Ex-Con #3

Duane Swierczynski and Keith Burns's gritty crime series hits its third chapter with a cover that radiates hard-boiled tension — Tim Bradstreet's stark, high-contrast portrait splits a suited, glasses-wearing man between deep shadow and a halftone wash of color, a pistol raised in his silhouetted hand. The design is cool and economical, the kind of image that communicates danger without needing to shout. If "Run Run Run" is the story's title, this cover already sets the mood perfectly.