Books : The Wheelman

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Author name: Duane Swierczynski

: The Wheelman
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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9780312343781
ISBN number: 0312343787
Label: St. Martin's Minotaur
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: November 14, 2006
Publishing house: St. Martin's Minotaur
Release Date: November 14, 2006
Sale Popularity Level: 85600
Studio: St. Martin's Minotaur



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Product Description:
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.




Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - If you think Richard Stark's Parker is tough, then meet Lennon!!!
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 very 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!



Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - Serious Voodoo. Will make you a speed reader, buckle up.
This is a wildly raw, high-octane crime novel. The beginning is explosive and the story is somewhat disorienting early on, so you can't get too comfortable with the lead character, Lennon, the eponymous wheelman. As the layers of the story unfold, and Lennon trips through his hellish mission, the story takes the reader to some nasty, dark places, many of them embodied by Lennon himself. Wicked, wicked writing, and I thought the ending was a smash myself, creepy as hell.

I flew through this book fast enough to leave scorch marks on the pages. Just freaking LOVED it. All eyes on this writer if you like gritty, high-intensity stuff.



Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - Lean & mean
Just understand, a lot of characters die, badly. That's good for the reader, the suspense is ratcheted up. The pages fly. Get me to this guy's subsequent book.


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - Never has someone said so much by saying so little.
This is a fun, fast moving novel by the guy who wrote "The Blonde" and "Severance Package", both of which are also pretty good. There's not a lot of time spent on development of characters, this is just a tightly plotted novel that's hard to set down and takes about 2-3 hours to read. Popcorn? Candy? Pitcher of Beer? Yes, please.


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - A Crime Novel at Breakneck Speed
The Wheelman kicks butt, from the opening line to the reckless, taking-corners-on-two-wheels ending. It has an almost punk crime sensibility and Duane Swierczynski knows how to turn the dials on the reader's emotions. Read this when you have time to race all the way from cover to cover.

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