The Wheelman

An enigmatic getaway driver chases, and is chased by, cops and mobsters, both Russian and Italian. After a morning robbery in Philadelphia’s Center City, thieves Bling and Holden and wheelman Lennon, an Irish immigrant, are speeding to the airport when their Subaru collides with a van and flips over. Bruised and wounded, Lennon wakes naked, stuffed into a garbage bag—and naturally without the money. Two college musicians named Andy and Mikal find him, instigating the first of many brutal encounters. When it’s over, Lennon, wearing Andy’s too-tight clothes, heads for the young man’s dorm, where he hopes to rest before searching for the money, his accomplices, and a young woman named Katie. Unfortunately for Lennon, Mikal is the son of a powerful Russian mobster, and Andy has a pesky, vengeful girlfriend named Lisa. Lennon, who has a long rap sheet, is believed mute, but he speaks sparingly, communicating with Katie in secret Gaelic. Fast-paced, gritty, and relentlessly thrilling, The Wheelman is Duane Swierczynski’s explosive noir crime thriller.