Sunset and Jericho: A Wakeland Novel

In Wiebe’s boilerplate fourth Wakeland novel (after 2017’s Cut You Down), Vancouver, B.C., mayor Valerie Fell hires PI Dave Wakeland to find her spoiled 51-year-old brother, who went missing three days earlier. Much to Wakefield’s business partner’s frustration, he is more interested in a lower-paying case concerning an assault on Rhonda Bryce, a courageous female transit cop, resulting in the theft of her service revolver. Nearby pawnshops provide a promising lead, and Wakeland’s gut instincts establish a connection between the robbery and a wave of graffiti related to an underground organization that uses the moniker the Death of Kings. As Wakeland unmasks those at the heart of the criminal group, he discovers a shocking spate of abductions and murders, and is drawn into a class conflict that threatens to destroy him. Intermittent moments of taut action and suspense make up only in part for contrived plotting and an underwhelming conclusion. Hopefully, Wiebe will do better next time. (Apr.)