SOLD! The Last Whale Hunter (by Justin Vibbert)

I'm woefully behind on my deal announcements, but I hope to get through at least one or two more before the end of the year! First up is Justin Vibbert's The Last Whale Hunter, which happily sold to Evan Phail at Diversion Books.

The Last Whale Hunter transports readers to the remote island of Bequia—a volcanic speck in the Lesser Antilles—and into a battle for the soul of the Caribbean. As China’s Belt and Road Initiative reshapes the region and U.S. developers scramble to counter with luxury resorts, local workers are being displaced and priced out of their homes. For former fishermen Nico, Junior, Baby, and Eustace, whaling isn’t about preserving tradition: it’s about staying afloat.

Bequia whalers originally learned to hunt from Yankee whaling vessels two hundred years ago, and still throw hand-forged harpoons from double-bowed sailboats. Image (c) Russell Fielding.

The heart of the book is Bruce Ollivierre, whose family has hunted whales for generations. We journey alongside Bruce and his crew as they battle millionaire environmentalists, crumbling ocean ecosystems, and an ancient foe five hundred times their size. Diving deep into Bequia’s resilient past, we uncover the story of Ollivierre’s enslaved ancestors, who built a whaling industry from scratch after British landowners abandoned the island's failing sugar plantations.

Now, as new empires carve up the Caribbean, Ollivierre has just days left in the season to land a whale and bring in enough money to keep schools open and his people fed. All eyes turn to the 2025 Easter Regatta, where a final hunt unfolds in full view of yachting tourists. Failure could mean the end of whaling on Bequia altogether.

The book is about survival on several levels: the physical peril of the hunt, the existential survival of an independent Caribbean, and the spiritual survival of the author, who was lifted from despair by his son’s obsession with Moby-Dick. With its heady swirl of colonial legacies and maritime adventure, it will captivate fans of propulsive dramas like The Wager and The Outlaw Ocean.

Justin is a journalist and English Instructor at the City University of New York whose reporting on underworld figures inspired the Off-Broadway play Royal Oak. In addition to his writing, Justin is a model who has appeared in major campaigns for Ralph Lauren and American Express.

Congratulations to Justin and Evan!