Sam Wiebe

Cut You Down, the latest novel in Sam Wiebe's series featuring Vancouver PI Dave Wakeland, is garnering rave reviews, including a starred review from Publishers Weekly. He's also the author of Invisible Dead and Last of the Independents, and the editor of the forthcoming Vancouver Noir. Wiebe lives in Vancouver.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Wiebe's reply:

Sheena Kamal’s follow-up to her best-selling debut The Lost Ones is titled It All Falls Down. It takes flawed heroine Nora Watts from Vancouver to Detroit in search of clues to her father’s mysterious death, and to her own fractured family life. It builds on the strengths of the first book, while adding new dimensions to the character and delving into topics like North America’s treatment of refugees and soldiers. I really like Nora’s (and Kamal’s) sense of humour, which veers between acidic and absurd.

I’ve also been reading Joe R Lansdale’s Hap and Leonard series, trying to keep ahead of the TV series. Mucho Mojo finds Leonard, a gay black Vietnam vet, inheriting a house from his uncle, only to find the body of a child buried beneath the floorboards. Narrated by Hap, an ex-prisoner and conscientious objector, the story unfolds like a John D. MacDonald novel told by Mark Twain. Darker than the first book, but leavened by the terrific interplay between characters, Mucho Mojo led me to immediately pick up the third book, The Two-Bear Mambo, which has one of those great James Crumley-esque opening paragraphs. Pick it up and see for yourself.

Visit Sam Wiebe's website.

My Book, The Movie: Invisible Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Invisible Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue