Invisible Dead

by Sam Wiebe

Overview

A gritty private-eye series begins on the streets of Vancouver, featuring an ex-cop with a moral compass stubbornly jammed at true north.

When PI Dave Wakeland is hired by a terminally ill woman to discover the whereabouts of her adopted child, who disappeared as an adult more than a decade earlier, it seems like just another in a string of poor career decisions.

Wakeland is a talented private investigator with next to zero business sense. And even though he finds himself with a fancy new office and a corporate-minded partner, he continues to be drawn to cases that are usually impossible to solve and frequently don't pay.

But it turns out this case is worse than usual, even by his standards. An anonymous tip leads Wakeland to an imprisoned serial killer who steers him toward Vancouver's terrifying criminal underworld. With nothing to protect him but his wit and his empathy for the downtrodden and disenfranchised, Wakeland is on the case.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781990776335
Publisher:	Harbour Publishing Company, Limited
Publication date:	03/17/2023
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	728,042
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Sam Wiebe's stand-alone debut novel, Last of the Independents, won an Arthur Ellis Award and the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and was nominated for a Shamus Award. His stories have appeared in Thuglit, subTerrain, and Criminal Element's The Malfeasance Occasional e-collection, among others. He lives in Vancouver.

Editorial Reviews

03/27/2017
Canadian author Wiebe’s desultory second novel and series launch (after 2014’s Last of the Independents) introduces Vancouver cop-turned-PI Dave Wakeland. Gail Kirby, who’s dying, hires Wakeland to find out what happened to her drug-addicted adopted daughter, Chelsea Loam, who disappeared more than a decade earlier at age 24. But no sooner does Wakeland start digging than it becomes clear that there are dangerous players—among them, the head of the notorious Exiles motorcycle gang—who want Chelsea’s fate to remain a closed book. Given the detective’s strong white knight streak, nothing could spur him on more, especially once his path crosses that of childhood crush Shay Nelson, a stripper whose escalating drug habit threatens to send her down the same rabbit hole as Chelsea. Despite the enigmatic, intriguing tough guy at its center and gritty local color, the novel’s haphazard plotting and efforts to deliver a message about Vancouver’s vulnerable female sex workers, particularly Native ones, blunt the overall impact. Agent: Chris Bucci, McDermid Agency (Canada). (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Witty, smart, detailed, and highly entertaining, Wiebe has a gift for place and character."
—Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author


"Wiebe illustrates the law of the jungle here, and he does it with great narrative skill and some very cool dialogue."—Booklist

"The enigmatic, intriguing tough guy at its center and gritty local color . . . deliver a message about Vancouver's vulnerable female sex workers."
—Publishers Weekly


"Moody, atmospheric, gray, and pensive . . . this is what being a P.I. is like. No glamour, girls, and glitz. Just hardnosed reality in all its gloom and glory."
—Great Mysteries and Thrillers


"Traditional private investigators such as Sam Spade win our respect. Dave Wakeland gets our affection . . . A story as appealing as it is mysterious."—Toronto Star

"Haven't yet heard of Sam Wiebe? You will soon . . . Lots of personal demons and good backstories give this novel heft. Wiebe is definitely a writer on the rise."—The Globe and Mail

"Sharp and terrific . . . A harrowing, superbly puzzling, and richly cinematic tale."—The Vancouver Sun

"Wiebe's writing is very fine . . . keeping us hooked long enough to reach a madly exciting payoff in an ending that can't be put down."
—Jules Brenner's Critical Mystery Tour


"Noir detective Dave Wakeland is exasperating and appealing in equal measures. And of course, burdened by a keen moral compass and a dangerous curiosity about things. The writing is crisp and pleasing. The plot is engrossing, with a nice array of suspects and red herrings. Vancouver is well-described, giving the book a sense of place and making the city almost a character in the book."
—Mac's Backs


"A gripping, wrenching, brilliant piece of fiction, quite possibly the definitive Vancouver crime novel."
—Owen Laukkanen, author of The Professionals


"Polished and nuanced . . . The detective novel is alive and well, and it might've just found its new generation flagship author."
—Dead End Follies

From the Publisher

2017-02-21
An ex-cop-turned-private eye revives the cold case of a young woman's disappearance in contemporary Vancouver.Dave Wakeland, the hero of what is presumably the first book in a series, fills out the genre requirements for a PI pretty nicely. He's tough, cynical in a way that disguises a commitment to justice, a drinker without being a drunk, disrespectful of authority, and with the type of background—ex-cop and ex-boxer—that denotes the ability to hand out, and take, punishment. Despite the objections of a slick partner in the high-powered security firm where he has signed on to work, Wakeland takes an assignment to aid a dying woman find out what became of her adopted daughter, who disappeared years before. The first tip, that she was the victim of a prolific serial killer, turns up nothing. But the vanished girl's experience with drugs and prostitution causes Wakeland to fall afoul of a local biker gang and, inevitably, baddies who operate at a higher level. The novel avoids the glumness and hopelessness that's too often confused with authenticity in crime writing. Wakeland is appealing enough if also, at this point, something like a sketch waiting to be filled in. His relationship with a former elementary school classmate-turned-sex worker and addict skirts the cliché of the man-as-savior, but it doesn't quite have the depth to make us feel as rueful as we should. But then all the supporting characters could be a little more sharply drawn and the book could stand to lose the beatings and deaths that are piled up toward the end. A promising-enough start for what might turn out to be an engaging series.

Kirkus Reviews