Cut You Down by Sam Wiebe / Review by Tim Suddeth
BOOK OF THE DAY
Cut You Down (Quercus, 2018) is the follow-up to the best-selling Invisible Dead and second in the Wakeland series by Sam Wiebe. It follows PI Dave Wakeland as he’s hired by a college professor to search for one of her students who she may or may not have feelings for. The girl’s disappearance becomes much more than he expected when he discovers that several million dollars have also gone missing and she was connected to a notorious family of criminals with a penchant for violence.
He is helped by the police officer and on-again-off-again lover, Sonia Drego, who has her own problems. She has doubts about her partner but doesn’t feel free to go to anyone. Wakeland is an ex-cop himself and any bridges to the force have been burned long ago.
Wakeland encounters more than his share of threats, beat-downs, and double crosses. Everyone around him has their own agendas. Although he’s alone and lost, he’ll never give up.
Set in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the author lives, the city becomes another character contributing the right amount of atmosphere and darkness. Wakeland harkens back to such private eyes as Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and other crime noir detectives by Dashielle Hammett, Raymond Chandler, et al, where the lines between good and bad were blurred at best, they never knew whom they could trust, and the criminals were as colorful as the good guys. With fast action and numerous twists, the reader will find themselves wanting to get to the next page.
Sam Wiebe has built a reputation for creating PIs who seem straight out of the pulp fiction classics. Cut You Down will only add to it. I’ m looking forward to seeing if Wakeland is able to get back on his feet or what kind of haymaker life throws at him next.