Revolver

by Duane Swierczynski

Overview

A BOOKLIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * FINALIST FOR THE HAMMETT PRIZE

Three generations torn apart—by bullets fired fifty years ago.

Philadelphia, 1965: Two street cops—one black, one white—are gunned down in a corner bar. One of the fallen officers, Stan Walczak, leaves behind a 12-year-old boy, Jimmy.

Philadelphia, 1995: Homicide detective Jim Walczak learns that his father's alleged killer, Terrill Lee Stanton, has been sprung from prison. Jim stalks the ex-con, hoping to finally learn the truth.

Philadelphia, 2015: Jim's daughter Audrey, a forensic science student, re-opens her grandfather's murder for a research paper. But as Audrey digs deeper, she comes to realize that Stanton probably didn't pull the trigger—and her father may have made a horrible mistake...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316403238
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	07/19/2016
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,209,816
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Duane Swierczynski is the Edgar-nominated author of nine novels including Canary, Severance Package, and the Shamus Award-winning Charlie Hardie series (Fun and Games, Hell and Gone, Point and Shoot). He's written over 250 comics for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Valiant and IDW, and most recently wrote The Black Hood, the first comic for Archie's new Dark Circle imprint. Swierczynski has also collaborated with CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker on the bestselling Level 26 series. He lives in Burbank with his wife and children.

Table of Contents

I

Stan Walczak (May 7, 1965) 3

Jim Walczak (May 7, 1995) 10

Audrey Kornbluth (May 7, 2015) 19

II

Stan Meets George (August 28-30, 1964) 33

Jim Catches a Case (November 2, 1995) 53

Audrey Saves Her Ass (May 8, 2015) 74

III

Stan Punches (September-October 1964) 88

Jim Investigates (November 3, 1995) 102

Audrey Pries (May 9, 2015) 111

IV

Stan Goes to Church (November 4, 1964) 122

Jim Kicks In a Door (November 3, 1995) 127

Audrey Knocks Back a Beer (May 9, 2015) 139

V

Stan and the Plan (November 4, 1964) 147

Jim and His Vow (November 4, 1995) 154

Audrey and the Old Bastard (May 10, 2015) 160

VI

Happy New Year, Stan (January 1, 1965) 171

Listen to Her, Jim (November 4, 2995) 171

Go Home, Audrey (May 10, 2015) 190

VII

Stubborn Stan (February 6, 1965) 198

Sorry Jim (November 5, 1995) 203

Lost Audrey (May 10, 2015) 211

VIII

Stan Sits and Freezes (March 10, 1965) 222

Jim Treads Lightly (November 5, 1995) 228

Audrey Goes to Church (May 14, 2015) 232

IX

Stan and Sonny (March 30, 1965) 238

Jim and John (November 5, 1995) 244

Audrey and Barry (May 14, 2015) 248

X

Dupek (April r. 1965) 253

Orphan with a Gun (November 5, 1995) 259

Baby Blue (May 14, 2015) 263

XI

Walk the Line (May 1, 1965) 268

Choke Down the Rage (November 6, 1995) 272

Fight the Future (May 15, 2015) 275

XII

Shots Fired (May 7, 1965) 280

Another Shot (November 1, 1995-Election Day) 289

The Final Shots (May 15, 2015) 293

XIII

Stan (May 7, 1965) 296

Jim (November 7, 1995) 298

Audrey (May 16, 2015) 299

XIV

Stanislaw 302

Captain James Walczak (Ret.) 307

Audrey Walczak 311

Editorial Reviews

05/16/2016
Edgar-finalist Swierczynski (Canary) skillfully juggles three interrelated plot lines set decades apart in this complex whodunit. In 1965, Philadelphia police officer Stan Walczak and his partner are in a bar, taking a break from their duties managing street protests in a poor neighborhood. Then someone enters with a gun, and both men are shot dead. In 1995, Stan’s son, Jim, a Philadelphia PD homicide detective, looks into the rape-murder of magazine fact checker Kelly Farrace, a case that attracts the interest of a City Hall eager for a quick resolution. In 2015, Jim’s daughter, Audrey Kornbluth, returns home from Houston to attend the unveiling of a plaque memorializing the 1965 slayings. Audrey’s on the verge of flunking out of Criminal Scene Investigator school, but she hits on the idea of reinvestigating the 50-year-old murders, a choice that not everyone in her family supports. Well-defined characters and a clever mystery more than compensate for an ending that ties up the loose ends a bit too neatly. Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Impressive, intricately constructed . . . Well sequenced to maximize suspense . . .

A twist-filled saga of family loyalties and civic corruption . . . Mr. Swierczynski's innovative, life-affirming novel also affords the traditional pleasures of a police procedural, including humor."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

"This is the first novel I've read by [Duane Swierczynski] and as soon as I finished it I went back and read three more by him. . . . Fast-moving . . . This book illuminates race relations in the '60s in Philadelphia and in the country at large."—Nancy Pearl, NPR

"Swierczynski just gets better and better . . . [A] bleak, powerful tale of corruption and the lasting effects of crime . . . Swierczynski's riskiest move yet [is] a resounding success, with each story line featuring full-blooded characters and intrigue that works both in its own right and in the larger context."—Booklist (starred review)

"[A] complex whodunit... Well-defined characters and a clever mystery... Swierczynski skillfully juggles three interrelated plot lines."—Publishers Weekly

"Ambitious... This novel is dotted with fine details."—Kirkus Reviews

"Epic in scope... [and] keep[s] the reader ripping through pages. Revolver may very well be Swierczynski's strongest novel to date—and one of my favorites of 2016, so far—at least until he releases the next one."—LitReactor.com

"Though the multigenerational saga encompasses many decades, reaching all the way back to 1933, Swierczynski's snappy dialogue, athletic pacing and cliffhanger chapter endings make this a tight read. It contains the author's characteristic sense of humor but is also affecting with precise prose."—Shelf Awareness

"If you're looking for a good crime novel for your summer, this is a perfect choice... [Revolver is] gritty and gripping!"—BookRiot.com

From the Publisher

02/15/2016
In 1995, Philadelphia homicide detective Jim Walczak stalks Terrill Lee Stanton when he is released from prison 30 years after his conviction for killing two street cops (one black and one white); one was Walczak's father. Fast-forward to 2015, and Walczak's daughter, a forensic science student, reopens her grandfather's case. From the Edgar-nominated author (e.g., 2015's Canary) who's written multitudinous comics.

Library Journal

2016-05-17
The murder of two policeman in mid-1960s Philadelphia has reverberations for successive generations of cops in Swierczynski's latest thriller (Canary, 2015, etc.).When two partners, one black and one white, are gunned down in a working-class Philly bar, a low-level holdup man is presumed to be the killer, though there's never enough evidence to convict him. Paroled 30 years later for another crime, the man comes under the scrutiny of Jim Walczak, the dead white cop's son, now a cop himself. Twenty years after that, Jim's estranged daughter, Audrey, an aspiring crime-scene investigator, reopens her grandfather's murder, and her findings upset everyone's assumptions. The novel follows a pattern of setting successive chapters in 1965, 1995, and 2015, the protagonist changing in each. For this to really work, each chapter would have to feed effortlessly into the next instead of feeling like an interruption, which they too often do here. By far the liveliest are the chapters involving Audrey, who's tattooed, as enamored of booze as the other cops in her family, and bored to death with their pieties about duty and loyalty. If anything, the story could use more of her attitude, the way those endless Sunday dinner scenes in every episode of Blue Bloods make you long for someone to plunk their boots on the table. And though the book is about a city riven by racial conflict, there's not nearly enough about the dead black cop and his family. Though this novel is dotted with fine details, its ambitious structure gets in the way of narrative momentum.

Kirkus Reviews

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