Death Will Have Your Eyes

A retired assassin, now an artist, gets a call he has dreaded for years. His former employers are reactivating him to hunt down a former colleague. But in the shadowy world of covert operatives, even the roles of hunter and hunted can shift without warning, and what ensues is a deadly dance along America's highways and through the psyche of a man whose carefully-constructed present has been shattered by his dangerous past. Though it sounds like yet-another product of an oft-used premise (a la Le Carre), James Sallis's novel has more in common with the psychologically-complex narratives of Conrad, though this book is written in an understated and sparse prose reminiscent of the hard-boiled best of Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op. And as David (as we come to know the artist) grapples with the enigma of his own identity, given his secret past and his fragmented present, we get a dream-filled reworking of Camus' The Stranger, even to the resonant (but no less final) climax in the streets of New Orleans. Think of it as an espionage thriller without all the geopolitical baggage that (more often than not) dates the hefty tomes of Forsythe, Ludlum, and Le Carre. Think of it as a hard-boiled road-mystery with the P.I. recast as a professional assassin. However you think of it, read Death Will Have Your Eyes. It's a fast-paced death-trip you'll nonetheless enjoy.

This is not your average spy story. The characters are so real, they seem to be more than real in comparison with the flat characters in most books of this genre. Sallis writes with a unique style. The only way to fully appreciate it is, of course, to read this book. Do it today. I have recommended this book to all my friends - they agree.