Espionage Aficionados discussion

If a book's cover and title are good, the blurb is probably the next thing you look at. What do you reckon makes a blurb good enough to encourage you open the cover? There's a poll on Goodreads at the moment with 3 blurbs for the same spy thriller. What's your favourite, and why?

Goodreads poll

My vote is in. #2.

I suppose --in general--I tend to go with the blurb that has these qualities: erudition, temperance, restraint, quietness, and an even-toned, 'distinct voice'. I dislike 'canned' or 'loud' sounding book promo.

Whether one agrees or not about the big publishing houses; they wielded a dab hand at this. Look at the blurbs for books by Forsythe, Follett, and LeCarre. You never feel hit-over-the-head. They're always mellow and buttery-sounding. Use of rich--but still accessible vocabulary.

A word like 'magisterial' is an example of what I mean. You might see a phrase like, "This penultimate work in LeCarre's magisterial espionage saga..." . This type of sentence says to me "professional editing staff".

Some great points Feliks. I love your example.