The Naked Eye — William J. Reynolds

The fifth explosive Nebraska crime novel, a Mystery Book of the Month Club Selection.After finishing a case in Minneapolis, private eye Nebraska gets into a fist-fight with a rich kid who has more money than brains. But what seems like a passing, unpleasant experience turns into a nightmare that follows Nebraska back to his home in Omaha, where a friend, mistaken for him, is savagely beaten and left for dead. So Nebraska disappears into an alias he'd created for an emergency just like this and, while in hiding and in anonymity, tries to discover who the brutal, vengeful forces are who want him killed.The characters Reynolds creates are believable, neither wholly evil nor good. Rapid City JournalReynolds is becoming even more polished. The Naked Eye, its hard-boiled pages compelling and rich, is the author at his best: lean and mean but not mean-spirited. Gerald Petievich, To Live and Die in L.A.The plotting is as tight as a fist. Cleveland Plain DealerEvery bit as good as Elmore Leonard. Omaha Sunday World-Herald