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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strong Cinematic Debut, January 30, 2006
This slim crime debut from Philadelphia City Paper editor Swierczynski, starts with an awesome Michael Mann-like set piece, proceeds at breakneck pace through some rollicking Quentin Tarantino-like pulp fiction turf, before petering out with a bit of a whimper in a rather unsatisfying ending. Having previously written a non-fiction book (This Here's a Stick-Up) about bank heists, Swierczynski is primed with plenty of info about how they go down. This shows in the opening portion of the story, where a pair of thieves and the titular getaway driver knock over a Wachovia in downtown Philadelphia. The writing is simple, crisp, and intensely cinematic, as their carefully laid plan hits a speed bump or two, but seemingly comes off.
But sudden reversals are the running theme of the book, and all does not go quite as expected. We next find the driver, Lennon, in a body bag, about to get tossed into a construction project pit, along with his fellow dead heisters. In a comical and bloody scene somewhat reminiscent of Elmore Leonard, he manages to free himself and get away, setting off a chain reaction of double and triple-crosses, as all manner of people start chasing after the missing money. A drunken ex-cop, remnants of the Italian mafia, the new Russian mafiya, dirty cops, half of a bad cover band, a fixer (like the Jon Voight character in Heat), an annoying college girl, Lennon's lady, and a mysterious man in black. All get into the dizzying mix, and at the center of it all Lennon, a mute Irishman who knows cars, books, and survival, and that's about all. (Rather oddly though, there are no car chases, and other than the very beginning, Lennon's driving expertise is left untapped.)
The story is built on fast pacing and pulling the rug out from under characters and the reader. Swierczynski loves to engage in misdirection, and although he sometimes repeats himself a little too much (an overused plot device is that those who appear dead may not actually be dead), and the relationship between Lennon and Katie isn't as camouflaged as he might wish, but the story still has more tricks up its sleeve than any ten average crime stories combined. A corollary to this is how Swierczynski often kills characters very suddenly and unexpectedly, which somehow feels more true to the genre than what one usually finds. And there's plenty of sparse, laconic style, as the body count rises in gruesome fashion. Everything is handled so well that the way everything climaxes in the last ten pages is somehow a letdown. Still, it's a completely entertaining book that will almost certainly be made into a movie, and I will definitely be looking for Swierczynski's next book.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
5 Star Book in a 1 Star Body, September 29, 2010
The Wheelman is a great example of how the publishing industry feels about eBooks. Swierczynski has written a fantastic, roller-coaster crime novel that is actually deserving of it's blurbs, but the publisher MacMillan has completely ruined it with an inexcusably bad eBook edition.
The story itself is excellent. As a long-time fan of crime fiction, I have been more than anxious to pick up one of Swierczynski's books. I found The Wheelman to be very deserving of the hype ti has received. The author has crafted a story that contains all of the best elements of crime fiction - a likable anti-hero, a big score, and plot that twists and turns unlike anything I've read the past couple of years. Every time you think you have this book figured out, Swierczynski drives the plot off of another cliff and you soon realize you're not even halfway though it yet. Five Stars for the writing!
The eBook/Kindle version is a mess, though. It's obvious human eyes had never laid eyes on it before getting put up for sale. Whatever software was used to import/scan the book did an incredibly poor job. The insanely large number of errors makes the book nearly unreadable. For example, the first chapter is in all italics. Whatever was used to do the conversion could not distinguish the letter p from f so you end up with sentences like "Had he been a smoker, Lennon would have savored the last few fuffs before fressing the window button and and fliffing out the butt." This was the first paragraph of the book. Did ANYONE read this before selling it!? Other errors include dozens of misspellings, random letters and numbers appearing in the middle of words, and incorrect capitalization. Every chapter apparently opened with a dropped capital letter, but instead we get a single over-sized character on it's own line to begin each chapter. One chapter begins:
F
or a good two weeks, Lenno n has studied...
No, the extra space in "Lennon" was not added by me. It's bad enough that several friends I showed the book to said that they would have complained and asked for a refund. It's obvious zero effort was put into this by MacMillan. They could have hired a high-school kid to edit the Kindle version, but instead dropped this awful version on us. With the rapidly growing eBook market, you would think that publishers would put just a little bit more effort into something they are selling at a premium price. Swierczynski has a new fan here, but one that sadly won't be buying anymore eBooks from his publisher until they show a little bit more respect to the consumer.
UPDATE: 5/6/11 - I received an email from Amazon this week stating that this eBook had been updated and I could re-download it. Out of curiosity I obliged and was pleased to find that the formatting and typographical errors I previously complained about have been fixed.
I am happy to see that the publisher is actively fixing some of these older books. If you're looking to purchase The Wheelman for your Kindle, rest assured that my negative comments no longer apply!
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
left me breathless and chuckling, October 21, 2005
Everyone I know is getting a copy of Wheelman for the holidays. I picked up this book thinking it was going to be a quirky read because the protagonist is a mute getaway driver named Lennon, which sounds goofy at first. But instead I was treated to the most fun any media - book, tv show, movie, etc. - has provided me all 2005.
Sleepy, charismatic Philadelphia is the perfect backdrop for the non-stop action and violent twists and turns. It reads like a film, except it never stoops to the predictability and hokiness of Hollywood flicks. It's authentic and funny as hell.
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