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The Wheelman (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: hank robber, crazy bitch, Kelly Drive, Center City, South Philly (more...)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The man who wrote the book on robbing banks--This Here's a Stick-Up: The Big Bad Book of American Bank Robbery (2002)--here indulges his fascination from a fictional angle. Lennon, the untalkative Irish hero, doesn't technically rob banks, but he does drive the getaway car for guys who do. Though he is a consummate pro, the job is unpredictable by nature, and when we meet him--waiting outside a Wachovia bank in Philadelphia--he is about to find out exactly how unpredictable. The heist goes horrifically wrong, and in the adrenaline-charged pages that follow, Lennon is betrayed, beaten, and befuddled as he relentlessly tries to recover his loot and get out of Philly intact. Fast-moving and funny, The Wheel Man is a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride in an R-rated amusement park. It's cartoonishly violent, but fans of pulp fiction won't bat an eyelash. The book sports a blurb by Ken Bruen (Vixen, 2005), which makes sense: despite their different milieus, fans of one writer should enjoy the other. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review

“Duane Swierczynski is one of the best new things to happen to crime fiction in a long time. A kick-ass writer with wicked cool skills and the instincts of a seasoned veteran. Keep your eyes on him. He’s going places.”
—Victor Gischler, Edgar-nominated author of Gun Monkeys

“I canceled a night out and stayed up all night reading. That’s how much I loved this book . . . at every turn, I was blindsided. Hilarious and bloody violent.” —Ken Bruen, Shamus Award–winning author of The Guards

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Minotaur Books (September 22, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312343779
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312343774
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #680,195 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Duane Swierczynski
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Duane Swierczynski Page
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hank robber, crazy bitch
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Kelly Drive, Center City, South Philly, Andrew Whalen, Early Times, Patrick Selway Lennon, Rittenhouse Square, Seventeenth Street, Delaware River, Holden Richards, Honda Prelude, Puerto Rico, Roosevelt Boulevard, Andy Whalen, Colony Drive, Earl Mothers, Evsei Fieuchevsky, Johnnie Walker, New Jersey, Schuylkill River, Sig Sauer, West Philly, Alpha Chi, Fifteenth District, Jesus Christ
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Customer Reviews

32 Reviews
5 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (32 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars left me breathless and chuckling, October 21, 2005
By MJQ (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
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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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Strong Cinematic Debut, January 30, 2006
By A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
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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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent heist novel, October 19, 2005
The Richard Stark tradition crossed with Douglas E. Winter's "Run". Great ending. The whole book has real style. I don't think most popular present-day crime novelists take enough chances--too often they seem to trying to score a movie deal. No problem with that here. (A movie version would be great, but it is just too dark for Hollywood).
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars More murder and mayhem in Philly
It appears that this author has a love/hate relationship with his home town, Philadelphia. He guides us through many neighborhoods, and has both good and caustic comments about... Read more
Published 13 days ago by Frank J. Konopka

5.0 out of 5 stars Would love to see a movie
Honestly one of the funnest books I've read in a while--and the pace was so fast that I got to the end and had to go back just to catch up with the momentum. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Roman N. Colombo

4.0 out of 5 stars really enjoyed the book
its been a while since I read it, but wanted to give it the stars.
Published 4 months ago by J. Hayden

2.0 out of 5 stars Could not finish it
Bought this book because of the great reviews. The choppy style it was wriiten in did not appeal to me and the way the character developemnt evolved I found myself not caring... Read more
Published 7 months ago by James Unger

5.0 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... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Wayne C. Rogers

5.0 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... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Software Guy

4.0 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 next book.
Published 13 months ago by John Bowes

4.0 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. Read more
Published 13 months ago by I-Am-Sam

5.0 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. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Jonathan Maberry

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant hard-boiled crime fiction at a furious pace
Hard-boiled crime fiction, by which I mean crime fiction from the perspective of law-breakers, from the perspective of people for whom legality is profoundly unimportant, has... Read more
Published on September 12, 2007 by Craig McMurtry

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