It makes perfect sense to use three narrators to tell the stories of the three family members at the center of an unsolved mystery. Rick Zieff sturdily personifies Stan Walczak, a cop who gets gunned down in a bar in 1965. John Glouchevitch stoically portrays Stan's son, Jimmy, a talented but alcoholic detective who, in 1995, stalks the parolee he believes is responsible. Christine Lakin enlivens the best character of the lot, Jimmy's adoptive daughter, Aubrey, the sarcastic, tattooed black sheep of the family and fledgling criminologist who, in 2015, hopes to solve her granddad's murder. In alternating chapters, the trio carries listeners through the crime's many twists, all hinging on a family secret. Three skilled narrators bring a new meaning to the term “dysfunctional family.” D.E.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
Revolver
Narrated by Rick Zieff, John Glouchevitch, Christine Lakin
Duane SwierczynskiUnabridged — 9 hours, 19 minutes
Revolver
Narrated by Rick Zieff, John Glouchevitch, Christine Lakin
Duane SwierczynskiUnabridged — 9 hours, 19 minutes
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Overview
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...
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)
"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
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.
It makes perfect sense to use three narrators to tell the stories of the three family members at the center of an unsolved mystery. Rick Zieff sturdily personifies Stan Walczak, a cop who gets gunned down in a bar in 1965. John Glouchevitch stoically portrays Stan's son, Jimmy, a talented but alcoholic detective who, in 1995, stalks the parolee he believes is responsible. Christine Lakin enlivens the best character of the lot, Jimmy's adoptive daughter, Aubrey, the sarcastic, tattooed black sheep of the family and fledgling criminologist who, in 2015, hopes to solve her granddad's murder. In alternating chapters, the trio carries listeners through the crime's many twists, all hinging on a family secret. Three skilled narrators bring a new meaning to the term “dysfunctional family.” D.E.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
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.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173783561 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Hachette Audio |
| Publication date: | 07/19/2016 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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