Dead eyes

Many a crime yarn has sold itself on a daring thief with a sense of personal honor whose retirement just won't quite take. Dead Eyes walks that well-trodden path, but a nifty sense of invention and a grisly sense of fun make all the difference in Duggan's tale of an infamous masked thief who's been presumed dead since the 1990s. Dead Eyes' wife's failing health pushes him all the way back in, where he finds that a crime he never actually committed has placed a powerful Mob boss' sights right on the x-ed-out eyes sewn into his mask. Fast, highly entertaining, and featuring a merciless killer with a soft side, the story never flags and comes with a blue-collar sensibility that lends a tone of reality and weight. McCrea has the ideal aesthetic for this, what with his pervasive, textured sense of place and his flawed, humanized figures and faces. He's no slouch at action, either, as a dandy car chase and a gruesome showdown in a hospital prove to great effect.