce battle kicks off in the action-packed third Bookman History.)

And the English language synopsis…

When Mycroft Holmes is Murdered in London, it is up to retired shadow executive Smith to track down his killer – and stumble on the greatest conspiracy of his life.

Strange forces are stirring into life around the globe, and in the shadow game of spies nothing is certain. Fresh from liberating a strange alien object in Abyssinia – which might just be the mythical Ark of the Covenant – young Lucy Westerna, Holmes’ protégé, must follow her own path to the truth while, on the other side of the world, a young Harry Houdini must face his greatest feat of escape – death itself.

As their paths converge the body count mounts up, the entire world is under threat, and in a foreboding castle in the mountains of Transylvania a mysterious old man weaves a spider’s web of secrets and lies.

Airship battles, Frankenstein monsters, alien tripods and death-defying acts: The Great Game is a cranked-up steampunk thriller in which nothing is certain – not even death.

The Bookman Histories are published individually and as part of an omnibus in the UK and US by Angry Robot Books.