Ocean Drive

by Sam Wiebe

A paroled killer and a small-town cop find themselves on a collision course when the murder-by-arson of a college student sparks off gang violence along the forty-ninth parallel. His first day out of prison, paroled killer Cameron Shaw meets with a mysterious lawyer who offers him a small fortune to infiltrate the League of Nations crime syndicate. Shaw turns her down, intending to go straight. But with no job, no family and no prospects, he’s soon compelled to take her offer. In the small Pacific Northwest town of Crescent Beach, Washington, a body is pulled from a burning house. Police Chief Meghan Quick identifies the victim as grad student Alexa Reed. Alexa’s behaviour during her last few days strikes Quick as bizarre. Why did she remove the for-sale sign from her parents’ house, and why was she trying to meet with the League of Nations? As Quick tries to solve Alexa’s homicide, Shaw moves deeper into the League’s cross-border drug trade. With the threat of a gang war looming, and long-buried secrets coming to light, Quick must find Alexa’s killer, while rescuing Shaw from the brutal gang violence that threatens the future of Crescent Beach.

Genres: Canada

320 pages, Paperback

Published September 24, 2024

About the author

Sam Wiebe is the author of CUT YOU DOWN, INVISIBLE DEAD, and LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS. He lives in Vancouver.

Reviews

[Darmok · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid three stars for the story—alternating PoVs between a recently released convict and the cop who's investigating his activities—plus an extra star for the local setting.

As someone who reads mostly speculation fiction or novels set in America, reading about places I've been to was really exciting and cool. It's a 300-page crime novel, so the focus is on the plot and characters, but there's also strong social commentary on the justice system simmering underneath it all.

Maybe a few too many (and too unlikely) twists, but no real complaints. Will be reading more from Wiebe!

[Benoit Lelièvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

The correct rating here would be 3.5, but I'll give Sam Wiebe the benefit of the doubt in the absence of mechanics allowing us to apply nuance to our score.

Ocean Drive a first foray by Wiebe outside of the detective novel. It has a fun plot where greed, nice neighborhoods and the demon of urban development somehow connects together in the schizophrenic landscape of British Columbia. I loved the character of Meghan Quick too who's very True Detective-ish in her gritty realism and toxic small town politics. Liz Garrick was also nuanced and precise in the way Sam Wiebe is great at.

I had issues with the Cameron Shaw parts, though. I found them to be a tiny bit far fetched with the heavy gangbanging stuff. I mean, a directionless young man convicted of manslaughter gets out of bail and within a hundred pages, does stuff you would only do AT THE END of a Grand Theft Auto game. It's a little much. But I'm impatient with organized crime stories nowadays. Maybe you won't be. So, I liked Ocean Drive a little less than the Wakeland novels, but if you're looking for the proverbial summer read, you could do a lot worse.

[Anne Gafiuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

The haves vs the have nots, and then within each group competition to have more...all set in the White Rock, BC area. Cameron Shaw get into trouble with both groups, digging himself a continually deeper hole.

The cover photo was taken by the author! :)

[Lauren Clarotto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars purely because of how fun it was to read a book that took place in the suburb where I grew up. There was a scene at my old elementary school! And one on my old street! The first body turned up around the corner from Chris’s old house! I intimately recognized every store, every highway turn-off, every forest and ravine. (RIP Buy Low on Johnston Road - miss u)

I enjoyed that the author conveyed the jurisdictional nuance between White Rock, Surrey and Langley. I loved that the subtle differences between sub-suburban neighbourhoods and eras of construction were captured. I really loved that this was ultimately about a changing community - and there’s no better way to describe White Rock.

I guess people who grow up in big cities have this more often. But White Rock?! So fun.

[Brenton Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Darker and more violent than his other books, but similar in tone and approach. The characters are mostly well done.

I thought the mechanics of two alternating storytellers was handled really well.

There was one odd inconsistency that confused me. When he first gets out of prison, Cam's narration says he refused a ride. The next page he arrives somewhere in a sheriff's van.

I didn't love the end, but it was still good.

[Joel Nedecky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam Wiebe's first standalone is Ocean Drive, set in White Rock, British Columbia. The book opens with Cameron Shaw getting out of prison after serving 7 years for manslaughter. As he's released, Cam receives a message from an anonymous woman, asking him to meet her at a coffee shop. He obliges, and a short time later Zoe Prentiss, a lawyer vague with personal information, offers Cam money to complete an ominous task for her. Without giving anything away, Cam turns her down and, instead, gets a job in a warehouse, moves into a small apartment, and tries to make a life for himself. That is, until he’s pulled into the local underworld.

The chapters alternate between Cam and Meghan Quick, a station commander of the White Rock police force. Divorced, with a child in college, she manages a relatively small White Rock population, yet she feels the world around her changing. When a young woman is killed and set on fire, the investigation leads to powerful people who live by a different set of rules. Wiebe hits the mark with Meghan Quick, and I related to her struggle to accept that she doesn’t really know her community like she used to, and her complicated feelings about divorce and parenting touched on genuine parts of life.

Conversely, I wanted to know more about Cam's life before he went to prison. Cam has an uncle Pete, sort of a father figure, but they spend very little time together on the page. I think this relationship could have been the bridge to that portion of Cam's life, a few quiet moments to make the reader appreciate Cam's struggle.

At the end, both stories converge, and the final act is excellent, bringing several plot threads together in a satisfying conclusion full of action and violence.

[Kim]

Not rating it because I didn't finish. Had been looking forward to this book immensely, as I loved the author's Wakeland novel series. Ocean Drive is not part of the series but a stand-a-lone set in White Rock B.C. I had a couple of problems, 1. Could not get behind the main character Cam, he just kept getting more criminal like and more and more violent. I know he was a criminal but this went in a way different direction than I thought it would. 2. Too violent for me, I had to stop after Cam and his crew beat bodies to a pulp in bags so they couldn't be identified. Going to take a very long time to get that scene out of my mind.

[Peter Darbyshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard-boiled British Columbia.

That’s what best describes Sam Wiebe’s Ocean Drive, a dirty thriller set in the idyllic community of White Rock on BC’s West Coast. Only this paradise by the water has a seamy underside of sex, drugs and murder. Lots of murder.

Ocean Drive tells two stories: that of Cam, a troubled young man who’s just been released from prison for manslaughter; and Meghan, a divorced “cop mom” who’s trying to solve a murder where Cam quickly becomes a suspect.

Both are caught up in a world of urban gangsters and a changing world, where the old farmland of the West Coast is being replaced by urban sprawl and casinos, and society is increasingly divided between the generationally wealthy and those who can never get ahead.

Ocean Drive could have been pulled from the headlines of BC’s newspapers — it has bloody gang warfare, crooked lawyers, desperate losers, infamous criminal brothers and cops that walk all the grey alleys in between.

You’ll never look at Beautiful BC the same again.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ocean Drive by excellent veteran writer Sam Wiebe contains everything a mystery reader desires. The plot is multi-layered: drugs, guns, and gangs. What else could a reader ask for? Like many of his books, Ocean Drive takes place in British Columbia, specifically the city of Vancouver and its environs.

What would you do to avoid prison? Would you go undercover to work off your sentence? That's what our main character has to decide. He then infiltrates a rat nest of gangs dealing with drugs, murder, and mayhem. The reader must watch the ball as the action is fast and engaging. I vehemently, energetically, and unhesitatingly recommend Ocean Drive and Mr. Wiebe's growing backlist of excellent PI novels and standalone procedurals.

[Rob Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cam Shaw got out of prison early but he’s still doing time. I could be talking about the three years of parole but I’m really talking about navigating life after seven years locked up. The small Pacific town of Crescent Beach has expanded while Cam was trapped inside and not necessarily in a positive way. A murdered college student, rich people conniving for more power and the threat of a gang war embroil the town and its harried Police Chief Meghan Quick. Quick and Shaw are on a collision course that leads where neither one expected by the end of this taut crime thriller from one of the best authors working today.

[Ganesh Subramanian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A usual story involving a convict Cameroon coming out of prison after serving a term, being enticed to do some detective work on a crime syndicate by an unknown, but influential lawyer. Along the way, there is a suspected murder of a young girl who is found dead in her own house that is burnt down. The police Sergeant is tasked with unravelling the mystery and is soon faced with the same crime syndicate that Cameroon is trying to infiltrate and how together they solve the crime as well as bring the crime syndicate down. Overall it moves along predictable lines.
Thank you ‎for providing this book for review via Edelweiss All opinions are my own.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Wakefield series, but Ocean Drive just didn't do it for me. Disliked all of the characters - did not find anything redeeming about any of them. The repeated, heavy-handed gang violence, while not necessarily an issue for me, I just found a bit overdone and generally uninteresting. Decently written, as are all of Sam Wiebe's books, but I found myself waiting for the story to wrap up so I could move on. I'm sure others will enjoy this book but it was a little "meh," from my perspective. Overall, underwhelming. Rating rounded up to 3/5.

[Jim Bostjancic · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ex-con tries to make a sincere attempt going straight working nights in a warehouse but becomes embroiled in the criminal lifestyle and the attention of an experienced female commander of the local RCMP detachment. Well-heeled, civic minded, unsavory characters and the violence big city ugly. And you're familiar with the area, some of local author Sam Wiebe's insight into the setting is also droll and amusing.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone foolish enough to think there’s glamour in gang life, this book’s a wake-up
call. It is utterly chilling in the stark depiction of pain and death within that existence.
The plot moves at a quick pace, and the characters are often complex, but there is so much violence that it is exhausting.
That said, I really couldn’t put it down. I love Sam Wiebe’s books and look forward to each one.

[Chuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is already out (at least in eBook) as of May 2024. It was very well done, a bit less of a noir than the author's Wakefield novels, plus it's interesting to spend some time in the suburbs (mostly White Rock and a bit of Surrey). I loved the local colour, the two main viewpoint characters are interesting and there's some good police procedurals and a mystery.

[Bill Koch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark and gritty portrayal of the deviant underbelly of suburban life. Great protagonist with a flawed life but a stern morality and sense of duty. A nuanced portrayal of an ambivalent bad guy who fails in his attempts to extract himself from the whirlpool of criminality. Combines the idyllic small town atmosphere of a cozy mystery with the desperate cynicism of Cormac McCarthy.

[Magnus Skallagrimsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sam Wiebe strikes again in this Wakeland adjacent stand alone. He has s gift for creating an immersive setting with characters who easily guide the reader through, making you at home in even the most unfriendliest of places.

[Lester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yayyy..a ‘new’ book from Sam Wiebe!
I like his books cuz they are ‘personal’. For anyone that has lived in the areas he ‘writes from’ and even a bit of the life that he writes from..just gets you in the head and heart.
Thanks Sam Wiebe.

[Mandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was torn on this book. The writing is amateurish but I live in the area and can actually visualize where the crimes take place.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fictional RCMP and gangs in White Rock South Surrey. I loved it!

[Nik von Schulmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy the Wakeland series this one did not engage me nearly as much.

[Teresa Mills-Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 / 5

[geakin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

It’s quite the page turner!

[Holly & Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a page turner for sure but too much violence for my liking.

[Sydney Allan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intense drama with great character development. Really well written but slightly too violent for me.

[Vontel]

Definitely noir, some of the gritty under life at the West(aka Wet) Coast! Reads true to real life in the area (lower mainland of British Columbia), and particularly south Surrey and White Rock. Not a book to read before sleep so it took a little longer to read, with detours into some other books.

[DocGill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like this book - it's straightforward, if descriptive and rather violent.
Wiebe tells the story of two people really, policewoman Meghan and a recently released prisoners, Cam who starts off being portrayed as quite naive.
This doesn't last for long, after coming into contact with a dangerous gang, The League Of Nations.
Easy to read, but only really speeds up to be compelling reading at the end.
Some twists, nevertheless and pretty realistic in its portrayal of the type of gangs in BC.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got good towards the end. Hard to believe sleepy little White Rock could be this bad.