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INVISIBLE DEAD
by Sam Wiebe
Penguin Random House Canada, June 2016
336 pages
$24.95 CAD
ISBN: 0345816277


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

INVISIBLE DEAD by Sam Wiebe is subtitled "A Wakeland Novel." That would be Dave Wakeland, PI, who haunts the dark side of Vancouver, British Columbia, a city that Dave says, "sees fit to kill its women." In the opening chapter, we meet "Scrapyard Ed," whose MO clearly mirrors Robert Pickton's. Pickton is the real serial killer who murdered forty-nine prostitutes on his pig farm outside Vancouver between 1997 and 2006.

Pretty dark territory gets quickly darker as Dave takes the case of a missing Métis woman who disappeared eleven years earlier. Dave is an excellent PI, an ex-cop who really knows his stuff. He does his deep background work methodically, slowly building a portrait of Chelsea Loam, aka Charity, a foster child adopted, cared for, who ran away and fell into prostitution and drugs.

Dave has a pretty dark side too. Trained as a boxer by his cop father, Dave does not fight anymore. But he has a boiling sense of righteousness and an almost fatal sense of fearlessness to confront bad guys without backup. At one point, he arranges a meeting with Terry Rhodes, the Big Bad Bossman, who is armed with his two Mastiffs, Holy and Fuck. This scene sure proves that Dave can take a beating without quitting.

Sam Wiebe is a very good writer. His characters pop with life. His dialogues are really engaging. And Dave is a smart talker - intelligent and literate. Wiebe includes all the great tropes of a good noir tale: the careful investigating, the nasty pimps and good-hearted whores with drug issues, friends accidentally betrayed who end badly. But Wiebe also creates some newer types, including his partner Jeff Chen, the consummate businessman who is driven crazy by Dave's wildness, a really tough dyke who will step up when even Dave refuses to act, and a touching M to F Trans woman who touches Dave's heart.

And Wiebe doesn't forget to include an exciting chase scene through woods with rough terrain, running from a hollow-eyed enforcer. Dave doesn't even know where he is so he has to use everything he has; wits, wile, strength and endurance, to survive.

I will not be giving anything away by saying that he does survive. And solves the case. After all, we can all hope that INVISIBLE DEAD is called A Dave Wakeland Novel because it is only the first of a series that has everything a reader expects from noir fiction: an intriguing main character, terrifying bad guys and fast-paced action, by a plot-master and word-dancer. That would be Sam Wiebe, a name to remember.

§ Susan Hoover is a playwright, independent producer and retired college English teacher. She lives in Nova Scotia.

Reviewed by Susan Hoover, June 2016

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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