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Wakeland #5
The Last Exile: A Wakeland Novel
PI Dave Wakeland returns to the streets of Vancouver for his most dangerous case yet.
Maggie Zito is being held for murder. The volatile single mother is accused of killing the retired leader of the notorious Exiles motorcycle gang and his wife aboard their million-dollar houseboat. With a mystery witness putting Maggie at the scene, and the Exiles baying for her blood, it’s unlikely she’ll make it to the trial alive.
Desperate, Maggie’s lawyer, Shuzhen Chen, calls in a favour to Dave Find evidence of Maggie’s innocence and get her client out of custody.
Wakeland reluctantly returns to a changing city, full of unfamiliar dangers. To prove Maggie’s innocence, he and Shuzhen must reckon with the Exiles crime syndicate and their bloodthirsty leader. The bikers are on the verge of a civil war, and an unseen foe is gunning for the top spot.
Dave and Shuzhen have to put aside their complicated past to learn the identity of the witness, and find out why Maggie was framed for this killing. To complicate matters, Wakeland’s business partner is nowhere to be found. The security firm they started teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. Even if the case can be solved, and the business saved, can the partners ever trust each other?
Maggie Zito is being held for murder. The volatile single mother is accused of killing the retired leader of the notorious Exiles motorcycle gang and his wife aboard their million-dollar houseboat. With a mystery witness putting Maggie at the scene, and the Exiles baying for her blood, it’s unlikely she’ll make it to the trial alive.
Desperate, Maggie’s lawyer, Shuzhen Chen, calls in a favour to Dave Find evidence of Maggie’s innocence and get her client out of custody.
Wakeland reluctantly returns to a changing city, full of unfamiliar dangers. To prove Maggie’s innocence, he and Shuzhen must reckon with the Exiles crime syndicate and their bloodthirsty leader. The bikers are on the verge of a civil war, and an unseen foe is gunning for the top spot.
Dave and Shuzhen have to put aside their complicated past to learn the identity of the witness, and find out why Maggie was framed for this killing. To complicate matters, Wakeland’s business partner is nowhere to be found. The security firm they started teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. Even if the case can be solved, and the business saved, can the partners ever trust each other?
312 pages, Paperback
Published March 25, 2025
2 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
About the author
Sam Wiebe
22 books178 followersSam Wiebe is the author of CUT YOU DOWN, INVISIBLE DEAD, and LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS. He lives in Vancouver.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 23, 2025
Not a bad book, but somewhat business-as-usual for Dave Wakeland.
After spending a year in Montreal (in my neighborhood I might add), Wakeland comes back to Vancouver to act on a favor he wowed his partner's cousin who I didn't really remember from the previous novels. The appeal of The Last Exile is rooted in Wakeland's feeling of estrangement as he revisits his old stomping ground and slips a little too comfortably into old habits even though nothing is the same.
I don't know what bugged me exactly. I guess it felt too casual. Aside for his partner's predicament, nothing felt out of place really. I was happy to read Wakeland again, but he needs a tragedy.
After spending a year in Montreal (in my neighborhood I might add), Wakeland comes back to Vancouver to act on a favor he wowed his partner's cousin who I didn't really remember from the previous novels. The appeal of The Last Exile is rooted in Wakeland's feeling of estrangement as he revisits his old stomping ground and slips a little too comfortably into old habits even though nothing is the same.
I don't know what bugged me exactly. I guess it felt too casual. Aside for his partner's predicament, nothing felt out of place really. I was happy to read Wakeland again, but he needs a tragedy.
June 3, 2025
This latest in Sam Wiebe's west coast crime novels and when I say this novel has a vibe, I mean that reading THE LAST EXILE, felt as though Wiebe peeled Vancouver off a gritty, grimy map and pinned it to my wall.
The city hums like the amplified exhaust screaming from a Harley while Dave Wakeland reluctantly takes to the streets to help save a woman from being wrongfully convicted (or shivved in the Fraser Valley Institute for Women) for a double murder she most certainly did not commit. But who killed Budd and Jan? There is Tarantino-esque cast of characters to choose from, and with everyone some kind of bad guy, I actually wanted all of them to get what was coming in the end. There is family drama, a doomed-to-fail love story, gambling, the complicated hierarchy of a motorcycle gang, in a story that ends with a semi-hopeful glass of wine on a house boat. Semi-hopeful meaning, readers can be hopeful that Dave Wakeland will live again in another Sam Wiebe story.
I haven't read previous books in the series and I didn't have to....BUT I WILL!
The city hums like the amplified exhaust screaming from a Harley while Dave Wakeland reluctantly takes to the streets to help save a woman from being wrongfully convicted (or shivved in the Fraser Valley Institute for Women) for a double murder she most certainly did not commit. But who killed Budd and Jan? There is Tarantino-esque cast of characters to choose from, and with everyone some kind of bad guy, I actually wanted all of them to get what was coming in the end. There is family drama, a doomed-to-fail love story, gambling, the complicated hierarchy of a motorcycle gang, in a story that ends with a semi-hopeful glass of wine on a house boat. Semi-hopeful meaning, readers can be hopeful that Dave Wakeland will live again in another Sam Wiebe story.
I haven't read previous books in the series and I didn't have to....BUT I WILL!
May 12, 2025
In The Last Exile, the latest Wakeland novel, Sam Weibe outdoes himself. In this nail-biting novel, Dave Wakeland faces his toughest challenges yet.
Wiebe takes the reader on a gritty journey fraught with dangers, with myriad twists and turns. Can Wakeland and his partner Jeff Chen emerge unscathed? No plot spoilers here but this is the darkest, toughest, best Wakeland novel yet.
Wiebe is such a stellar writer that reading the book is such a treat. You fall into his world and when you close the book, you’re sad it’s over. You’re also kind of relieved it’s over but there’s so much to think about, to mull over. The relationships, the underbelly of crime, Vancouver, Canada, men and women doing their flawed best. Gritty, dark, on-point, if you’re a fan of crime fiction, don’t miss out on this one.
Kudos to Sam Wiebe for a seamless, five-star book that you’ll be glad you read.
Wiebe takes the reader on a gritty journey fraught with dangers, with myriad twists and turns. Can Wakeland and his partner Jeff Chen emerge unscathed? No plot spoilers here but this is the darkest, toughest, best Wakeland novel yet.
Wiebe is such a stellar writer that reading the book is such a treat. You fall into his world and when you close the book, you’re sad it’s over. You’re also kind of relieved it’s over but there’s so much to think about, to mull over. The relationships, the underbelly of crime, Vancouver, Canada, men and women doing their flawed best. Gritty, dark, on-point, if you’re a fan of crime fiction, don’t miss out on this one.
Kudos to Sam Wiebe for a seamless, five-star book that you’ll be glad you read.
September 14, 2025
This is the first novel in the Dave Wakeland series I have read. The protagonist is a gritty everyman with more disappointments than satisfying moments but still persists in love, family, and a search for justice. The author captures the gritty underbelly of Vancouver, often imagined but seldom witnessed by most of us. Sometimes he plays fast and loose with plot points, stringing together some improbable (but not impossible) plot points and (for those who live here) shrinking geography for the convenience of plot (like Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Vancouver being close to Surrey Memorial Hospital). It is a compelling and fast tale and leaves the reader with a feeling of empty-bellied sadness for Dave, for whom things never entirely work out.
November 9, 2025
3.5* rounded up.
Dave returns from Montreal to help his former receptionist (now a lawyer) prove her client didn't murder two members of the Exiles motorcycle club. This one was more depressing even than usual - Wakeland and Chen is on the brink of bankruptcy, and Dave is basically sorting out disloyalty in the ranks of the Exiles. It ends with him accepting a favour from his nemesis Rhodes, which isn't even the thin end of the wedge - more like the middle.
Dave returns from Montreal to help his former receptionist (now a lawyer) prove her client didn't murder two members of the Exiles motorcycle club. This one was more depressing even than usual - Wakeland and Chen is on the brink of bankruptcy, and Dave is basically sorting out disloyalty in the ranks of the Exiles. It ends with him accepting a favour from his nemesis Rhodes, which isn't even the thin end of the wedge - more like the middle.
March 26, 2025
Quite a fun read but there's a change in the characters that didn't sit right with me.
April 7, 2025
Such a great Canadian series. Love that things are never black and white but many shades of grey. Felt like I got to know Dave a lot better in this book.
June 9, 2025
Possibly the best of the Wakeland Series so far.
July 4, 2025
Welcome home, Wakeland.
July 24, 2025
The author's world is populated by women in positions of power. Skewed to the point of distraction.
January 29, 2026
This was terrific. I love how alive Vancouver is in these books, and the plot of this one felt very real. Wakeland is a complex, interesting chapter and I look forward to each book in the series.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews