Severance Package

It appears that some of Duane's loyal readers think this is a subpar effort, which only goes to show everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I thought this was a totally diverting read, packed with just the kind of zesty elements I have come to expect of this writer. I would caution anyone on the fence not to be swayed by some poor reviews. Read for yourself and I think you will be glad you did.

This is the first book that I have read by this author, but I know that it won't be the last. His style of writing is really "over the top", but in a good way. The plot is like taking a roller coaster ride into a series of dark tunnels, not knowing what's going to appear when you come out at the end of each one. The action is fast and furious, and if at times it seems a bit "too much", I can forgive that because the story is so engrossing and kept me turning page after page, eagerly devouring the events. The characters aren't really well-defined, but perhaps in a book of this type they don't really need to be. Read it for yourself and see what I mean.

Brutal. Violent. Relentless. Fun. This could easily be a four-word review, as these particular words go a long way in preparing you for Bill Swierczynski's third novel, out on the heels of The Blonde. Severance Package does a wonderful job of combining corporate office politics and the deadly world of nothing-is-as-it-seems espionage, raising the question of exactly which profession is more ruthless, cut throat, and soullessly ambitious. One would be tempting to describe it as a cross between The Office and Three Days of the Condor, but that would barely be doing it justice. Bill Swierczynski's writing style has one major asset that many authors tend to overlook these days: brevity. His descriptions are colorful and informative, yet they aren't weighed down by their own poetic license. Characters and locations are set up and knocked down as quickly and efficiently as dominoes, without ever leaving the reader confused or unsatisfied. Even the story itself, which takes place in the time frame of a few hours, is tight and compact, with all of the action and suspense layered delicately from beginning to end. Swierczynski's storytelling style is as quick and hard hitting as a lead sap to the temple. The comic book reminiscent illustrations scattered throughout the book are interesting and fun, even though some might find them a little distracting. Of course, considering that Swierczynski authored the Cable series for Marvel Comics, and is currently helming a six issue run of The Punisher in Garth Ennis' absence, the presence of the silhouette artwork is understandable. If you like your novels short, sweet, and chock full of balls-to-the-wall action, you should definitely not pass this one up. Just don't forget to punch in.

Fans of hard-boiled mysteries have witnessed a rebirth of the genre in recent years. Charles Ardai at Hard Case Crime has introduced a new generation of readers to the long-forgotten works of pulp masters, as well as to exciting new writers such as himself and Christa Faust. At the same time a new generation of excellent writers has reinvigorated the noir genre. Ken Bruen, Jason Starr and Megan Abbott have established themselves as mystery writers we will be enjoying for decades to come. Now add to the list Duane Swierczynski, former editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia City Paper. SEVERANCE PACKAGE is his fourth novel. And if you have not read him yet and you love mysteries and action, you are in for a treat. Swierczynski, like the above mentioned writers, is destined to become a hard-boiled master. Swierczynski writes noir, but it's far from ordinary. This is noir on steroids, as his books are filled with nonstop action and mayhem. There is not a wasted word in his lean, adrenaline-driven prose. And nobody working the field today can build suspense as well. Read SEVERANCE PACKAGE and you will immediately want to seek out THE BLONDE, his novel from 2006 that was a unique modern reworking of the film noir classic DOA. SEVERANCE PACKAGE starts with seven employees being called into a Saturday "managers' meeting" of Murphy, Knox and Associations, a somewhat mysterious "financial services" firm located on the 36th floor of a Philly skyscraper. It is a sweltering hot summer day, and the employees react the same way you would at having to get up, get dressed and go into work on a Saturday morning. It gets worse. They are ushered into a conference room filled with cookies, three cartons of orange juice and four bottles of champagne. So far so good. Then their boss, David, tells them they are on "official lockdown." The phones don't work. Nobody can leave the building since the elevator has been fixed to bypass the floor, and the fire exits have been rigged with sarin gas bombs. Whoa! They are then told they are being let go from both work and the planet. They have a choice: drink the champagne and orange juice, which is poisoned and will kill them in seconds, or be shot in the head. It turns out that the company is some sort of super secret rogue CIA-type outfit set up to disrupt the bank accounts of terrorists or just about anybody else they feel like messing with. And now the operation is being terminated, so to speak. This is why noir is great fun. You might think you have a lot of bad days at work. Not like this. The firm's second-in-command, Molly, then pulls a coup by shooting David in the head, and we are off to the races. It seems the entire 36th floor has cameras all over the place, and Molly is under the impression that she is auditioning for a new job in the super-secret spy agency. And, indeed, events on the floor are being monitored by two mysterious fellows in Edinburgh, Scotland, 3,500 miles away. Who are they? Swierczynski has pr

By now you've read all the adjectives describing Swiercynski's latest creative spin on mayhem: graphically brutal, uber-violent, twisted, and over-the-top. And yeah, it reads like a comic book - or at least like Frank Miller's remarkably distorted gore fest in film: "Sin City". But I couldn't help feeling that in Swierczynski's beautifully warped mind "Severance Package" is his idea of a love story - a totally off-the-rails dissection of love gone bad in ways that we mere mortals could never conjure, but can certainly enjoy. Intersecting stories of unrequited love, fake love, undying love and perverted love running jagged and bloodied through an adrenaline-charged broken field rush through the seemingly benign corridors of drab cubes, conference rooms and corner offices - a high rise nightmare of terror that simultaneously conjures images of 9/11 and "Die Hard." So you've probably got the plot by now - a crew of seemingly work-a-day Philadelphia office drones are dragged into the office on a typically and oppressively hot and humid Philadelphia Saturday morning, generally bitching or specifically fighting off hangovers, for a secret and critically important meeting called by boss David Murphy. But much to their collective, um, chagrin, Murphy offers a couple of non compelling choices: take poison or a .22 slug to the head - either way you've got to die (attention "spoiler police": this is already disclosed on the book jacket). From this bizarre premise of the ultimate in wacko bosses and bad days is the office, Swierczynski pens a raucous and wonderfully convoluted tale of clandestine operations, extreme office politics, survival and black humor in a voice that is uniquely his own, and is fast becoming the high bar in pop pulp fiction. With this guy, the superlatives just can't capture his originality, hip irreverence, and street smart wit. So maybe it is the literary equivalent of eye candy, maybe it is impossibly violent, and maybe no one will ever confuse it with Tolstoy or Faulkner. But it will also never be confused with the drivel of contemporary crime "thrillers" that tend to make best seller lists these days. Starting with "The Wheelman", Duane Swiercynski has been reeling off contemporary noir hits each more outrageous than the predecessor - "The Blond", the brilliantly offbeat "Secret Dead Men" - while compiling a terrific anthology of crime, "Geezer Noir", in his spare time. In any event, call it what you will, but do yourself a favor and just read all of these new crime classics - in thirty years folks will be talking about Swierczynski with the same sense of awe and reverence reserved today for Chandler, Thompson, and Hammett. Keep 'em coming, Duane!