Order LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS here
"There's no real polite way to say this, Mr. Drayton. Someone's fucking our corpses and we'd like it to stop."
Ancient philosopher Heraclitus said something very important about genre literature (or something related to): "you cannot step twice into the same river." This is the essence of the exercise, basically: renewing with that satisfying feeling by always doing the same thing. I love detective fiction. It might be my favourite genre, but I've read so many of them that my eyes have bled from cliché and ambient unoriginality a couple times. LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS, the debut novel from Canadian author Sam Wiebe, has a rather conventional structure and presentation, but it stands out through its author's sheer passion, craftsmanship and clever interpretations of the rules of its own genre. It might be a standard detective novel, but it's crammed with interesting characters and original cases to solve. Can't go wrong if you got these variables.
Michael Drayton is the last of a dying breed. He's an independent private investigator competing against private security companies and the local police to resolve cases and get paid. He is going through a rare, but profitable time where he is juggling between three cases: the disappearance of a young girl several years ago, the more recent disappearance of a junk merchant's son and a necrophile undermining the business of a funeral home. The Django James Szabo case is already a couple months old and has rebounded from the police to a high profile security contractor and finally down to him. Cliff Szabo is desperate to see his son again and he might've just knocked on the right door this time. Sometimes it's not about having the manpower, it's about caring and knowing who to talk to.
The first thing I've though about when I was reading LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS was Dennis Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro novels. It's not a carbon copy, but it clearly follows the model. Why wouldn't it be doing that? I like first time novels with shine within a set of defined variables better than those that are trying to accomplish too much, to be honest. LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS might not have the emotional urgency of Lehane's detective novels, but author Sam Wiebe understands the character driven nature of the genre and invested a lot of energy into building Michael Drayton into this dynamic, rugged, streetwise kid and not into a boring, generic, all-knowing badass. LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS shines through the subtleties and the nuances it brings to an iconic genre.
Another point where LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS exceeds expectations is through the cases Michael Drayton is working. First, working three cases instead of one is brilliant Not only it naturally quickens the pace of your novel, but it also obliterates the downtime and the ''mushy middle'' issues. The cases are also refreshing and fun. Of course, there are a lot of detective novels about missing children, but there are a lot of children who go missing in real life, too and Sam Wiebe untangles the cases without falling into cliché and melodrama, which are the two main pitfalls when writing missing children cases. There's also a freakin' necrophile on the loose. I mean, how many novels did you read that had one? Sam Wiebe's greatest achievement here is to have built solid, layered characters in such a busy novel, which leads me to think he's got unlimited potential as a storyteller.
LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS is going to deliver exactly what you expect from a detective novel. It did not exceed expectations, but it fulfilled them and most important, it didn't draw outside the lines. Accuracy and clarity of purpose really are what I'm looking for in first time novelists and Sam Wiebe shows that he has both, and that he also has an uncanny to deliver on both fronts: plot and character developments. LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS appeals to a very precise kind of craving from readers. Next time you're jonesing for a detective grind, resist the urge of picking up your old Dennis Lehane paperback for the sixteenth time (I feel like I'm talking to myself here, quite frankly) and give Sam Wiebe's LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS a shot. It won't disappoint you and next thing you'll know, you'll have new book releases to look out for.
Michael Drayton is the last of a dying breed. He's an independent private investigator competing against private security companies and the local police to resolve cases and get paid. He is going through a rare, but profitable time where he is juggling between three cases: the disappearance of a young girl several years ago, the more recent disappearance of a junk merchant's son and a necrophile undermining the business of a funeral home. The Django James Szabo case is already a couple months old and has rebounded from the police to a high profile security contractor and finally down to him. Cliff Szabo is desperate to see his son again and he might've just knocked on the right door this time. Sometimes it's not about having the manpower, it's about caring and knowing who to talk to.
The first thing I've though about when I was reading LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS was Dennis Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro novels. It's not a carbon copy, but it clearly follows the model. Why wouldn't it be doing that? I like first time novels with shine within a set of defined variables better than those that are trying to accomplish too much, to be honest. LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS might not have the emotional urgency of Lehane's detective novels, but author Sam Wiebe understands the character driven nature of the genre and invested a lot of energy into building Michael Drayton into this dynamic, rugged, streetwise kid and not into a boring, generic, all-knowing badass. LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS shines through the subtleties and the nuances it brings to an iconic genre.
Another point where LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS exceeds expectations is through the cases Michael Drayton is working. First, working three cases instead of one is brilliant Not only it naturally quickens the pace of your novel, but it also obliterates the downtime and the ''mushy middle'' issues. The cases are also refreshing and fun. Of course, there are a lot of detective novels about missing children, but there are a lot of children who go missing in real life, too and Sam Wiebe untangles the cases without falling into cliché and melodrama, which are the two main pitfalls when writing missing children cases. There's also a freakin' necrophile on the loose. I mean, how many novels did you read that had one? Sam Wiebe's greatest achievement here is to have built solid, layered characters in such a busy novel, which leads me to think he's got unlimited potential as a storyteller.
LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS is going to deliver exactly what you expect from a detective novel. It did not exceed expectations, but it fulfilled them and most important, it didn't draw outside the lines. Accuracy and clarity of purpose really are what I'm looking for in first time novelists and Sam Wiebe shows that he has both, and that he also has an uncanny to deliver on both fronts: plot and character developments. LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS appeals to a very precise kind of craving from readers. Next time you're jonesing for a detective grind, resist the urge of picking up your old Dennis Lehane paperback for the sixteenth time (I feel like I'm talking to myself here, quite frankly) and give Sam Wiebe's LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS a shot. It won't disappoint you and next thing you'll know, you'll have new book releases to look out for.
