The Wheelman

by Duane Swierczynski

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 maneuver for position as this adrenaline-fueled 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, in Duane Swierczynski's The Wheelman .

Genres: Crime, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Noir, Mystery Thriller, Action

223 pages, Trade Paperback

First published March 1, 2010

About the author

Duane Swierczynski is an American crime writer who has written a number of non-fiction books, novels and also writes for comic books.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mute getaway driver Patrick Lennon thought it was a routine bank job until the black van rammed them and everything went to hell. Amidst a maze of murder and double crosses, can Lennon recover the $650,000?

Wow. I'd been aware of this book for a couple years before I finally picked it up and now I'm kicking myself for waiting so long.

The Wheelman has more twists and double crosses packed within its slim 250-ish pages than any four other crime books on the racks. More twists than a snake trapped on a Moebius strip, in fact. From Lennon to the other heisters to Katie to everyone in between, nothing is as it seems. Swierczynski hits the ground running and never comes up for air. The violence is quick and frequent but not overly graphic. Just when you think you know what's going on, someone double crosses someone else and you're as in the dark as Lennon. It's just begging to be turned into a movie starring Jason Statham.

Since Richard Stark's Parker first hit the scene with The Hunter, many homages and imitators have sprung up. While The Wheelman is clearly inspired to some degree by Parker, it surpasses its lesser siblings and joins luminaries like Dan Simmons' Joe Kurtz novels. It is not to be missed by crime fans.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Then the alarm went off, and everything went to hell." -- page 4

There's nothing I love better than chancing upon a hidden gem at a used book sale, especially when the event is in support of a community library. The Wheelman, the sophomore novel of author Duane Swierczynski, is one of those books that I knew absolutely nothing about upon purchase. However, it's one of those stories that pulls you in right away - in the opening the reader is practically sitting alongside a professional heist driver named Lennon in the idling getaway car directly outside of a Philadelphia bank. Lennon's two confederates bungle the robbery, and while things go downhill for him in a hurry this twisty, gritty and unapologetically violent tale immediately shifts into high gear.

Imagine Donald Westlake's (a.k.a. Richard Stark) master thief character 'Parker' - a cool, calm, and collected criminal type who lives by a strict code and plan - being thrust headfirst into a demented modern crime story like Pulp Fiction (with its diverse ensemble cast, multiple point of view / shifting perspectives / ruptured narrative, and the flinch-inducing sadism) and that more-or-less provides a reasonable thumbnail sketch. Within a 72-hour period Lennon is forced to deal with the competing Russian and Italian mob factions of the city, a questionable but quietly determined ex-cop, a so-called 'financial consultant' (he plots heists in exchange for a percentage of the take), a couple of would-be rock stars moonlighting as thugs, and several others as he tries to recover the stolen $650,000. This story was pleasingly well-paced and unpredictable, the 'City of Brotherly Love' setting was original (unsurprisingly, author Swierczynski is a Philly native), and the many characters were well-drawn. I now can't wait to read more of the author's subsequent crime genre books.

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm still trying to comb my hair back down and brush the grit out of my teeth after jumping in the passenger side with "the wheelman" Lennon. The plot snaps along at a breakneck pace setting I'm sure the world record for the most double dealing, double crosses in the history of literature. The prose is muscular, the dialogue is crisp, the plot is intriguing and all of this unfolds in 231 pages. A very impressive debut novel, I will definitely be picking up more books by Duane Swierczynski which leads me to another question. How in the world did the author convince the publishing world not to shorten his 12 letter last name?

Now I must chase down a copy of The Blonde for my next Swierczynski fix.

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yowza! What a ride!
This book has twists and turns and nasty sudden stops.
Look out for that windshield!
It's the kind of book where things go from bad to worse,
just when you think they can't possibly get any worse.
Impossible to put down? Yeah.
It's the kind of book that can lead a devoted mother to snarl at her youngest son,
"I don't care if the cat IS on fire! Can't you see Mommy is READING!!!"

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've made a habit of downrating books that rely too heavily on violence, on explicit gore and on foul language. But I feel it would be disingenuous to claim I didn't enjoy the journey in the company of Pat Lennon - a getaway driver in a bank robbery gang. I read the book practically in one sitting, morning to mid-afternoon, compulsively turning the pages and rushing to find out what crazy twist of fate, what terrible doublecross will fall into the lap of the fortune challenged Irish born gangster. I believe it was the humor that appealed to me, same as in the first Charlie Hardy book I read last month. The darkest shade of black humour, the most appalling sort of laughing on the way to the gallows, but it's here in the text to point out the absurdity of the situation and to caution the reader against becoming too fascinated with the killing and swearing. Rather than make a comparison with the classic noir stories of the 1940's, I would say the book is closer in style to the British modern crime capers : Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, RocknRolla. I tried to picture Jason Statham as a possible stand-in for Pat Lennon, but I feel his latest Transporter movies take themselves too seriously and lack the irreverence and the smart plot moves of the book.

Coming back to the story, it is quite obvious that the inspiration came from a non-fiction book mr. Swierczynski previously wrote, on the subject of the No.1 Public Enemies of the 1930's and 1940's. He didn't want to let all that research go to waste, and he tried (succesfully, I believe) to imagine how the bank robbery business would translate to a modern setting. Not only is every chapter introduced with a quote from the famous gangsters of the Prohibition era, but Lennon confesses at one point that his introduction to the crime world and his reference source for planning ahead is a book his father gave him: How The FBI Gets Its Man . Lennon always took the side of the bandits in these tales, and he tries to learn from their mistakes and avoid getting caught in turn.

In the opening scene, Lennon helps his two bumbling partners in crime escape from a locked revolving door by smashing the getaway car through the glass and then races through the streets of Philadelphia in order to escape pursuit. Two things jump to attention right from the opening scene : first, that Lennon is the brainy guy of the outfit, he likes to plan things ahead carefully and he is very quick to adapt when the things don't run according to plan (and they don't, of course); secondly, Lennon has no moral scruples when it comes to dealing damage to adversaries or innocent bystanders. He actually runs over a woman right in front of the bank.

Soon, the first double cross hits with a loud bang, and Lennon finds himself literally in a body bag, alone in a strange city, without anyone to turn to for help, and with several factions of the underworld hell bent on putting him out of action permanently. The Russian Mafia, the Cosa Nostra, the Black Ganglords, a couple of corrupt policemen and a couple of surprise actors that I can't mention without spoiling things are all either seeking to use Lennon as a pawn in personal vendettas, use him to recover the money stolen from the bank, or simply trying to kill him for real or imagined injury. Lennox takes a lot of physical punishment (again, in a similar way to the Charlie Hardy book). I kept expecting him to give up, to lay down, to throw in the towel, but he always comes back for more. As part of his motivation, there's a subplot involving his girlfriend Katie, who has a couple of secrets of her own to keep.

Mr. Swierczynski talent is evident in how effortlessly he appears to keep the story running at full speed and to constantly raise the stakes, to invent new complications and to put Lennox through the grinder. He has style and a natural feel for dialogue and for colourful images ( *** stared up blankly. Dark blood had leaked from his tear ducts, nostrils, and ears - as if his brain were a tomato and someone had squished it.) . He only needs a couple of phrases to introduce and define a secondary character, although I must say he is rather careless of them, and tends to lose them as fast as they come on the scene. The bodycount is quite high for a heist novel, and readers are advised not to get too attached to any of the actors. ( some of the author's decisions actually made me angry, as this is the second of his books where the main female character is gratuitously killed after spending a lot of pages making the reader empathise with her plight ).

I did have some issues with the book. Surprisingly, they are not about the depiction of violence, but about plot holes. With so many betrayals and so many factions involved in the scheme, it becomes difficult to keep all the balls in the air and find a rational explanation for all the coincidences and the synchronicity of certain events. I've posted some of my unanswered questions in a monthly discussion group, but I don't expect I will get a clear answer. At a certain level the plot is contrived, unrealistic, constructed more like a film script that wants to extract the maximum number of fight scenes, car chases, Mexican standouts and suprise twists from the source material. At another level, the narrative drive is too strong to give the reader time to ponder these inconsistencies. I was too eager to turn the page and find out what comes next.

With two entertaining, fast paced and darkly funny books by Mr. Swierczynki under my belt I feel pretty confident he will deliver a similar experience in the future. I'm thinking of trying The Blonde next.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

*4.5 Stars*
When it comes to big loads of money, trust nobody!

I probably wouldn't last very long as a career criminal. I probably would be on edge the whole time and would blow everyone away because I wouldn't be able to trust that any of my partners would be loyal. If I tried to pull a heist, the outcome might look a bit like this fun novel about a mute getaway driver during the most disastrous heist of his career. Lennon and his partners make their getaway from a $650K bank heist, but immediately all hell breaks loose!

The action almost never lets up throughout the entire novel, constantly growing into a complex web of colorful characters, twists and turns, and enough double- and triple-crosses to fill three Dashiell Hammett books and a season of 24. This is a fast-paced read and definitely one of the most entertaining novels I've read in a while! I love how each character introduced had more to him or her than met the eye at first, and they brought something new to the plot and pushed it along in a unique way. My favorite character was probably Saugherty, the corrupt ex-cop who made his way through the entire story drunk as a skunk, but surprisingly very functional.

Action-packed, and at times downright hilarious, I would recommend this to any fan of crime thrillers. If Elmore Leonard got a little buzzed and tried to churn out a Richard Stark novel, this book might've been the product!

"This bastard, Lennon decided, was going to die the slowest of slow deaths. The kind where you start out with a cheese grater and a blowtorch, and things escalate from there."

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swierczynski gives us an OTT crime novel here oozing with references to classic crime noir authors, and paces it to beat the band. Our protagonist, Lennon, works as a driver for heists and so forth. He and two 'buddies' lined up a job to hit a Philly bank just after it received 650,000 in cash slated for the mayor to hand out to hold outs in an urban renewal scheme. Well, Lennon and company made the heist, but just when they thought the coast was clear the car got creamed by a van; on purpose. Next thing Lennon knows he is in a body bag about to be dumped into some construction pipe near Camden by two young men...

The Wheelman possesses more twists and turns, double crosses and the like for an entire series of books, but clocks in at just over 200 pages. Fast and fun read for sure! Besides the wheelman Lennon, we have the Russian mob, the remnants of the Philly Italian mob, a crooked ex-cop (and more crooked cops), and even the FBI. This all takes place in just under 4 days or so, but a pretty action packed 4 days for sure! If you dig classic crime noir, such as Parker, you will probably dig this. Plus, Swierczynski serves it up with gallows humor galore. 3.5 speedy stars, rounding up!!

[James Thane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fast-paced debut novel opens outside of a bank in Philadelphia where Lennon, an apparently mute Irishman, is waiting patiently for the rest of his team. Lennon is not a bank robber exactly, but for a share of the take, he drives bank robbers to and from the job.

This particular job has been carefully planned and Lennon knows his exit route down to the last inch. But at the last possible second, the heist goes sour and the proverbial excrement hits the fan. Lennon finds himself betrayed, left for dead, and mad as hell.

He has no idea who sold him out or where the $650,000 from the robbery has gone. Complicating matters is Lennon's relationship with a woman whom he suspects might have betrayed him, although he desperately hopes that this is not the case. Before long, Russian and Italian mobsters, the cops, and a particularly dirty former cop are hot on Lennon's trail, and it will take all of the Irishman's considerable skill and wiles if he is to avoid an especially nasty fate.

Duane Swierczynski has written a particularly dark, compelling tale of treachery and revenge that will appeal to virtually any fan of hard-boiled crime fiction.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fiction debut of Duane Swierczynski, The Wheelman borrows from his previous non-fiction endeavour about bank robbers and pre-empts his fast paced adrenaline rush style that would become his trademark. There's this guy, not quite Ryan Gosling, he drives getaway cars for bank robbers, he doesn't talk, he doesn't wave guns, he just drives. For 240 pages he is put through the physical and mental wringer in the aftermath of a Philadelphia heist gone south.

For a debut novel this is excellent work; the premise, the protagonist, the tone, the attitude is all there and perhaps if I'd read this one before getting to know Swierczynski's style I might have taken more pleasure from it BUT it does fall down on several points for me. Almost every character gets their own chapter of action and goofy dialogue, it adds very little to proceedings and merely serves to pad out what is essentially a flimsy tale of violence, plus when you're riding shotgun with a getaway driver for the weekend you rarely care about this Italian or that Russian, lots of cops or that bank clerk's third cousin's dog's sister's petcare specialist. They're distractions from the real action, that immediate threat to your pal whose driving the car.

This is an incredibly convoluted tale, with so many flip-flopping characters and an inordinate amount of violence without meaning; actually you might say that about most of the authors work, but unlike the other Swierczynski's with their Hollywoodised absurdity The Wheelman is firmly established as being part of the everyday world we inhabit and suffers because of it.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, this took me a while to finish. It certainly had nothing to do with the plot, the characters or the author’s pacing; I just picked the wrong times to read. Almost every time I picked this book up, I dozed off. What had made this experience so frustrating was that I really liked it and I would find myself getting angry and wondering if I was suffering from narcolepsy. Trust me, if you’re unable to find a story about a mute, Irish getaway driver at least a little interesting, there may be something chemically wrong with you. I blame the removal of daylight savings time last weekend.

Books like The Wheelman are the reason I’m leaning towards literature as my main source of action-fiction. Hey, I love watching big explosions and car chases in movies and television just as much as the next guy but it takes real writing chops to be able to write an action thriller so clearly that it throws away the need for a visual medium; and boy does he have some chops.

I found a lot of parallels between this and one of my favorite books I had read last year, Kiss Me, Judas. Not in the sense that we’re looking a novel here that mirrors the neo noir genre like Kiss Me, Judas but a lot of the characters and Swierczynski’s prose seemed pretty similar to Will Christopher Baer. Both novels share fast paced and often frenetic action, with action scenes happening within pages of each other. Swierczynski’s prose can be quick and the dialogue is often pretty sharp, so I found myself flying through large chunks of the book in each sitting.

Like Dan wrote in the comments section of this review, I also “have some serious love” for this novel and I have a lot of high hopes for Duane Swierczynski. I’ve read a few reviews of his other novels and have officially placed them on my radar. The man shows definite promise, and with the introduction of a signature character in his catalog and the beginnings of a series, I’m pretty excited to dig into it.

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lennon is an accomplished wheelman. Escaping by the skin of his teeth from a successful bank job, Lennon wants to avoid causing injury to any bystanders, but while leaving the bank in a hurry, a woman pushing a stroller walks in his path. Braking and wrestling with the wheel was out of the question. The risk of fishtailing was too great, and Lennon worried that he would broadside both the lady and the stroller. Steering clear out of the way was impossible. Immediately to the right of the woman and stroller was one of those huge cement planter squares full of mulch and shrubs. The planter would total the Acura, and the team would have to escape on foot—if any of them were conscious enough to do so. So he hits the lady leaving the stroller unscathed.

He and his colleagues hide the money in the trunk of a car in the long-term parking lot, and start to leave town in a third car only to be broadsided by a van at an intersection where their car catches fire. Lennon awakes only to discover he is in a body bag being shoved down a pipe in some new construction in Camden.

There follows one catastrophe and misstep after another with the Italian mob, the Russian mob, an ex-cop, and assorted others all trying to find the $650,000 from the bank. Fasten your seatbelt and hang on, lots of high speed action with numerous twists and turns.

I’ll leave it to you to determine whether missing the stroller was seminal to events of the rest of the day.

[Gram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bank heist goes wrong and professional getaway driver Patrick Lennon wakes from unconsciousness inside a body bag to find himself about to be shoved down a pipe which will soon be filled with concrete as part of a community project for Philadelphia kids. Battered and bleeding, Patrick sets out to discover who ratted on him and where the stolen bank money - all 65o thousand dollars of it - has gone.

From the start, you know this tale will not have a happy ending.

Along the way he encounters corrupt cops, Russian and Italian mob bosses, and several men with plans to make a quick buck, including a private eye looking for a reward from the city's mayor for Patrick's capture. There's also a college rock band's keyboard player who got involved when he helped out his friend, who happens to be the spoiled brat son of a Russian gangster. The violence is unrelenting as Patrick is beaten up more than once and shot and wounded on at least two occasions as other characters find themselves beaten, shot, stabbed and burned alive.

The story unfolds at a blistering pace with a streak of dark humour a mile wide and genuine laugh out loud moments. At times - and this is meant as a huge compliment to Mr Swierczynski - it reminded me of the 1967 film Point Blank mixed with Elmore Leonard at his twisted best.

[Cece (ProblemsOfaBookNerd) · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5/5
This book was incredibly fast-paced and definitely offered the vibe of the high risk criminal getting involved in the mafia's business that I was looking for. The world was vibrant and complex and I even really liked the main character. Unfortunately, the ending was a bit lackluster and some of the big twists fell slightly flat for me. If not for the ending, I definitely would have given this book a 4 stars. Entertaining overall, but lacking a little extra something to make it great.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of action vignettes, each building on the last. Not normally my sort of thriller, but the author made it work more often than not.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Wheelman is Stark (any Parker caper) meets Vachss (‘The Getaway Man’) in a fusion by which all heist novels should be measured henceforth. The protagonist, mute getaway drive Patrick Lennon is instantly likable showing compassion, loyalty and willingness to participate in violence only as a last resort. For a guy who claims to be nonviolent, a hell of a lot of people are caused a great deal of grief at the hands (or instruments wielded by said hands) of Lennon – all justified of course. The scenes were so fast paced; the city of Philadelphia flew past in a blur as the action shifted from one POV to the next with Lennon the central focus and his subsequent ‘early retirement’ driving the plot. I loved the unconventional ending and the medium by which it was delivered, few books have caught me as off guard as the spanner Swierczynski threw in the works to conclude 'The Wheelman'. This is the second time I’ve read ‘The Wheelman’ and it defiantly wont be the last. 4 stars.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Wheelman is a post modern black comic take on the classic caper gone wrong. Alongside Allan Guthrie and Charlie Huston here is another writer of no holds barred, punk rock neo-pulp. Duane Swierczynski. comes off more knowing than Guthrie with a fiercely modern sensibility. This book is all pure bravado storytelling with twists, complications, betrayals, endless new characters, death at every turn (what was the body count?), and lots of surprises (try to guess who makes it, you might be wrong.). Filled with some knowing winks to classics of the genre such as Thompson’s The Getaway, Goodis’s The Burgler, and Richard Stark’s The Hunter and firmly in place with modern revivals like Guthrie’s Two Way Split, Pelecanos’s Shoedog, and Sallis’s Drive, The Wheelman is a very wicked slice of dark hearted fun.

[Jason Brown (Toastx2) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dear Mr Swierczynski:

I hate you for being such a good author. By hate, I mean envy, and by author I mean sheer awesome dude. So, to recap, I envy you for being a sheer awesome dude.

I read The Wheelman over a couple day span on the local transit system. It was less polished than your later novels such as Severance Package or The Blonde. It is weird to describe pulpy books as polished, but I am sure you are picking up what I am putting down.

I know it is your book and as such, you already know the plot, but bear with me while I summarize what I read. In a nutshell, The Wheelman is a back and forth tale about a mute getaway driver in a botched getaway. Robbing a Wachovia bank was easy, the plan was solid and the route out of inner Philly was mapped and ready to go. Unfortunately, someone spilled the beans on the plan and the getaway turned more into getalottapainintheass.

From there, things just get bloody.. very very bloody. I don’t think a single character makes it through the plot with out landing some horrible flesh wound. Were you eating a lot of spicy foods when you wrote this? Recovering from surgery and on a multitude of steroids? Were you mugged and left for dead in Mexico, lying in the cold desert night considering how you would pay back those who wronged you?

Regardless, The novel was awesome, and I would love to drink a beer and chat about the wrongness of being in a corrugated pipe, 60 ft down with a corpse on top limiting movement as one bleeds out.. Call me. We’ll go to the Horse Brass pub.

Dear everyone else who is not Mr. Swierczynski,

This book was goddamned good.


--
xpost https://toastx2.blogspot.com/

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 What a fantastic cluster-fuck of a heist gone wrong novel.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lennon, an Irish immigrant, is a get-away driver, who with two associates robs a bank in Philadelphia’s Center City. All goes well, until they are rammed by unknown assailants on their way to the airport to make their escape. Lennon regains consciousness in a garbage bag & is stuffed into a pipe at a construction site, apparently along with his cohorts. Lennon manages to not only survive, but escape. But where is their haul from the robbery? Left inside a car in a long-stay car-park, the money disappears along with the car & Lennon must work out where it's gone & who betrayed them. Pursued & harassed by crooked cops, the Russian & Italian Mafia, Lennon sustains more beatings, including being shot, than surely any man could plausibly survive.


Duane Swierczynski has been on my tbr list for sometime. So I thought where better to start than his début? This is simply the best 'bank-heist-goes-wrong' story I have read for years.

Swierczynski channels Ken Bruen, Elmore Leonard & particularly Richard Stark's 'Parker' in this impressive example of Contemporary Noir, but manages to make it a composition entirely of his own invention. Swierczynski adds a touch of black humor & a particularly ironic ending, making this a delightful reading experience.

I highly recommend this book to all fans of those authors mentioned above.

It's 5 stars from this reader.

[Vaelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

5+ fuckin stars!

This book absolutely hit it out of the ballpark for me. The story doesn't muck around and keeps going once the action starts.

Short chapters that could easily be shoved down a construction pipe down by the river (inside joke, read the book) with some dark humour, a good body count and a likable protagonist.

I was satisfied with the ending but genuinely sad when I finished this one.

Recommended to all fans of crime fiction!

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the privilege of reading Duane Swierczynski's THIS HERE'S A STICK-UP, his non-fiction tome of bank robbery facts and figures, a few years back when it first came out. In THE WHEELMAN, Mr. Swierczynski takes fact, mixes it up with a whole lot of fiction, and comes up with a thrilling crime debut that's well worth the read!

We first meet Lennon, a wheelman or get-away driver, waiting outside a Wachovia bank in Philadelphia as his two associates, Bling and Holden, get caught on their way out of the bank with the $650,000 take. Somehow, Lennon, a mute Irishman who knows nothing more about robbery than how to get away, manages to retrieve his buddies and hightail it out of the city. Unfortunately, someone--in the form of a black SUV--manages to stop Lennon and the get-away car in its tracks.

Cue to Lennon, supposedly dead, in the process of being dumped into a pipe at a Philadelphia Children's Museum construction site. Thankfully, Lennon's not as dead as he looks, and he manages to outsmart his two body-dumpers. Not so fortunate for them when they realize what a pissed-off Irish mute can do for revenge.

Suddenly, getting out of Philadephia isn't as easy a trick as it was supposed to be. Bling and Holden appear to be dead at the bottom of said pipe, the $650,000 is missing, there's a few retired ex-cops on his butt, and both the Russian Mafiya and some old-time Philadephia mobsters are after him--and everyone wants a piece of the bank take.

As things go from bad to worse, with blown-up buildings, lots of gunfire, knife torture, and some really cool close calls, THE WHEELMAN leads us on a chase to find the money from the bank heist and get the heck out of dodge.

Besides being an action-packed, edge-of-your-seat crime thriller, THE WHEELMAN is just pure fun. With interesting facts thrown in--I hadn't realized that it was DilLINger, not DillinGER--and some laugh-out-loud moments--trademark "Scratch-Your-Balls-Until-The-Feds-Arrive"--this is one book you really don't want to miss.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Duane Swierczynski The Wheelman (2005)

A while back I read Duane Swierczynski’s non-fiction book on American bank robberies and robbers, This Here’s A Stick-Up (2002). So clearly he brings a certain authority to this novel centered around a bank robbery in Philadelphia. He isn’t shy about reminding us of his knowledge, and after awhile I found the intermittent chapters with quotes from real bank robbers a bit annoying. I get it, he’s qualified, but I suppose some will enjoy the quotes from Machine Gun Kelley and others. And he also has an enormous knowledge of bank robbery fiction, with references to Richard Stark’s Parker series and Lionel White’s paperback original heist novels of the fifties, and Dan J. Marlowe’s of the sixties.

Stylistically, this fast paced crime novel with rotating third person attached to various characters, is most reminiscent of Elmore Leonard. (I hear Leonard is recovering from a stroke, and I’m glad the master is still with us.) The plot device of a betrayed bank heister out for revenge recalls the Parker novels. As contemporary noir, this is solid.

The pace is very strong, with lots and lots of twists and turns. The rotating points of view add to the suspense and unpredictability. That's the kind of technique that Leonard really perfected, I think--writing that doesn't sound like writing but the way people speak-- and the rotation lets you know that any character can buy it at any time. Though, for me, the number of characters did get in the way, though that may be my own distractibility. In Leonard's best novels, "Maximum Bob," "Glitz," "Stick," "LaBrava," he switches around a lot but you're always anchored with two or three characters and you don't know who's going to make it but you do connect with some. I did get to know the eponymous character here, but not as well as I like when following someone all the way through a book, or as far as they go.

I do recommend this book.

[Greg (adds 2 TBR list daily) Hersom · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars..

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 www.fantasyLiterature.com 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.

[Joe Kucharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE WHEELMAN is a fast, fun read by Philadelphia native Duane Swierczynski who takes the standard tale of the heist gone wrong and adds in double- and triple-crosses, stabbings, shootings, fakes deaths, the Italian mafia, the Russian mafia, and, why not, Camden, NJ. Swierczynski's style makes for a great read; it's hip, contemporary, and balls-out cool. His narrative, however, did present a few flaws.

The primary critique being there is not a lot of character development to the titular star, Lennon. He's a criminal, and he has killed, but primarily he's just a driver. Oh, and he likes to read. So much of the book's action is incredibly fast-paced that, granted, character development can really only take a back-seat position, but any presentation of Lennon's character comes in the smallest of portions. By the book's end the reader is still deciding if the guy was even likable.

There are also a great many conveniences granted within that are never explained. Just a go-with-the-ride explanation that leaves behind rather substantial plot holes. Finally, there are a few key deaths and character introductions that entirely happen off-screen. One of the deaths is particular definitely deserved much more prominence and punch. Remember Cyclops' death in that lousy X-Men: Last Stand movie? Same cheating move here.

And for a Philadelphia guy? Swierczynski's characters sure hate Philly.


I, however, love Philly. Check out my Philly-lovin' site full of review, stories, and plenty of whiz @ Joe's

[Ed [Redacted] · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun, fun book. This is the story of Lennon, an Irish born criminal getaway driver (Wheelman) who is unable to speak. He is involved in a robbery that, as often happens in books like this, goes horribly wrong. He finds himself chased by a variety of other criminals and corrupt police in Philadelphia. Madcappery ensues.

WHEELMAN is a lot of fun, very cinematic in its structure and impossible to put down. Highly recommended for heist novel fans.

[Blaise Kyrios · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting. Full of assholes, which is fine, if you like that kinda thing. I usually do but there's homophobic and racist slurs said by the assholes, so if you don't like that, maybe don't read it.

[Larnacouer de SH · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taktik falan yok, uzatmadan çat çut olup bitiyor. Bu okuduğum en dolaysız ama olaylı aksiyon kitabıydı. Yanlış beklenti üzerine biraz fazla kurdum ben kitaba. Submarino benzeri bir şeydir diye düşünmüştüm arka kapak ve yabancı okur yorumları nedeniyle ama alakası yokmuş. Anlamıyorum ki bu yabancılar nasıl bir kafayla okuyor düşünüyor yorumluyor bunları dkfkdkldlsld.

[Anirban · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is one perfect reason why I consider Agatha Christie as one of my favourite authors, because she was not pretentious and knew that what she wrote was crime fiction with the sole purpose of entertainment. Her books were not commentaries on racism, on human psychology or something
“much deeper than just a crime novel”. Then smartass writers started criticising Christie and started writing Crime fiction with a “Broader Perspective”, and managed to make the crime, twist and solution take a back seat to things like human psychology, atmosphere and every other stuff which made no contribution to the plot, pace or entertainment in any way whatsoever.

Duane S scores here, and scores a perfect 10. This book, The Wheelman, just as the name suggest is a pure crime fiction and nothing more. Just like a wheelman, whose sole aim is to get the men out into safety, Duane S made sure that this book’s main aim is to satisfy the reader, and present him with a purest form of crime fiction.

He was successful. He offered no commentary as to how a man could commit crime, what made him do it. No opinion and sympathies as to how human kind is getting scarier day by day. Or how corrupt the law has become. He merely states that humans can be dangerous, some of them rob banks and kill people, and the city of Philly has a darker side and there are corrupt police officers. To these facts he adds a huge….huge dollop of twist, right up to the last page. And adds a liberal sprinkling of pace and serves the reader with a work of crime fiction which deals with a crime, its outcome and the twists in between. And nothing more.

So, in my opinion if Duane S is the future of Crime writing, then the future is pretty safe. If not there is a twist in the future in the same way he twisted us readers in his book.

[Michael Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

One Kickass Crime Novel

I had to put down one of Stephen King's long-winded tales, as well as a Dean Koontz self-absorbed Oddity because I didn't want to stop reading "The Wheelman." I'll get back to those guys later, but for now I'm going to hunt down the next Swierczynski crime novel—way more fun.

The Wheelman, Lennon crashes his way through the bank's front doors only to suffer a highly imaginative menagerie of violence, betrayal and pursuit. For the mute getaway man everything goes wrong all the time, yet he survives . . . or does he? You gotta read this thing.

Mr. Swierczynski (try to type that 3 times fast) crafts one hell of a crime novel. More than a noir mystery, his bizarre twists are the stuff of nose bleeds. All done with gritty characters worth following in a fast paced style that grabs you by the eyeballs and won't let go. He initially reminded me of one of my all-time crime writing faves, Charlie Huston. Yet he's unique beyond comparison.

You really gotta read this thing!

[Debbi Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patrick Selway Lennon is a wheelman. He doesn't rob banks – he drives the getaway car. And he's about to help pull a bank job in Philadelphia that will be the worst mistake of his career.

Lennon's perfect plan for stashing the money and laying low until the heat's off goes awry when someone tries to horn in on the action. This sets a string of events in motion that pit the Russian Mob against the local Mafia, inflames the greed of a crooked ex-cop and brings a woman named Katie, waiting for Lennon in Puerto Rico, to Philly searching for answers when he fails to show up on schedule.

To discuss the plot in any great detail creates the risk of spoilers. Suffice it to say that it's set in motion by a double cross on the part of two trusted individuals, one of whom, ironically, is acting based on a mistaken impression about Lennon.

To read more: http://mysterycrimefiction.suite101.c...