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Apr 18, 2011

Dan rated it:

Mute getaway driver Patrick Lennon thought it was a routine bank job until the black van rammed them and everything went to hell. Amidst a maze of murder and double crosses, can Lennon recover the $650,000?

Wow. I'd been aware of this book for a couple years before I finally picked it up and now I'm kicking myself for waiting so long.

The Wheelman has more twists and double crosses packed within its slim 250-ish pages than any four other crime books on the racks. More tw More...

7 comments like (28 people liked it)

Oct 16, 2008

S.D. rated it:

Raving review blurbs give me pause. "...kept me up all night," "a writer to watch," "...look out so and so..." and other boilerplate comments writers give others rarely pan out for me. However, with The Wheelman, I did read it in one day and it DID keep me up until midnight finishing it. What a hoot. Take a dash of Gun Monkeys (Victor Gischler), add a dose of Pest Control (Bill Fitzhugh) and shake on ice with the body count in the movie, True Romance, and you've More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Eric_W rated it:

Lennon is an accomplished wheelman. Escaping by the skin of his teeth from a successful bank job, Lennon wants to avoid causing injury to any bystanders, but while leaving the bank in a hurry, a woman pushing a stroller walks in his path. Braking and wrestling with the wheel was out of the question. The risk of fishtailing was too great, and Lennon worried that he would broadside both the lady and the stroller. Steering clear out of the way was impossible. Immediately to the right of the woman a More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Sep 18, 2011

Jason (FNORDinc) rated it:

Dear Mr Swierczynski:

I hate you for being such a good author. By hate, I mean envy, and by author I mean sheer awesome dude. So, to recap, I envy you for being a sheer awesome dude.

I read The Wheelman over a couple day span on the local transit system. It was less polished than your later novels such as Severance Package or The Blonde. It is weird to describe pulpy books as polished, but I am sure you are picking up what I am putting down.

I know it is your book and More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2011

George rated it:

This was a lightning quick read. I usually take a while to get through a book, but I finished this one in 2 1/2 days (hey, for me it's a record). From page one, the narrative propels you from a bank robbery gone wrong to a displaced, unlikely protagonist trying to piece together what went wrong, and never lets you up for air. The chapters are short - half a page to one page mostly, and the story is told pretty much in real time. My favorite part is the vignette surrounding shady ex-cop-turned pr More...

0 comments like

Oct 05, 2009

Debbi rated it:

Patrick Selway Lennon is a wheelman. He doesn't rob banks – he drives the getaway car. And he's about to help pull a bank job in Philadelphia that will be the worst mistake of his career.

Lennon's perfect plan for stashing the money and laying low until the heat's off goes awry when someone tries to horn in on the action. This sets a string of events in motion that pit the Russian Mob against the local Mafia, inflames the greed of a crooked ex-cop and brings a woman named Katie, waiti More...

0 comments like

Nov 14, 2011

Ted rated it:

I wish I could give this 3.5 stars. It was better than good but far from great. First, to the "the better than good" elements. The dialogue was crisp and the pace was fast. The dark story of double and triple crossing gangsters pulls you in quickly, almost violently. There were details of the city (Philadelphia), it's routes, it's evils and it's issues that only a true insider could know.

But, to get to the "far from great", it ultimately left me flat. While I admir More...

1 comment like

Jul 08, 2011

Kidgreg rated it:

4.5 stars..

The title caught my attention and then when Duane Swierczynski's name kept popping-up in most the places I surf the internet (Mainly over at www.fantasyLiterature.com where I'm a reviewer and his book Expiration Date was reviewed), I snatched it up as soon as the copyrights allowed for the USA Amazon Kindle publication.

I thought it was going to be a story about fast cars and robbing banks, but it's not that exactly. It's about a really good getaway driver, who More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 05, 2011

zxvasdf rated it:

Wow. This is a great and fast paced book. Very convulted and bloody as hell.

Betrayal doesn't bode well with Lennon, the getaway driver. Lennon waking up while being stuffed down a pipe may be one of the worst things to happen to the Philadelphia mob scene. He has to fuck those who fucked him. What ensues is death, lots of it, with people killing each other with their own reasons for being pissed off, but always on top of their minds is the $650,000 from the heist.

The great t More...

0 comments like

Jun 10, 2010

Adam rated it:

The Wheelman is a post modern black comic take on the classic caper gone wrong. Alongside Allan Guthrie and Charlie Huston here is another writer of no holds barred, punk rock neo-pulp. Duane Swierczynski. comes off more knowing than Guthrie with a fiercely modern sensibility. This book is all pure bravado storytelling with twists, complications, betrayals, endless new characters, death at every turn (what was the body count?), and lots of surprises (try to guess who makes it, you might be wrong More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 13, 2011

Kelly rated it:

This is about a heist gone bad---specifically a bank robbery. They get away clean (mostly thanks to Lennon, the wheelman, or the guy who drives the getaway car) but it all falls apart once they're on their way out of the city. Soon, Lennon is the only one left alive and while it's clear he was double-crossed, it's decidedly unclear as to who did it.

I love heist stories. Generally they make me want to do some Ocean's 11-style capers of my own. This one? Really not so much.
More...

2 comments like

Jul 03, 2011

Jeffrey rated it:

I'm still trying to comb my hair back down and brush the grit out of my teeth after jumping in the passenger side with "the wheelman" Lennon. The plot snaps along at a breakneck pace setting I'm sure the world record for the most double dealing, double crosses in the history of literature. The prose is muscular, the dialogue is crisp, the plot is intriguing and all of this unfolds in 231 pages. A very impressive debut novel, I will definitely be picking up more books by Duane Swiercz More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2011

Neil rated it:

I'm fairly new to the crime genre and started with this as it was short and self-contained. The book was a lot of fun (if you like bad things happening to bad people) and the pace was lightning fast throughout. The main character is likeable despite being a nasty piece of work, although the fact everyone else tends to be even worse makes it easier to root for him. One element I'm still not totally sure I liked or not was the fact that all the characters are so interconnected. While it makes the More...

0 comments like

Aug 11, 2011

Josh rated it:

Disappointing compared to "Fun and Games". Not a lot here. Those from the City of Brotherly Love may enjoy the neighborhood knowledge from a former editor of the Philadelphia City Paper. Oddly I could see this working maybe as a movie; that's a front handed compliment for parallel kinetic story lines and a backhanded compliment for generally shyte writing.

I do enjoy that the gospel of paleo dieting is even infiltrating crime novels, "He noticed an interesting sid More...

0 comments like

Nov 12, 2011

Brandon rated it:

Man, this took me a while to finish. It certainly had nothing to do with the plot, the characters or the author’s pacing; I just picked the wrong times to read. Almost every time I picked this book up, I dozed off. What had made this experience so frustrating was that I really liked it and I would find myself getting angry and wondering if I was suffering from narcolepsy. Trust me, if you’re unable to find a story about a mute, Irish getaway driver at least a little interesting, there may be More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Sep 01, 2009

Craig rated it:

"The NEW Year of Mystery" continues!... I got this book last weekend on the recommendation of the owner of Partners & Crime (www.crimepays.com), and as usual she did not steer me wrong - - LOVED LOVED LOVED this book! Story opens with a mute getaway driver of a Philadelphia bank heist gone wrong, and immediately spirals into a white-knuckle thrill ride that doesn't let up for a second. Dark, violent, and at the same time comic, with a completely original and engaging cast of characters More...

0 comments like

Dec 19, 2011

James rated it:

This fast-paced debut novel opens outside of a bank in Philadelphia where Lennon, an apparently mute Irishman, is waiting patiently for the rest of his team. Lennon is not a bank robber exactly, but for a share of the take, he drives bank robbers to and from the job.

This particular job has been carefully planned and Lennon knows his exit route down to the last inch. But at the last possible second, the heist goes sour and the proverbial excrement hits the fan. Lennon finds himself b More...

5 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jul 03, 2011

Josh rated it:

The Wheelman is Stark (any Parker caper) meets Vachss (‘The Getaway Man’) in a fusion by which all heist novels should be measured henceforth. The protagonist, mute getaway drive Patrick Lennon is instantly likable showing compassion, loyalty and willingness to participate in violence only as a last resort. For a guy who claims to be nonviolent, a hell of a lot of people are caused a great deal of grief at the hands (or instruments wielded by said hands) of Lennon – all justified of course. The More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 23, 2011

Jonathan rated it:

[re-posted from my old blog]

The Wheelman was yet another wild ride with Duane Swierczynski, author of The Blonde. Wheelman was his first book, and actually kind of a series with The Blonde, as a major character in the latter book makes a surprise appearance in Wheelman. A short book, one I read in about 3 days, it was nonetheless a great read and highly recommended.

Patrick Lennon is an experienced and much sought after wheelman, or the guy who drives the getaway car. His la More...

0 comments like

Oct 13, 2009

CT rated it:

You can always count on Swierczynski to deliver a good adrenaline rush. This frenetically paced thriller follows the exploits of Lennon, a professional getaway driver. After the three-man team successfully robs 650 grand from a bank in Philly, they place the money in a car safely stowed away in a long-term parking garage. That’s when everything goes wrong.

The Wheelman isn’t a comic caper like Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder series. Instead, Swiercynski writes biting prose. It’s shar More...

0 comments like

May 12, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

I had the privilege of reading Duane Swierczynski's THIS HERE'S A STICK-UP, his non-fiction tome of bank robbery facts and figures, a few years back when it first came out. In THE WHEELMAN, Mr. Swierczynski takes fact, mixes it up with a whole lot of fiction, and comes up with a thrilling crime debut that's well worth the read!

We first meet Lennon, a wheelman or get-away driver, waiting outside a Wachovia bank in Philadelphia as his two associates, Bling and Holden, get caught on th More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 03, 2008

Tim rated it:

Lennon isn't a bank robber, he's the getaway car driver. So when the robbery goes pear-shaped and his crew is double crossed, he finds his battered and near-dead body being shoved into a drain pipe for disposal. Fighting his way out, Lennon has to find out who crossed him... the Russian mob? The Italians? Was it the crooked cop, or even his own mentor? This is a wild and ultra-violent pulp noir where the bullets and bodies fly fast and furious and the loot is on the line. Swierczynski keeps the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 26, 2012

Alecia rated it:

I have already read Hell and Gone (4 stars) and Fun and Games (3 stars) by this author. This is an earlier book of his and the "hero" is mute getaway driver. I could tell, reading this, that Swierczynski's later novels were based on a similar type of writing, action and violence that is found in this book. I think his storylines and pacing have improved with time. Although there were parts of The Wheel Man that show his future promise, the book as a whole didn't do it for me.

0 comments like

Jul 15, 2010

Weldon rated it:

Swierczynski is known for his fast-paced, no-holds-barred writing, and The Wheelman is certainly no exception. The action starts in the first paragraph and doesn't let up through most of the book. I would have given it five stars if not for the feeling, at the end, that is was too contrived. The coincidences pile up faster than the bodies, it seems. Still, an enjoyable and fast read!

0 comments like

Apr 05, 2010

Chris rated it:

Swierczynski's debut novel sets the tone for the novels to come: fast-paced, well written, witty crime stories that one can't put down once you pick it up. The books to follow I think are a little better, but this one holds its own in a story packed with a cast of characters that provide more twists and turns than a Philly boulevard choked with road construction.

0 comments like

Aug 06, 2011

Dale rated it:

Excellent! The more Swiercynski I read, the more I like him. I read the bulk of this one on a Saturday afternoon while my kids played at the municipal pool. Does a summer day get any better than that? This was definitely a one-damn-thing-after-another style book focusing on a bank heist gone off the rails. Add it to your summer reading list.

0 comments like

Jun 13, 2011

Skott rated it:

Tight, hectic bank robbery thriller full of intelligence and knowledge of crime. Doesn't stop moving from the first scene - in which the titular wheelman crashes the getaway car into a bank's mantrap to spring his confederates - to the last. Every character is interesting, every scene has surprises.

0 comments like

Aug 03, 2009

Michelle rated it:

Great fast and exciting read...I love a good heist story and this one definitely falls under that category. Can easily be read in a day as it moves very quickly and you won't want to put it down. Bit of cartoonish violence, but that's part of what made it so enjoyable to me. I know, I'm a bit macabre.

0 comments like

Jul 06, 2008

Joshua rated it:

Wheelman is the French Connection meets ultraviolence. It's the Bank Heist meets Lawrence Block. This should be a movie starring Jason Statham. This is like reading a 70's exploitation flick, where the cops are bad, the girls are hot, and the heroes a mute right out from The Italian Job .

Simply put, this was a fun and quick read. It's 200+ in page count, but is really a 150 page book because large words on large page breaks run abound. So more like a novella than a novel. Wha More...

0 comments like

Apr 16, 2011

Bradley rated it:

Somewhere Donald Westlake is smiling. The Wheelman is a stark, dark, wonderful heist caper. The good guys aren't that good and the bad guys...well, you know. The pace never lets up and the ending is well worth the price of admission. Highly recommended.

0 comments like

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