Think you had a busy weekend? Not compared to the criminals and cops that populate THE WHEELMAN, a go-for-broke, gangbusters crime tale from Duane Swierczynski.

It begins, as more thrillers should, with the accelerator pushed to the floor and engines firing on all cylinders. Irish, mute getaway driver Lennon attempts an escape from a Philadelphia bank robbery his partners have just pulled – but only barely – making off with a hefty $650,000 take. They leave their loot in the trunk of a car in a public lot until things cool down.

Things never cool down.

In mere hours, Lennon’s flight to Puerto Rico is indefinitely postponed as he is nearly murdered by a college kid and the son of a Russian mafia head, but he manages to kill them instead, with thanks in part to a Bic pen.

Meanwhile, the mayor has hired a corrupt cop to investigate the robbery on a “freelance basis,” the Russian mafia guy doesn’t take too kindly to news of his dead son, the girlfriend of the college boy also isn’t too happy about his demise, her father is in cahoots with the evil Russkie, one of Lennon’s partners has double-crossed him and his pregnant sister’s life is on the fence, too.

From that, you’d think you’d need a flow chart to keep everything straight, but you don’t. Like Elmore Leonard, Swierczynski has a real knack for introducing a host of characters with enough individual quirks that they make an indelible impression, and he maniacally moves them about like a grandmaster does chess pieces, until it all ends the way he wants it: in a way you didn’t see coming.

Swierczynski has penned a bunch of nonfiction books on crime, but fiction proves to be his forte. With this clever post-heist chase – a breeze as just more than 200 pages – he makes a mark as the most exciting new voice in crime fiction today. Fast, funny and fearless, THE WHEELMAN is absolutely wild, and wildly unpredictable. –Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.