Duane Swierczynski - The Wheelman (2005)
Reviewed by David J. Montgomery
Duane Swierczynski, editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia City Paper, made a big splash on the book scene earlier this year with his debut novel, Secret Dead Men. He has followed it up with an even better book that is sure to win him more accolades, as well as many new fans.
This slim gem of a crime novel is a great heist story in the rich tradition of Richard Stark's Parker novels and Stanley Kubrick's classic film The Killing. The target is a downtown Philadelphia bank, filled with $650,000 of redevelopment money. The team is two strong-arm guys plus Lennon, the best wheelman in the business.
The mute Irish getaway driver is very good at what he does, but even his skills aren't enough when the job goes suddenly and horribly wrong. Just as they're about to get away with the loot, someone pulls a double cross, leaving Lennon's partners dead and him nearly so.
The wheelman claws his way up out of the muck (literally) to track down whoever it was who betrayed him, get his 650 grand back, and get out of town. If a few bad guys, including crooked ex-cops, a drunken crime reporter, and a keyboard player in a bad college rock band, get hurt along the way, that's the price to pay for crossing Patrick Lennon.
The more the Irishman learns, though, the more he realizes that he was in over his head, and his partners in crime were playing him from the beginning. Now he has more trouble than he can handle, with competing interests from the Italian mob and the Russian mafia all wanting a piece of his hide.
Swierczynski writes with an economy of language that hones his prose to a razor's edge. He doesn't waste words, doesn't spend time on superfluous details or flowery description. He just hunkers down and focuses on what he does best: writing a crisp, taut and active story that keeps readers holding their breath to see what's going to happen next.
Despite the noir undertones, The Wheelman is also a surprisingly funny book, not least because the title character views the world and the terrible things it contains with such wry, sardonic detachment. (And the author uses that comic relief to good effect, partially offsetting the nasty events that keep taking place.)
No matter if he's being shot, beaten, crashed into, arrested or dumped down a drainage pipe and left for dead, Lennon keeps his wits and his wit about him, making him hard not to root for, even if he is a fairly nasty sort of guy.
There are times when the story risks going too far over the top, with all the death and violence and horrible things that befall its beleaguered antihero, but Swierczynski is able to rein it in when necessary.
Despite its excesses, the plot is still grounded enough to keep readers believing and invested in the story, and always entertained.
Swierczynski has said in interviews that more than six years elapsed between the writing of his first novel and his second. It shows in the improved quality of his work. While Secret Dead Men was a quirky and entertaining read, The Wheelman is much better.
It is clearly the work of a maturing writer who is possessed of a keen style and abundant talent. After two books as rich and different as these, it is exciting to anticipate what he will accomplish with the third.
Posted by David J. Montgomery in Book Reviews | Permalink
