John Straley

Page Updated: 16/11/99

John Straley

Angels Will Not Care

07 Oct 99

pbk 07 Oct 99

Death and the Language of Happiness

The Music of What Happens

The Curious Eat Themselves

The Woman Who Married a Bear

About the Author

Bibliography

Paperback - Gollancz (1999)

First British Edition Gollancz (1999)

Angels Will Not Care
Trouble is Alaskan private eye Cecil Younger's business, but the kind of trouble he's seen lately has definitely not been good for business. Taking the blame for a friend's suicide has hurt both his conscience and his reputation, and his most thrilling case right now involves chicken-coop surveillance. Chasing chickens was not what he had in mind when he went into the trouble business.
Enter Sonny Waiters of the Great Circle Cruise Lines, whose first-class ship has a first-class problem: unsavoury rumours about the ship's doctor, not good for trade when most of the passengers are already old and infirm. More than that he will not say, but with free rein, free passage and free bar tab, Cecil's not about to quibble.
The ship turns out to be not so first class, and the bar tab has strings attached, but there's worse: amid all the bird-watching, limbo contests and bridge tournaments, enough well-heeled passengers go bellyup to ensure that this cruise is not a rest cure. And that's before he's even met the hungry bear…

British Pbk Original - Gollancz (1998)

Death and the Language of Happiness
Cecil Younger is a private investigator who takes comfort in the absurdity of the universe. And the universe is obliging him with a joint phone call from his lawyer and his shrink to convey a message from another client: someone will pay Cecil well to get rid of a problem ... by killing a man.
Common sense tells him that this is not a good career move, but he needs the money. The potential client, 97-year-old William Flynn, is razor-sharp on what happened eighty years ago, but he's none too clear on what happened this week. What happened this week is the murder of Angela Rameriez, and the murder weapon has been found in Flynn's room at the nursing home. And Cecil's potential victim is Angela's ex-husband.
Finding him - which might, after all, help Flynn's defence - takes Cecil from a rough and-tumble Aleutian island town to the perilous streets of Seattle, from the pathetic murder of a drunken woman in a cheap hotel to a decades-old slaughter that is still reaching into the present. And its dark and chilly grasp may extend to Cecil Younger himself...
"Death is full of memorable characters, wacky humour, and light-hearted whimsy, but it also offers readers a rare and honest glimpse of human beings at their best and worst" Chicago Booklist
"The guy can write. Straley has a loose-limbed, lyrical prose style, and there is a sweet gracefulness to the way he portrays his fiercely independent, often slightly dingy, characters" Seattle Times
"What makes this latest Alaskan mystery a must is - as always - the sheer beauty and energy of Straley's writing" Chicago Tribune
"John Straley is a superb storyteller who maximizes his Alaskan setting and the colourful native characters who make up the state" Harriet Klausner, Netcom
"Straley's characterizations plumb depths rarely tried in mystery writing; his writing touches truths that are often fleeting, always rewarding" Rocky Mountain News
"The best Cecil Younger adventure so far" Anchorage Daily News
'Straley flawlessly expresses both his and our own underlying anxiety about the world around us in this superb series' San Francisco Chronicle
'Mr Straley writes with such brio' New York Times

Paperback - Vista (1997)

First British Edition Gollancz (1997)

The Music of What Happens
See Review by John Baker
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
Sitka, Alaska, is a place where civilisation touches on a wildness of water and ice, where a man could lose his mind in a long winter of danger and doubt. Cecil Younger is fresh out of the psych ward, but he has it on medical authority that he's not crazy -just suffering from substance abuse and a crack on the head from his client's ex-husband. And instead of the prescribed rest and recuperation, his client has brought him into the custody case from hell.
Priscilla DeAngelo, is certain there's a conspiracy afoot to take her son from her - anyone who says different must be in on the plot. She storms off for a showdown with a state senator she's convinced is in cahoots with her ex ...and suddenly Cecil's custody case has turned into a murder.
'That rarity, a unique voice... These novels have established Straley as a purveyor of darkly poetic, off-beat crime fiction. Really excellent, the kind of book you're always looking for and rarely find' Crime Time
'No one on the crime scene writes with Straley's elegiac gloom. No one else invokes his landscapes, teeming with sea-lions, golden eagles and hump-backed whales. Underlying it all there is sound plotting (this one involves a legion of retired hoods, tucked away by the state since the fifties) and an aching romanticism. It's a unique talent, cherishable and a good deal tougher than you might suppose' Philip Oakes, Literary Review
'The voice is son original that is can only belong to John Straley… Definitely up there with the great ones' Chicago Tribune

First British Edition Gollancz (1996)

Paperback - Vista (1997)

The Curious Eat Themselves
See Review by Liz Lees
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
"No one really hires me to find the truth," says Cecil Younger. "They hire me to imagine their innocence."
Cecil works as an investigator for the public defender in Sitka, Alaska. In this, the second Alaskan mystery, a woman hires him to investigate a sexual assault she insists took place at an isolated mining site where she worked as a cook.
It might have remained a straightforward case of assault if she had not also been probing the environmental safeguards of the gold-mining operation, and if, subsequently, she had not been found dead in the estuarial waters of Ketchkan township, Alaska.
The Curious Eat Themselves is a tense and fascinatingly atmospheric novel from the highly praised author of the Shamus Award-winning The Woman Who Married a Bear.
"Haunting and mesmerising... strange, poetic and funny and unlike anything else you'll read this year" Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
"An impressive novel... cults have started from less" Literary Review
"Straley’s skill in weaving his background into the story makes his regional series one of the strongest since Tony Hillerman set up shop." Kirkus Reviews
"Superior thriller writing once again by Straley ... an excellent plot against Alaska’s gigantic and bizarre backdrop. Cynical and poetic - a fine read" Janwillem van de Wetering
'Strong and sobering… with his storyteller's sense of dramatic action [Straley's] in his glory' New York Times Book Review
'Straley's gumshoe - a man at war with himself and the bottle - is a brilliant creation' Liverpool Daily Post
'One of the best prose stylists to emerge from the genre in a long time, and his evocation of the chilly, dangerous landscape and climate effectively sets a foreboding tone' San Francisco Chronicle

Paperback - Vista (1996)

First British Edition Gollancz (1995)

The Woman Who Married a Bear
See Review by Liz Lees
The Alaskan port city of Sitka is hardly straitlaced, but murder is uncommon. Take the killing of a Tlingit hunting guide by a farmer obeying voices from the earth's centre. Although the case is long closed, the victim's aged mother wants Cecil Younger to investigate. She is not interested in who killed her son - the killer confessed, and is in jail but why he was killed.
Cecil is respectful, but dubious. If cops collect the oral history of a crime, his belated contribution will be not much more than folklore at best. She wants him to do it anyway.
The truth hinges on the meaning of a Tlingit myth. And the danger lies in finding it...
Set against the modern Alaskan frontier and the surviving pantheism of its indigenous population, The Woman Who Married a Bear is a rich and exotic story. Like the work of Tony Hillerman and Arthur Upfield, it touches on mysteries far beyond the conventional.
"A fascinating Alaskan setting, great characters, a highly unusual plot and remarkably good writing. It’s a winner" Tony Hillerman
"Nothing is as the reader expects. Dark, poetic and shot through with a strange humour" Val McDermid, Manchester Evening News
"A dazzling debut that has echoes of Tony Hillerman … Straley’s gumshoe - a man at war with himself and the bottle - is a brilliant creation" Liverpool Daily Post
"Unusual, written with a strange sense of magic and making full use of its exotic setting" Mat Coward, Morning Star
"A darkly poetic thriller with a strange sense of place, and exotic debut which augurs well for the author" Maxim Jakubowski, Time Out
''Flashes of the dark poetry of Ross McDonald' Chicago Tribune
'The Woman Who Married a Bear weaves Alaska's two wildest sides together - the dark secret world of city nights, with its streets and bars, and the sprawling world of the bush country and mountain forests where bears and ravens preside. [Straley] lets you breathe the chill wetness of the country and he gives you the people of these outpost communities exactly as they are' Richard Nelson, author of The Island Within

About The Author
John Straley formerly worked as a criminal investigator often working for the state of Alaska. He is the author of four crime novels featuring Cecil Younger. His first, The Woman Who Married A Bear, won The Shamus Award. He lives in Sitka, Alaska with his young son and his wife, a marine biologist who studies whales.

Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

Angels Will Not Care (Gollancz, 1999) Oct 99 Gollancz Pbk Oct 99

Death and the Language of Happiness (Gollancz Pbk, 1998) (Cecil Younger)

The Music of What Happens (Gollancz, 1997) Vista Pbk Dec 97 (Cecil Younger)

The Curious Eat Themselves (Gollancz, 1996) Vista Pbk Feb 97 (Cecil Younger)

The Woman Who Married a Bear (Gollancz, 1995) Vista Pbk 1996 (Cecil Younger)

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