Exclusive Cover Reveal of “A Bad Deal in Mormon Land” by T.I.M. Wirkus

Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of A Bad Deal in Mormon Land by T.I.M. Wirkus, which will be published on October 1, 2026 by Type Eighteen Books. You can pre-order your copy here!

It’s 1908, and itinerant spirit medium Madame Ilsa von Hoffmann is at the end of her professional rope, facing down two unappealing options: join an ill-conceived commune founded by some fellow trans ex-vaudevillians, or take on a high-paying but mysterious job offered by a religious extremist in Salt Lake City. Madame Ilsa opts for Utah and the employ of one Roger Marsh who, it turns out, wants her to summon the ghost of Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s founder, to give his blessing to Marsh’s fledgling offshoot of the mainstream church.

Unsure how she’ll pull off this near-impossible task, Ilsa finds an ally in Francie Bream, an East Coast journalist in town to profile Mormon women at the dawn of the twentieth century. Bream’s motives remain obscure to Ilsa, though she begins to suspect the journalist has an agenda far more sinister than she could have imagined. Complicating the situation further are an inept and volatile henchman, a relentlessly orthodox Mormon apostle, a copper magnate with a fetish for polygamists, Marsh’s rogue third wife, and a vengeful private investigator from Ilsa’s past. As dead bodies accumulate around her, Madame Ilsa worries less and less about saving her career, and more about making it out of Salt Lake City alive.

Here is the cover, designed by Roderick Brydon:

T.I.M. Wirkus: One of the hardest parts of writing a novel is getting the finished book into the hands of its ideal readers. Like many novels, A Bad Deal in Mormon Land has elements that are broadly appealing (suspense, murder, intrigue, séances, jokes), as well as more idiosyncratic (its audience exists at the Venn overlap of people who want to read an anti-capitalist novel with a messy trans protagonist, and people looking for a story about a moment in Mormon history that’s obscure even to most Mormons).

How do you even begin to convey all that during the micro-instant of attention any book is likely to receive from a weary reading public?

I was thrilled when I first saw Roderick Brydon’s design, because his cover does that work so beautifully. The colors convey both the drama and playfulness of the novel, the hand-drawn look reflects the weirdness, and the images—the beehive, the angel, the praying figures—evoke Mormonism and Utah at the beginning of the twentieth century. I can only hope people enjoy reading the novel as much as I enjoy looking at this cover.

Roderick Brydon: I set out to create a cover that has both a mystical and humorous tone, incorporating the Mormon elements in a smoky, tarot card-like way. Each element is indicative of either Mormon iconography, the geographical features of Utah, or the themes of the story–framing the protagonist, while the design (quite literally) strangles her, maintaining that sense of unease, urban claustrophobia, and an almost mythical intrigue. The color scheme is to highlight the many layers of themes the story holds, the red (on black) giving a sense of danger, and the warm to cold gradient giving a slight absurd mood . . . providing a modern feel, while also keeping it rooted in the time period with that handcrafted feel. A bonus detail are the words “A Novel” spelt in the Mormon language of Deseret. Just thought that might add something unique to the design.