Sam Wiebe's "Hell and Gone," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Hell and Gone by Sam Wiebe.

The entry begins:

Hell and Gone is the third novel in the series featuring Vancouver PI Dave Wakeland. As such, it hearkens back to the classic film noirs like The Big Sleep, the great neo-noirs like The Conversation, and also to classic British crime shows like Prime Suspect and Luther. All of those are influences. But rather than take the easy route and dream cast, say 1970s Gene Hackman, I wanted to choose contemporary talent, because Hell and Gone is a story about modern-day violence.

The Setup

Wakeland is the modern-day Jim Rockford (of The Rockford Files)—the person you want in your corner when there’s trouble. Tough, loyal, and handy with his fists, Dave is one half of Wakeland & Chen, Vancouver’s top private security firm. A capable and experienced detective, who’s seen just about everything.

But what happens in Hell and Gone shakes Wakeland to his core.

A robbery breaks out on the street in the early morning. Wakeland witnesses the violence from his office, getting a look at the shooters as they drive off. He leaps into action—literally jumping down from the fire escape to perform first aid on the wounded. A hero.

But when he enters the building where the shooters came from, he sees something so beyond his experience that when the police ask him what he witnessed, Wakeland refuses to say.

Soon Wakeland is caught between a ruthless police chief and a pair of gang leaders, all of whom want the shooters found, no matter the cost in human life.

The only way for Wakeland to come to grips with this is to find the shooters—before they find him.

In Front of the Camera

Rather than a physical type, when I think of Wakeland I think of a mindset: competent, compassionate, driven. Wakeland starts out confident and gets badly shaken up, and then slowly, painfully, pieces himself back together as he pieces the case together.

I think Wyatt Russell (The Lodge, Winter Soldier) would do an interesting job as Wakeland, because...[read on]

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--Marshal Zeringue