Death Wind

by William C. Heine

Originally titled THE LAST CANADIAN ( a much better choice, in my opinion) Death Wind is the story of a mysterious outbreak of plague which, in one of the novels most frghtening sequences, wipes out the combined populations of Canada, the United States, Mexico and both Central and South America in less than a week! One man, Gene Arnprior, gets his wife and two sons into the wilderness of Quebec before its too late and for a while the book settles down into a sort of Swiss Family Robinson style adventure story. But then....

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Canada, Horror, Dystopia, Apocalyptic, Post Apocalyptic

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1974

About the author

William C. Heine left New Brunswick in 1939 to spend six years in the Canadian Army and RCAF. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1949, Joined the London Free Press as a reporter, spent a decade on the paper's business side, and for seventeen years was editor-in-chief. Active in international journalist organizations, he travelled widely in North America, including the Arctic, and in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. He authored of two novels and several non-fiction books

Reviews

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The nuclear destruction … drifted down out of the atmosphere and settled on a lonely grave in the Quebec woods …"

The news out of Colorado was beyond bad. Case zero! The unthinkable had happened. A virulent plague with the ability to kill within minutes was spreading with astonishing speed. The minuscule handful of infected carriers who survived a near 100% mortality rate all but guaranteed the spread of the plague across the entirety of North and South America. Gene Arnprior made a snap foresighted survivalist decision to flee with his family to an isolated wilderness location in northern Quebec. THE LAST CANADIAN is the tragic, poignant, but nevertheless compelling and exciting story of Arnprior’s survival, his cross-country search for other possible survivors and, having discovered the cause of the plague’s inception, his desperate attempts to revenge the death of his family and his fellow citizens.

Notwithstanding his background as an engineer, Arnprior’s ability to jerry-rig machinery and to survive in the face of threats up to and including artillery bombardment and nuclear weapons stretched this reader’s credibility well beyond the breaking point. In addition, I thought Heine’s description of machinery, roads, airplanes, boats, and buildings to be in a usable state with only a modicum of repair after a five year onslaught of nature’s advances with zero human maintenance to be more than a little hopeful and querulously eyebrow-raising.

That said, the story, reminiscent of the 1963 television series THE PRISONER, was readable and enjoyable. And the ending, with definite similarities to Eugene Burdick’s cold war suspense thriller FAIL SAFE, was brilliant and totally satisfying. Although the description of those cold war politics and inter-governmental relations between the USA, Britian, Russia, and China, were somewhat dated, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend THE LAST CANADIAN to any reader.

Paul Weiss

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe that this book is out of print. I have been trying to find a reasonably priced copy of this book everywhere so I could read it again in anticipation that I will enjoy it as much as I did in highschool.

[rabbitprincess · Rating 3 out of 5]

* * * 1/2

I'll try to be as general as possible but there may be some spoilers.

A sudden, extremely lethal plague strikes the southwestern United States. It's deadliest for those downwind of the carriers, and those who contract it die within an hour. Gene Arnprior, an engineer who lives in Montreal, suspects that these deaths could be the beginning of a continent-wide pandemic, so he packs up his wife and two sons and flies them all out to a camp they have visited before in northern Quebec. This is the story of how he and his family survive in a world with a mysterious and deadly microscopic foe. Where did it come from? Is there a cure? And if there are any other survivors, what might they be like…?

I bought this solely on the strength of the title and the kind-of-cheesy back cover blurb; one of my weaknesses at used-book sales is precisely this sort of apocalyptic 1970s-era thriller set in Canada. As an example of this rather narrow genre, The Last Canadian delivers admirably. In Gene Arnprior we have an eminently sensible, resourceful protagonist who rises to any occasion, even occasions to which people should never have to rise. The plot moves quickly and feels very cinematic (we never do find out the mechanics behind the actual plague, but better to not describe it than to trip oneself up with pseudo-medical details). And it's kind of amusing to read about Arnprior's experiences wandering around deserted cities -- he can have his pick of rooms in the best hotel, drive off with a Rolls-Royce, and traffic is great! Of course one must balance that with the fact that there's nobody else left…

Warnings for the sensitive reader: there's an icky part where one woman describes her experience of being forced into a harem and raped. Not in great detail, but enough to make you go YEARGH! One of the major downsides for women in post-apocalyptic scenarios. Also, if you don't like to read about game animals being prepared for human consumption, there are a couple of gross bits at the beginning.

Apart from that, the only other quibble I had is that the ending is kind of cheesy, but as a work of entertainment, overall this book did the job quite nicely. Well worth the purchase price (I bought it for a dollar). Recommended for those who think the post-apocalyptic world needs more Canada, with a slice of Cold War.

[Grady Hendrix · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fiction debut of William C. Heine, editor of Ontario’s London Free Press, it came out in 1974 from Paperjacks “The Canadian Paperback company.” It’s an end-of-the-world novel that is essentially a maple-flavored version of Stephen King’s The Stand and it’s supposedly the basis for the Steven Seagal movie, The Patriot, even though they have almost nothing in common besides a super-plague. It is also a cause of great consternation among the few people who’ve read it because the main character is neither the last of anything, nor Canadian.

Eugene Arnipoor is an engineer living in Montreal when a plague appears in the United States and, like power ballads and anti-piracy bills, eventually spreads into Canada. It’s one of those diseases invented by impatient authors that kills everyone who comes into contact with it in about 20 minutes. On top of that, it’s airborne and moves faster than Fedex. You can be standing 50 feet away from someone who’s infected and suddenly — whammo! — you’re on the ground dead so the plot can keep moving. No awkward and prolonged symptomatic period here.

Read the rest of this review over on my website.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read May 2020 in the middle of a pandemic. This book was written in 1974 (my vintage copy is priced at $1.50!) Actually not much seemed different other than the lack of cell phones. Fascinating read - especially at this time. The main character Eugene Arnprior - Gene - is an engineer/pilot and has some great coping skills. If there was an zombie apocalypse I would grab this book to use for ideas. Same major world players - America, China, Russia, England. This 2020 pandemic is just a warning it could be worse just ask Gene.

Earlier review : I read this years ago when I was about 19 before Steven King wrote the Stand. It scared the #$%^ out of me and made me worry forever about how I would save my family. I searched and searched second hand stores until I found a copy again.

[cellomerl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty damn good, especially in this year of all years. This almost forgotten novel is so timely that I’d urge everyone with their eyes open to read it.

You will have an idea of what a real plague would be like. This example is extreme, but even 1% of this would be a thousand, a million times worse than what precipitated this year’s nonsensical behaviour.

You will be reminded by a voice from 1974 of how your mind and actions are being controlled even in 2020.

It covers a lot of literal ground. You will be provided with a great of detailed information about the geography and dynamic of Canada and the US, with an interesting unity between the two.

If you’re a Canadian engineer, the significance of the surname “Arnprior” to the story won’t be lost on you. Kind of an inside joke.

None of the characters in this book is sacred. The main character lives four different consecutive lives with a very distinct transition between each.

The language is a bit dated, given the references to world events that were then in recent memory, and of course women are basically concubines until they pass through the mystical male approval that turns them into wives. Then it’s OK to knock them around a bit. Both are artifacts of (1) science fiction, and (2) when the book was written.

The story gets rolling very quickly, and then starts to slow down, then picks up again.

There are many interesting details about survival techniques and the mechanics of flying a small plane. But it is not clear how the water keeps running and electricity keeps working even years after a plague wipes out almost everyone.

Side note: I’m pretty sure that much of The Stand was lifted from this book.

[Dominick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic. Not particularly well written, and more than a few implausibilities (like a protagonist who survives not only a devastating plague but TWO nuclear attacks directed at him personally), but nevertheless a classic of Canadian speculative fiction--if you can find a copy. Gene Arnpior wanders a devastated North America, eventually setting out to take vengeance on those he blames fo the plague that wiped out his family and his continent. An unconventional, in some respects, take on the typical post-apocalyptic scenario. Very Canadian in its political and sociological perspective.

[Zach Church · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good action and survivor stuff and a pretty original concept, though it devolves into a bonkers final third that, trying to avoid spoilers here, is comical in its anti-Communist fervor.

But overall pretty darn enjoyable, funny and fun like a ludicrous action movie, and interesting to read given the current state of things.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

An apocalyptic story: A fearfully fast virus is set loose in the American Rockies foothills. The protagonist, a soon-to-be-ex American in Montreal suspects the worst from initial reports and flees to the north woods of Quebec with his family; of course, some survive to carry the virus; they survive until a carrier happens by; only he survives of his family; he travels the now mostly dead cities of the east coast; he makes contact with a US destroyer off the coast of Florida; the contact is eavesdropped by a Soviet submarine and the chase is on. Set in the cold war times of the seventies it is an interesting look at the perils of the times: mutual assured destruction, Soviet vs free-world etc. Generally a good, but not inspiring, read.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting roller coaster ride of a read. Planes, boats, plague, survivalist skills,nuclear warheads, spies, secret laboratories,Soviet Subs,even a bit of sex for good measure, you name it, Heine crammed it in and everything comes full circle to the very last line.

Even though this was written in the early 70's,readers of today's popular novels like that of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code would most certainly enjoy this story. That said, Heine's character development and writing skills do outrank those seen in TDVC (but I feel there was room for more character development).

Even though the technology and politics are dated, the premise that Heine presents is even more terrifying in today's shrinking world.

[Nancy Mcdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent survival story about a man and his family who flee to an isolated cabin in Northern Quebec to escape a virus that wipes out the entire population of North America. Lots of plot twists and interesting political background.... it was written in 1974 and reflects the world situation at that time.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A family man has advance warning of a looming apocalypse. With a few hours warning, he stockpiles and takes his family to Quebec. The isolation is stark and feels very real. With dramatic twists that really sink home, this book is a real haunt.

[John Holdsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best post-apocalypse books I have read.

[Tamara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read it because it is my father's favourite book. The main character is an asshole - complete fucking piece of shit, in my opinion. So that made it a bit hard for me to read. It is especially hard to read given that I think the writer assumes we will love or admire the protagonist. My dad does. So there's that depressing little bit of realization. Interesting plot twist, though, and probably ahead of its post- apocalyptic/continent -wiped- out- by -plague story time.

[Char Glennson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A very timely read right now as well! I thought the novel had an intriguing plot line that kept me engaged throughout the book. I recommend it.

[JimC · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is entertaining and cheese. I'm surprised it wasn't made into a movie starring Chuck Norris. After all who could single handedly take on Russia and survive two nuclear explosions?

[Mike Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Are there any books that stick in your memory, decades after the first and only time you read them? The Last Canadian is one of those books for me. I read it somewhere between fall 1975 and summer 1977 when I was in middle school. I don't recall now whether my parents had bought it or borrowed it from the library, but I do know I read it only once. It had been on my mind for many years, and even more so since the COVID-19 pandemic. It's long out of print and very hard to find; I had to get an inter-library loan from another city to re-read it. It runs anywhere from $118 (paperback) to over $1,800 (hardcover) for a used copy on Amazon! Interestingly, the copy I borrowed is a British hardcover edition published in 1976, two years after the book came out in Canada. The blurb notes that it had already gone through five printings in Canada and sold over 100,000 copies "in a few months".

The story is straightforward. Eugene "Gene" Arnprior is a manager or executive in the Montreal branch office of an American engineering firm. When he hears news reports of a mysterious illness that is killing people in Colorado, he packs up his family and flees to a remote hunting/fishing camp in the Quebec wilderness. His instincts were sound, because the "plague" spread rapidly and killed nearly everyone in North, Central, and South America. Only a few thousand people survived, and they all became "carriers" of the deadly disease.

Gene and his family manage to survive for three years before a wandering carrier enters their camp by canoe and infects them all nearly instantly. His family dies, but Gene survives. This section is a little more than a third of the book, and is the section I remember best. It's a straight-up survival tale.

In the center section of the story, Gene makes his way back to Canadian and American cities. He encounters a few other carriers, but doesn't stay in any one place for long (most other survivor groups have been together for two or three years by this point). Gene is eventually discovered by Soviet-era Russians, who are monitoring the coast from submarines. It appears the Russians want to hasten the demise of any remaining survivors so that they can begin repopulating the hemisphere and create a new Communist domain. For reasons that are not made clear, the Russians take a particular interest in Gene, and obliterate the home he'd established for himself and his new girlfriend with sub-launched missiles. Gene survives but his girlfriend does not.

In the third and final act of the novel, the enraged and increasingly unstable Gene decides to make his way across the Bering Strait to the U.S.S.R to infect and wipe out the Russians. Indeed, he even tells them so through a shortwave radio. Needless to say, the Russians are terrified by this prospect and begin a massive search for him using satellites and high-flying surveillance planes. While all this is going on, there are a few scenes of political maneuvering by the Russians and the British as they compete to find a cure for the plague. The climax is fitting for a novel written during the Cold War.

William C. Heine was a newspaperman, and it shows in his writing. The style is direct and simple. There is very little imagery or metaphors. It almost reads like a newspaper story. The pacing is good, and the final act in particular feels like a thriller. There are some weaknesses, however; weaknesses that I probably didn't notice the first time, when I was a teenager.

Gene is a 1970s "man's man". He's a pilot, a veteran of the Korean War (more on that in a moment), can fix any car, can shoot, and can generally MacGyver solutions to just about any problem. He's also violent, almost certainly sexist, and possibly racist. He slaps his wife, hard, to motivate her to fetch their sons from school so they can flee the coming plague. He seems to view his wife and his later girlfriend as inferior to men in general, and is surprised when they show an ability to do things he considers a man's job. Gene groups people into stereotypical categories based on their appearance. To Heine's credit, the author seems to understand that Gene is not a typical hero, and has the wife bring up the slap a few times. Heine also implies that Gene has gone nearly insane by the end of the novel, but that doesn't really justify his plan to kill the whole world. It becomes impossible to sympathize with Gene by story's end, which is not a typical character arc for a protagonist.

There is also the issue of time. The book is set not too far after its publication in 1974. There is an Apollo XXIII mission underway when the plague strikes (the last real Apollo mission was Apollo XVII in 1972; at about two missions per year, Apollo XXIII could have been as early as 1975). Gene says at one point that he's 42, yet he was a Navy pilot in the Korean War (1950-1953). This is impossible unless Gene was no more than 20 by the end of the war. The chronology of Gene's travels after he emerges from his Quebec camp doesn't quite add up, either. Sometimes half a year goes by in a handful of pages, while at other points a few days can take dozens of pages to describe.

All that to say that it's a wild but very uneven ride. I particularly remembered the survival section, including a major accident with an ax and how the family dealt with that, as well as the arrival of the carrier that ended their lives. Gene's travels, sometimes meticulously detailed right down to street and hotel names, inspired me to write a similarly detailed story for a school English assignment. I pored over maps to create a plausible route for my characters. I kind of remembered that it ended badly for Gene and that Russians were involved, but those sections of the book were not as memorable.

I'm glad I was able to re-read this influential tale from my adolescence. It was compelling but flawed then, and its flaws are more evident now. It is massively politically incorrect by today's standards, although its sales figures at the time indicate that it struck a chord back then. For all its faults, The Last Canadian will always be a book I look back on with fondness.

[Joe Stamber · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Last Canadian was published in the seventies but apart from technicalities could have been written in the fifties. The style is very quaint and in particular the depiction of women. It's a post apocalyptic book, of course, with the disaster in this case some sort of plague which may or may not have been caused accidentally. The writing is very disjointed, the scene changes from a guy in the backwoods of America to a meeting of the Politburo with no break apart from a paragraph, which I thought was pretty poor. Like many PA books, The Last Canadian is essentially a road trip for Gene, the main character. He travels somewhere, finds everything he wants without trouble, stays a while and then moves on. Every now and then he faces some sort of peril but the reader soon realises that it's only a token gesture to provide some drama. Gene's rinse and repeat story is supported with a sub-plot involving the politics of the wider world and it all stumbles towards a conclusion that, to be fair, could have gone more than one way. The Last Canadian had potential, but it's all a bit too easy for Gene and the disjointed writing style gets in the way of what story there is.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Born out of the Cold War and in tune with modern lit/film that sees the world wiped out by mysterious plagues. Like the "The Last Man on Earth" TV series, the supposed last man finds other rather quickly. This quickly spirals from wary encounters to surviving multiple nuclear attacks from Soviets who seek to capitalize on having wiped-out the population of the Americas with a designer plague. Main character Eugene Arnprior, an American engineer living in Montreal only just having acquired Canadian citizenship, is like a character out of a Jules Verne novel putting together random technology and resources to find solutions. The book was an easy and interesting read. It was released in the U.S. as Death Wind. With all its connections to current culture and a resurgent Soviet-like Russia, this book is ripe for a revival and maybe even truer film presentation than the 1998 movie "The Patriot".

[Terry P · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read COVID-19 book!
If you enjoy Stephen King’s end of the world stories you’ll love this book.
Excellent pandemic book from the ColdWar era. An airborne plague worse than COVID-19 ravages North America. A survivor’s apocalyptic adventure and search for revenge. This almost unknown book would make a great movie. ALSO PUBLISHED in the USA as DEATH WIND. I'm very lucky to still have my rare copy of this great book.

[Galactic Hero · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a plague quickly wipes out the western hemisphere, the Last Canadian flees to northern Quebec where he hones his Rambo survival skills.

The bad writing had me worried at the beginning, but this book won me over with its grittiness and efficiency. Pretty much all boxes I'd want in this sort of deadly pandemic book got ticked by the end, and bonus points for taking place so close to home.

[Jane McArthur]

Fabulous book that I have read numerous times. The exploits of a man determined to get to Russia after what they unleashed on the two western continents.

This poor man goes through hell and the author was so exacting in his descriptions of areas, people’s, animals, among other necessary needs for human-kind! I thoroughly recommend this book to all as it is rather prophetic with what is happening in our world today (March 2020).

[Pauline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been great, but rather disjointed. It started very good, but then I lost it because there was no flow. One minute you're reading about Russians, the next you're in Northern Quebec - without realizing how you got there. Also very technical at times.

[Goldencompass Ca]

This was my first book on the subject of survival and what it will take. Always remember to have a destination. I find it interesting that my thoughts on this subject began so many years ago. Its something I am sure was directly related by my reading of this book.

[Monique · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subdued and engaging story about a mysterious that takes over North and South America killing everyone except for a few infected people who recover and try to make a new life. Quite a plesant rean, very Canadian in approach and in its conclusion.

[Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, read this one in high school. Not as spectacular as I remembered but that could be due to my maturity and so many books doing the similar things. Still, fast paced and very enjoyable. I'll leave my rating at 5 stars because it's still a great book.

[Gretta Vosper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was in high school so was amazed to see it on people's lists. But the fact that I think of it more than I'd like is testimony to its impact. And yes? It is like a much shorter Stand.

[Richard Piet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Stephen King read this and got the idea for The Stand from it.

The book is fun because they talk about places I have visited in Canada.

[Kevin Gallan · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best end of the world books i have read

[Angela Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

My edition is titled "Death Wind".