On May 7, 1965, shots ring out in a Philadelphia bar, killing officer Stan Walczak and his partner, George Wildey (whose grandson Ben was introduced in Canary). Stan leaves behind a 12-year-old son named Jimmy.
In May 1995, Jimmy, now going by Jim, is a homicide detective. His father's alleged killer is released from prison, where the man was sent for another crime. In Jim's mind, the convict has never paid for what he did to Stan. Perhaps Jim will mete out his own form of justice.
Now in May 2015, the Walczak clan gathers for a ceremony on the 50th anniversary of the cop killings to honor the fallen officers with memorial plaques. Jim's daughter, Audrey, a forensics grad student, decides that for her school project she'll try to solve the murders of Grandpop Stan and his partner. She may not survive the attempt.
Duane Swierczynski's Revolver is the story of how tragedy tears the Walczak family apart and continues haunting it for half a century. 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--in a military cemetery, "you see a row of perfectly symmetrical white tablets, lined up in formation like they're still fighting a war even after death." To end the family's sad legacy, the surviving Walczaks realize they must focus not on what a revolver has done but on what redemption can do. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd