The Wheelman

I'm all caught up on Duane Swierczynski's novels now. THE WHEELMAN is the most straightforward of his books an out-and-out crime novel - no high tech, no superpowers, just action. It also reads like a Tony Scott movie. The only author who writes chapters this short is Andrew Vachss and even he doesn't jump around in time and space like this. Still this book entertains. Right from the first page, the reader is pulled in and the pace does not stop.

The only way to summarize it is to say that whenever anything can go wrong it will. Keep that in mind and everything will make sense. This book is a nice counterpoint to Tom Piccirilli's COLD SPOT - both feature getaway drivers and use the networks built up by thieves, but the directions they go are polar opposites. Neither is a particularly happy book, but THE WHEELMAN definitely has more menace and humor. Like most of Swierczynski's books, this is a very black comedy and a world like this needs some of the absurd.