The Wheelman: A Novel

I think the true testament to a great read is how long it lingers in your mind. I read this book many years ago (and I should have reviewed it then) and I can still remember it vividly. I think this was Swierczynski's first novel, but you can't tell it from this book. Well written with one of the most compelling protagonists in recent crime fiction. Only a pro like Swierczynski could write a novel about a mute getaway driver and make you love the guy. This really reminded me of my all time favorite crime writer, Donald Westlake's, Parker series (if you haven't read Parker, WTH?)I think I need to reread this one...It's that good!

The title caught my attention and then when Duane Swierczynski's name kept popping-up in most the places I surf the internet (Mainly over at [...] where I'm a reviewer and his book Expiration Date was reviewed), I snatched it up as soon as the copyrights allowed for the USA Amazon Kindle publication.I thought it was going to be a story about fast cars and robbing banks, but it's not that exactly. It's about a really good getaway driver, who has a long string of bad luck after a very successful bank heist. That is if you can call bad luck befalling a professional criminal "bad".The Wheelman is not for the soft-hearted. Some really bad things can and do happen to everyone in this book, to include an innocent bystander or two. Think of a Quentin Tarantino movie and if you like that sort of thing, which most likely you do if you're even considering this book, take a ride with The Wheelman.Mr. Swiercznski is great at this! Each short chapter begins with a quote from a real-life crook and it's obvious he knows more about the criminal underworld than a law-abiding citizen should.I sped through this book like I was burning rubber. It's an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that took me places that I'm not sure I should admit I enjoyed on the grounds that it could incriminate me.In fact, Swiercznski suckered me in so much that The Wheelman wasn't enough. After finishing it, I had to have more. I read the excerpt for his next book, The Blonde, and immediately, purchased/uploaded it(Amazon Kindle, nuff said).I almost feel like I could be a criminal suspect for just admitting that I'm now a Duane Swiercyznski fan through and through.

I've been fortunate during the past few months to discover several excellent writers in the action/suspense/mystery genres, whose work I'd never read before (Don Winslow, Charlie Huston, and Brent Ghelfi), and I'm happy to announce that I'm now adding Duane Swierczynski to my list of must-read authors. These are writers who know how to tell a great story with strong, solid characters in them that you either love or hate, and enough surprises to keep you sitting on the edge of your La-Z-Boy recliner right up till the last page.The Wheelman by Duane Swierczynski is the novel that made me an instant fan of this relatively unknown author. Like Charlie Huston's "Hank Thompson" series, the lead character (Patrick Lennon) in this fast-paced novel quickly discovers just how bad a day can get when one simple mistake causes a bank heist to head south in a big way.Lennon, an Irish Mick who came over to the States as a child, is a wheelman, who drives for crews that take down banks. He's probably the best wheelman in the business and never enters an unknown situation that he can't get out of. The clock starts ticking for Lennon in downtown Philadelphia at a Wachovia Bank the moment Holden and Bling find themselves trapped inside a bank's vestibule with $650,000.00 in stolen funds, and unable to get out before the police arrive. Lennon knows exactly what to do to save his cohorts and hammers the gas petal of the getaway car and then drives the rear end of it straight into the bank's entrance, shattering the glass door and enabling the two robbers to get out through a gap and into the car for the getaway. Then, as Lennon, floors the accelerator and shoots the car across the street to their escape route, a lady with a baby carriage magically appears in front of him. To suddenly stop means a long prison term for all three of the men in the car, so Lennon hits the lady, but just manages to miss the carriage, giving the child a chance at life. Lennon now only has a short span of time to make it to a long-term parking lot several blocks away where they can exchange cars and get the hell-out-of-Dodge before the city's law enforcement agencies converge on them like hound dogs cornering a fox. They temporarily leave the money in the trunk of the getaway car, hop into a different vehicle that the police won't be looking for, and hightail it to the airport where the three of them have tickets for safer destinations. Unfortunately, they never make it as a double cross shifts into play and the Russian and Italian Mafia become involved. That's when Lennon's day goes from bad to worse and he has to become a stone-cold killer in order to stay alive long enough to retrieve the money and get out of the city, all in one piece. Before it's over, Lennon will be beat up, tortured, shot, almost blown up in a fireball, have acid poured down his throat, lose someone he loves, find himself betrayed more than once, and stuffed down the same pipe twice as the bad guys try to do away with his body. And, all this does is piss him off to no degree!What the author has created here is a rollercoaster ride of pure adrenaline that literally shakes the brain cells in one's head as the reader attempts to keep pace with the multitude of surprises that zap the lead character every time he turns around to take a quick breath. I don't think it would be a far cry to say that before the story is finished, Lennon finds himself in a hell with no exit doors and a clearer understanding that no one who participates in a life of crime can be trusted, even if that person is your closest friend. Another understanding that comes through for our Irish wheelman is that anyone can be killed, and in this novel, the body keeps growing right to the very end. Along with the above, the characters of Katie, Saugherty, Wilcoxson, Fieuchevsky, and Perelli, as well as many others, are all colorfully drawn with their own distinct personalities that seem to come alive on the written page in a way that reminds you of a bad dream that stays in the back of your memory long after daylight has seeped through the curtains. The ending, however, leaves you with your mouth hanging over, saying to yourself, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let's back up. This can't be happening!" But, it is happening, and the author pulls no punches in leaving you with an ending that shocks and delivers the goods in a way that few books do.Clearly, The Wheelman is the type of novel with regards to sheer craftsmanship and undeniable talent that every beginning author dreams of writing, and Duane Swierczynski has clearly hit a home run right out of the park his first time at bat. If you enjoy reading top-of-the-line crime fiction like Richard Stark and Max Allan Collins, then this is the book to pick up. After that, you'll want to get the author's other two novels, The Blonde and Severance Package. Happy reading!

Synopsis/blurb.......Meet Lennon, a mute Irish getaway driver who has fallen in with the wrong heist team on the wrong day at the wrong bank. Betrayed, his money stolen and his battered carcass left for dead, Lennon is on a one-way mission to find out who is responsible--and to get back his loot. But the robbery has sent a violent ripple effect through the streets of Philadelphia. And now a dirty cop, the Russian and Italian mobs, the mayor's hired gun, and a keyboard player in a college rock band manoeuvre for position as this adrenaline-fuelled novel twists and turns its way toward its explosive conclusion.One thing's for sure: This cast of characters wakes up in a much different world by novel's end--if they wake up at all.About 4 hours of fun reading this in the one sitting on Sunday afternoon. I read this originally back in the late 2000's and rated it a 4 on my own little scoring chart. Selected as my Goodreads Pulp fiction group's monthly read for August, I was initially tempted to give it a miss because of my previous reading. Bu then as the book was available relatively cheaply second hand I thought why not?Glad I did to be honest as second time around it ticked more boxes for me than it managed to a few years ago. Fast and frenetic with an intriguing main character and a decent support cast of double-crossing gangsters, corrupt cops, Russian Mafiya and Italian wise-guys. Horrible people doing horrible things interspersed with mainly "decent" people forced to do horrible things......lovely!It is unlikely that I will enjoy another book as much as this one this month, but hey I live in hope! (But will probably die in despair...)5 from 5Obtained second hand from Abe books recently.

Great read and excellent if not surprising ending there's lots of characters in this and at times it was hard to track. Nevertheless fun read. Great procrastination

Great first time novel by Swierczynski about a mute wheelman trying to survive the aftershocks of a bank heist gone wrong. Swierczynski's style is fast and furious and funny and the book is a great read - until the ending - which is an utter disappointment. Feels totally chopped off, as if the writer suddenly realized he had to finish the novel like right now, no matter what.