Book 1

Last of the Independents

by Sam Wiebe

Published 1 January 2014
2015 Kobo Emerging Writer's - Winner, Fiction

2015 Arthur Ellis Award - Nominated, Best First Novel

2012 Unhanged Arthur Award - Winner, Best Unpublished First Crime Novel


What do a necrophile, a missing boy, and an unsavoury P.I. have in common? Private detective Michael Drayton is about to find out....


Twenty-nine-year-old Michael Drayton runs a private investigation agency in Vancouver that specializes in missing persons - only, as Mike has discovered, some missing people stay with you. Still haunted by the unsolved disappearance of a young girl, Mike is hired to find the vanished son of a local junk merchant. However, he quickly discovers that the case has been damaged by a crooked private eye and dismissed by a disinterested justice system. Worse, the only viable lead involves a drug-addicted car thief with gang connections.

As the stakes rise, Mike attempts to balance his search for the junk merchant's son with a more profitable case involving a necrophile and a funeral home, while simultaneously struggling to keep a disreputable psychic from bilking the mother of a missing girl.