Michael Stachura

SFU alumnus turns Vancouver into the next great city of noir

With an epigraph from Raymond Chandler and homage paid to Walter Mosley in the embalming room of a funeral home bedeviled by necrophilia, SFU alumnus Sam Wiebe’s new novel, Last of the Independents, positions itself successfully within the noir tradition.  Even though 29-year old struggling PI Michael Drayton can be as hard-boiled as any of the great mavericks of noir, this is Vancouver noir. Here, the world of granola bars, London fogs, and the beauty of Vancouver in the fall, goes hand in knuckle-scarred hand with that of junked out prostitutes, vicious beatdowns, and a darkness visible in the shadows…

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