Sam Wiebe explores a changing Vancouver through his detective's most challenging case
The Vancouver writer shares how he wrote The Last Exile
Sam Wiebe wasn't sure he'd return to the world of Dave Wakeland. After finishing Sunset and Jericho, he considered leaving his private investigator behind. But after hearing from readers who connected deeply with the character and were eager for more, Wiebe found himself drawn back.
"I love doing this," he said. "And there's an audience for it, so I want to keep going."
The result is The Last Exile, the fifth book in the Vancouver-set crime series.
Wakeland returns to the streets of Vancouver that feel both familiar and changed — just like him. After a year away, the private investigator is drawn into a volatile case involving a single mother accused of murder, the notorious Exiles biker gang and a mystery witness.
As he chases the truth, the pressure mounts — the business is on the verge of collapse and his partner is missing. With the Exiles closing in, Wakeland has no choice but to step up and face what's coming.
"He has to grow up, so to speak, and realize that being in a business partnership, being self-employed, requires a certain amount of just going ahead and doing it," Wiebe told CBC Books.
Wiebe is the award-winning author of the Wakeland detective series, including Invisible Dead, Cut You Down, Hell and Gone and Sunset and Jericho. His debut novel, Last of the Independents, won the Arthur Ellis Award for best unpublished first novel and the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.
His work has been shortlisted for the Edgar Awards, Hammett Prize, Shamus Awards and City of Vancouver Book Awards, and has won the Crime Writers of Canada Award and a silver medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. He lives in New Westminster, B.C.
In his own words, Wiebe shared how he wrote The Last Exile.
Behind the Exiles
"Every private eyes series needs bad guys. And it was important to me that even though the Exiles operate outside the law, they have their own corporate hierarchy, and their own structure, and their own motivations. They're not just cardboard bad guys. So that group ranges from the really frightening president, Terry Rhodes, to Felix, who's a prospect. Someone who maybe even doesn't want to be there.
"But at this point in his life, he has nothing else. And this group is offering him power, security and acceptance in a way that nothing else is in sight.
It's more about extrapolating from the things that happened and thinking about how to make drama out of that, how to make a story out of that.- Sam Wiebe
"I hope that it's true to the spirit of Vancouver and what goes on in the Lower Mainland. It's definitely inspired by things that have happened. I never try to base any character on a real person or any crime on a real crime.
"It's more about extrapolating from the things that happened and thinking about how to make drama out of that, how to make a story out of that."
The contrast of the Vancouver setting
"Often when I write these books, I'm aware of certain things that have happened in a neighbourhood, what used to be there, things that happened in my personal life and movies that were shot there. So all of that is sort of going on in my mind.
"I was having a conversation with my friend Charlie Demers, who's a great writer and stand-up comedian, and also a regular on The Debaters show. He said to me, 'Vancouver has lost the smell of sawdust.' It was changing, becoming gentrified, and had lost much of the working-class heart it once had.
Even though the book goes very dark in some places, it also carries what I would call a working class heart to it.- Sam Wiebe
"I thought that was really perceptive. Some of that still remains. In the book, the character of Maggie Zito represents that for Dave and it's something worth preserving.
"Even though the book goes very dark in some places, it also carries what I would call a working-class heart to it.
"I love the idea that I can show Vancouver the way that I see it, not the way a tourist would write about it — the way somebody who grew up here sees it. So that's definitely important to me. And part of what makes detective stories so great is that you're following a character around different parts of the city, from the very rich to the very poor, cops to criminals and everyone in between."
"As somebody who's lived here, I think I've seen some of the best, especially things like the harm reduction ... and some of the very compassionate stuff that Vancouver has done. And then also some things that are really disturbing.
"It's important to represent the city holistically and to show all of that. I think over the last few years — obviously development has just shot up — and a lot of things have been lost. It's very hard to live here and it always has been. But the fentanyl crisis and with COVID, and some of the anti-Asian racism that came out of that, there's a lot of darkness that I didn't quite anticipate. So I wanted to sort of capture that too."
Journey into crime fiction
"Crime fiction was always one of the genres that I read. Even as a little kid, my parents had shelves of old paperbacks and all of them had great covers with scenes of violence or sexy ladies and stuff on them. You'd look at that and then look at kids' books, and it's like 'I don't want to read any kids' books.'
"So I always gravitated toward Dashiell Hammett, John D. MacDonald, Sue Grafton and that type of private detective story. It just always spoke to me.
So on one hand, it's really great escapist fiction and you get to just enjoy this pure story, but it's also based in the real world and you get to comment on that.- Sam Wiebe
"I like the fact that you get a sense of the place where people live and that they get to talk about issues like the environment and gentrification, things like that.
"So on one hand, it's really great escapist fiction and you get to just enjoy this pure story, but it's also based in the real world and you get to comment on that."
The ups and downs of series writing
"The biggest benefit is that you don't have to create a new voice. Wakeland's voice is very comfortable to me. I know what those registers are — I know what he finds funny, I know how he describes something. So that's a huge benefit.
"The difficulty is making each book unique and able to stand on its own, while also being part of a larger story. The great thing about a detective series is that you can start with the newest book. You don't have to begin at the start, like with a fantasy series where each book continues the same story. Each case stands on its own."
Writing process
"My wife, Carly, is an electrician, so we get up at 4:30 in the morning. She leaves for work and I sit down with a piece of paper and the cat and I start writing by hand. In the late morning or early afternoon, I type that up and revise it on the computer.
"My hope is just to keep getting up in the morning and writing.- Sam Wiebe
"I usually get about a 1,000 words a day — sometimes more, sometimes less. I try to do that first thing in the morning so it's done for the day and gets my full attention.
"Then I'll type it up on the computer. Once the book's finished, I print it out, read through it and start revising. The revision process can take a long time — getting the voice right is a big part of that.
"My hope is just to keep getting up in the morning and writing. That, to me, is such a win. I'm so fortunate to be able to do that. Anything else that happens after that is just a blessing."
Sam Wiebe's comments have been edited for length and clarity.
