Books

Dan is back

Okay, I’ve been gone for a while. Now I’m back. No excuses. As old Rob Henry used to say, “All excuses are lies.” Although I have been busy. Depending on how you define busy. Anyway, new day. Fresh start.
In contemplating this post, I tried to go back over all the books I’ve read in the last several months (reminder to self – keep a book journal, you won’t regret it.) One book jumped out at me. Like when you’re looking at a shelf full of books with a friend and you spot a title that lights up your eyes – “Oh, you have to read this one!” Well, this one is “Revolver” by Duane Swierczynski. You almost can’t go wrong with a Swierczynski book. I loved “The Blonde”, “Severance Package”, and “The Wheel Man.” He also has a great trilogy of pulps called the Charlie Hardy series.

“Revolver” is quite a departure from the outlandish, over-the-top style of many of Swierczynski’s other books. This one feels almost like a memoir. Highly realistic. It covers three generations of a family, all greatly impacted by a shooting that occurs in the mid-sixties. I am typically not a fan of generational books. Often, the story of one of those generations is less interesting than the others. Not so, in this case. As the book bounces back and forth in time, I was always happy to pick up the storyline, from each different character’s point of view.


Basic plot-line:
Two cops are murdered in Philadelphia in 1965. One cop has a 12-year-old son, Jimmy.
1995: Jimmy, now also a cop, is still tormented by his father’s death.
2015: Jimmy’s troubled daughter Audrey, a college student, investigates her grandfather’s murder.
This is a fun read, and a page-turner, but it also can be quite sad. Because it’s partially told in non-linear flashbacks, you know certain things are going to happen. But I found myself desperately hoping that the past would turn out differently. And I felt like I knew these people. All of them. And I very much cared about them.
Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.
There. That wasn’t so hard. Now that I’ve re-broken the ice, I’m almost certain that I’ll be posting regularly. Stay tuned scramblers.

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