The Last Exile: A Wakeland Novel by Sam Wiebe
Wiebe wields noir with a cool hand
Do you want to get taken for a drive down a dark road at night? Good. Relax. Sam Wiebe is driving. He’s got one hand draped light on the wheel, as he steers readers through his latest book The Last Exile, the other one is slung out the window as he moves fast and fleet, noting changes in the flow of traffic with an absent expertise. He’s driving stick, of course, through this noir thriller, weaving through the gritty streets of a Vancouver where his main character has become an outsider in his hometown. He pokes into grimy and seedy places — the illegal betting ring inside a chicken processing plant is particularly delicious, noir-on-the-nose… as in planted there with a greasy fist.
“Wiebe rolls out his plot with a perfect blend of visual detail, character reveal, forward momentum and spice of wry observation.”
In The Last Exile, Wiebe is on the case protecting Maggie Zito who is in jail, suspected for the murder of a former motorcycle gang leader and his wife. The Exiles have Maggie in their sights. It’s up to Dave Wakeland to figure out who really done it, and why and how, to get her off the hook, out of the clink and back to being a scrappy single mom. Wakeland juggles a love interest, a sizzling on again, uh oh we probably shouldn’t off again relationship with Shuzhen who’s a lawyer and can hold her own, land or sea. Wiebe rolls out his plot with a perfect blend of visual detail, character reveal, forward momentum and spice of wry observation.
Plot wise, as Wiebe’s passenger, the reader can relax. He knows the way there, back of the hand. Knows when to feather the clutch, and ratchet up stakes, when to ease off the gas, and when to gun it. Hot, smart, plain talking dames, big bruising bad guys, Greyhound cocktails with ice and a salt rim. His main character Dave Wakeland stalks bad guys and is man enough to appreciate a handmade salad over one from a kit. What’s not to love about stalking bad bikers?
I especially love how deft Wiebe is with character and description. You feel the sweat on your own neck walking Vancouver’s streets, feel the back splash of rain. You feel the twist in your own stomach considering the cost of real estate, and taste the cross-section of cultures on your own tongue reading about Japanese-Italian eateries. In just a few pages, you feel like you might know a character better than you know your own family, foibles and all. Wiebe has an incredible knack for staying the hell out of the way of his own prose. He wields it invisibly. It’s so clean, you don’t notice you got a paper cut on the sharp edge.
There is a dizzying array of characters and locals in The Last Exile — keeping track was admittedly a bit of work for me. However, I’ve noticed the same buzzy, kaleidoscopic effect of people and places in old noir cinema too — a murder mystery is carefully laid crumbs that will keep the reader guessing and co-creating along with the writer. A noir crime book is more of a labyrinthine spiral into dark places and bad choices. The pleasure is in getting there. If you’re new to Wiebe, as I was, and you love noir, you’ll be happy to know that there is a long catalogue to stagger into, hopefully wearing a cheap suit, with a bandage on your forehead and a hot gun in your hand.
About the Author
Sam Wiebe is the author of the bestselling Ocean Drive (2024), as well as the Wakeland novels, one of the most authentic and acclaimed detective series in Canada, including Sunset and Jericho (2023) and Hell and Gone (2021). His work has won the Crime Writers of Canada award, the Kobo Emerging Writers prize, and a silver medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and been shortlisted for the Edgar, Hammett, Shamus and City of Vancouver book prizes. He lives in New Westminster, BC.
About the Reviewer
Emily Weedon is a CSA award-winning screenwriter and author of the dystopian debut Autokrator, with Cormorant Books. Her forthcoming novel Hemo Sapiens will be published in September 2025, with Dundurn Press. https://emilyweedon.com/
Book Details
Publisher : Harbour Publishing
Publication date : March 25 2025
Language : English
Print length : 312 pages
ISBN-10 : 1998526089
ISBN-13 : 978-1998526086