Book Review: The Wheelman by Duane Swierczynski

I’ve always loved crime novels. There’s something about the excitement of running with criminals being chased by worse criminals and by crooked cops. Donald Westlake, under his pen name Richard Stark, has written about a professional thief named Parker in a series of awesome novels for 40 years. Lee Marvin even played in a movie based on one of the books (Point Blank), and more recently Mel Gibson did the same (Payback).

While reading through Amazon’s list of suggestions after another recent purchase, I found Duane Swierczynski’s The Wheelman. You have to admit, the cover looks really cool, all stark red, white, and black. And it’s about a wheelman, a getaway driver, which made me think of both those cool Transporter movies.

So, succumbing to temptation, I ordered the book. Swierczynsky is the editor-in-chief of Philadelphia City Paper and the author of a non-fiction book, This Here's a Stick-Up, about real bank robbers and their "craft."

The novel features Lennon, a professional getaway driver, and the bank job he’s doing as part of a three-man crew. The novel opens up on them in the middle of the robbery when everything is a busted play and it looks like the devil is about to get his due. This leads to a high-speed chase, which ends up with the car getting T-boned by a large van that appears out of nowhere, letting Lennon know something has gone horribly wrong.

The action picks up again as Lennon’s body is getting disposed of. Only he’s not dead and he’s not going without a fight. He manages to get free, killing his captors, and begins a grueling night trying to stay alive and get back the money from the bank job.

Only — as it turns out — one of the guys Lennon killed was the son of a violent Russian mafia boss who wants revenge for his son’s death. Lennon knows he’s been set up, but he can’t figure out who did it - except maybe his “sister” Katie. The first thing, though, is to stay alive. Then he has to find the money and get out of Philadelphia.

Article Author: Mel Odom

Mel Odom is the author of over 100 novels. Winner of the American Library Association's Alex Award for 2002 and runner-up for the Christy in 2005, he's written in several genres, including tie-in novels for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and novelizations of Blade, XXX, and Tomb Raider. …

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