"Shot in Vancouver"

Plus an excerpt from The Last Exile

Today is the publication day of The Last Exile—(in Canada at least; it comes out in the states next fall). It’s on shelves already at a lot of stores, and already on our local bestseller list. And the first reviews are very good.

“Like [PD] James and [Ian] Rankin, Wiebe has earned admiration for a signature style…Sentence by sentence, he exhibits a steady hand; and chapter by chapter he showcases a brain for criminal puzzles. Plus, from start to finish, there’s that painterly gift for observation.”

I started writing this series a decade ago. Along with the usual violence in a detective novel Wakeland has survived a publisher folding and a change of agents. Those aren’t small deals, and I’m grateful to the readers who’ve supported the series.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

The day before, I was sitting in a park near the Marché Jean-Talon, trying very hard not to smoke a cigarette. The swampy heat of late August in Montreal made this a little easier. Occupying a bench with a St-Viateur bagel and an Earl Grey tea, sweating through my flannel shirt. Listening to the noise of the market and the power surge sound of cicadas. My phone rang. That familiar 604 area code.

“Wakeland,” I said.

“I need help.”

In my former career, no three words could have prompted me to action more swiftly. Other than maybe, “you owe me.” Since retirement, though, I’d been practising radical indifference. Dave Wakeland version française was a creature of boozy idleness. He spent his days reading in parks and wandering an unfamiliar city, nights in bars with good music or sprawled on the fire escape outside his kitchen window. After eighteen months, I was only beginning to get a handle on him.

“You want, I can recommend a pi,” I said into the phone. “Have you tried Jeff Chen? He’s very good.”

“And very busy, Dave. And anyway, this is more your kinda thing.”

I knew the voice, and knew what she meant. Wakeland & Chen handled security and investigations. Jeff oversaw the larger and more profitable security division, leaving me to run the Department of Faint Hopes and Lost Causes[DF1] . My kinda thing.

“I’m retired,” I told the voice. “Find someone with fewer city miles on them.”

“City miles bullshit. Check your email.”

I did, seeing the ticket she’d already booked. Montreal to Vancouver, leaving in the morning. Fait accompli. Shuzhen Chen had left me no choice. I even knew the words she’d end our conversation with.

“You owe me, Dave.”

And I did.

Pick up The Last Exile (or Pre-Order if you’re in the States)

Shot in Vancouver

For the past couple of years I’ve been writing articles for Montecristo, mostly about film and tv shows shot in Vancouver. These have ranged from locations which pop up in everything, like Riverview Mental Hospital, to profiles of people like Raymond Burr and Donald Sutherland, to films shot here like Rumble in the Bronx, McCabe and Mrs Miller and The Changeling.

Last week I signed a contract for my first nonfiction book. Shot in Vancouver is about the films and shows, good bad and ugly, which have been made in and around Vancouver.

I’m excited to start work on it, thought nonfiction involves more research, even for what I hope is a relatively breezy and fun book.

Right now I’m tracking down a handful of difficult to find shot-in-Vancouver films. Some of these aren’t even on Letterboxd, such as the James Clavell directed The Sweet and the Bitter (AKA Savage Justice—and how can you not want to watch a movie that’s also known as Savage Justice?).

There’s also The Groundstar Conspiracy, Short Time, Russian Roulette…

It’s going to be a fun but busy year putting this thing together while still writing novels. As I work on Shot in Vancouver, I’ll be posting updates here and there.