Background
John Straley was born in 1953 in Redwood City, California, United States. He was the youngest of five children. He grew up in the Seattle area and in New York City.
Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, United States
John Straley attended Grinnell College.
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States
John Straley studied at the University of Washington for a degree in writing. He received a Bachelor of Arts in English.
(High drama meets local color as a private investigator wo...)
High drama meets local color as a private investigator works to uncover the motive and identity of a killer in this Shamus Award-winning first Cecil Young investigation set in Sitka, Alaska. Cecil Younger, a local Alaskan investigator, is neither good at his job nor at staying sober. When an old Tlingit woman hires him to discover why her son, a big game guide, was murdered, he takes the case without much conviction that he’ll discover anything the police missed. He really just needs the extra cash. But after someone tries to kill him, Younger finds himself traveling across Alaska to ferret out the truth in the midst of conspiracies, politics, and Tlingit mythology. High drama meets local color as Cecil Younger works to uncover the motive and identity of the killer.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HW7DWU?ref_=dbs_mng_calw_0&storeType=ebooks
1992
(The second book in the Cecil Younger P.I. series set in S...)
The second book in the Cecil Younger P.I. series set in Sitka, Alaska When Louise Root, a new client of Cecil Younger, is found murdered, the private investigator finds himself in the middle of a web of secrets and deadly repercussions - usually not found in the world of environmental politics. Not only that, it seems everyone suddenly wants Younger's help: his old friend, Doggy, the DA; his autistic roommate, Todd, whose Labrador retriever has disappeared; an image-conscious environmental activist; and even the sleazy executives of Global Mining, whose interest in the case is a more than a little suspicious. In the midst of all this, Younger is wrecked by guilt, and his personal life is fraying as he tries to keep his drinking under control. He's got his hands full trying to juggle his lingering emotions over his ex-lover, the multiple investigations, and simply trying to stay alive.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HYHAL2?ref_=dbs_mng_calw_1&storeType=ebooks
1993
(In the third entry to the series, Alaska P.I. Cecil Young...)
In the third entry to the series, Alaska P.I. Cecil Younger is fresh out of rehab with a head wound, a child custody case from hell, and the clients to match. Confrontational and obsessed, Priscilla DeAngelo is sure her ex is conspiring with a state senator to wrest her son from her, and thus, she hires Cecil Younger to investigate. This is the first time Younger has to deal with lawyers in flashy suits and overused paper shredders. When she storms off to Juneau for a showdown, Younger's custody case swiftly turns into a murder. Younger is fired from the defense team, but he can't stop thinking about the case and keeps on with the investigation alone. He's not sure what keeps him involved. Is it Priscilla's sister (his lost love)? His regard for truth as a rare commodity? Or the head injury Priscilla's ex gave him? But there's one thing he knows: he won't let go until it's solved, even if it kills him.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075WB1C6L?ref_=dbs_mng_calw_2&storeType=ebooks
1996
(In the Alaskan town of Sitka, the living is tough and the...)
In the Alaskan town of Sitka, the living is tough and the crimes are aplenty and plenty personal. When 97-year-old William Flynn is accused of killing his neighbor, Angela Ramirez, he turns to private investigator Cecil Younger with an odd - and, frankly, rather incriminating - request. He wants Cecil to track down a man he believes witnessed Ramirez’s murder: her estranged husband, Simon Delaney. The only problem? Flynn doesn’t just want Cecil to find Delaney. He wants him to kill the man. Cecil knows that kind of thing would be bad for business, but he takes the job, hoping he can both convince Flynn to call off the manhunt and discover what really happened to his neighbor. But the old man isn’t making the job easy. He keeps confusing two different crimes: Angela Ramirez’s recent murder and an 80-year-old tragedy in which four American Legionnaires were killed during an Armistice Day Parade. Cecil struggles to sort through the old man’s befuddled memories and dives into the search for Delaney, which takes him on a journey through Alaska history and all over the Pacific Northwest, from the Aleutian Islands to Centralia, Washington.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075WC917P?ref_=dbs_mng_calw_3&storeType=ebooks
1997
(Trapped on an Alaskan cruise line, PI Cecil Younger must ...)
Trapped on an Alaskan cruise line, PI Cecil Younger must expose a killer - and fast - or he may just find himself sleeping with the fishes. Cecil Younger never thought it would come to this: running surveillance on a chicken coop that’s being raided by a fowl thief. But things have not exactly been breaking right lately for the Alaskan PI. The logical thing to do? Take a vacation, of course. Well, it’s not exactly a vacation. Cecil has been paid to investigate a doctor aboard a cruise ship up the Alaskan coast following some complaints from his patients that is, the patients who are still alive to complain. Worst of all, someone is leaving evidence pointing an accusing finger at Cecil. By the time the S.S. Westward makes landfall, Cecil will be wishing he was back guarding chickens.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075WBRGRZ?ref_=dbs_mng_calw_4&storeType=ebooks
1998
(After years on the job as a private investigator in Sitka...)
After years on the job as a private investigator in Sitka, Alaska, Cecil Younger doesn’t claim to have learned much about humanity as a whole, but he does know this: truth is a slippery thing. When the wife of a former client asks Cecil to find her husband, Cecil agrees. After all, helping to get Richard exonerated during a tragic murder trial three years ago was one of the biggest successes of Cecil’s career. But why, if Richard’s name was cleared, is he MIA now? Patricia, Richard’s steadfast wife, has one guess: someone is after him. It’s no secret that Richard has a long list of enemies, not least of which are the family members of the dead. But things soon get complicated when Patricia is killed, sending Cecil on a desperate trip to sea to chase down the twisted truth.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075WCCSQ8?ref_=dbs_mng_calw_5&storeType=ebooks
2001
(A collection of twelve all-original mystery tales set in ...)
A collection of twelve all-original mystery tales set in Alaska features Anne Perry's "Rearrangements," "Finding Lou" by John Straley, "Losing Streak" by Sue Henry, and Dana Stabenow's "Cheechako," along with works by Donna Andrews, S. J. Rozan, Kate Grilley, Michael Armstrong, Mike Doogan, Kim Rich, Brad Reynolds, and James Sarafin.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451207424/?tag=2022091-20
2002
(In 1922, The Nation launched a series of forty-nine artic...)
In 1922, The Nation launched a series of forty-nine articles by a distinguished group of writers - novelists, journalists, educators, social workers, lawyers, unionists, and maverick intellectuals - each of whom was asked to contemplate his or her state of the union. Their essays were collected and published in a volume: These United States: Portrait of America from the 1920s. In 2002 Nation Books set out to create a contemporary portrait of America with the critic John Leonard as editor. Each contributor was asked to write 2,500 words on his or her state in the union. Every state will be represented, as well as New York City, Long Island, and Northern and Southern California. The results of this ambitious project are now being published together for the first time. Taken as a whole these essays form less a symposium than a remarkably evocative crazy-quilt of styles that reveal the many moods, apprehensions, complexities, and contradictions held within these United States. Some of the 115 confirmed contributors include: Charles Bowden, Arizona; Ana Castillo, Illinois; Jim Harrison, Michigan; Luc Sante, New Jersey; Tony Hillerman, New Mexico; Sherman Alexie, Washington; and Annie Proulx, Wyoming.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560252855/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(Random acts of violence, murder, and revenge abound in th...)
Random acts of violence, murder, and revenge abound in this electrifying collection of mysteries from such contributors as Margaret Coel, Loren D. Estleman, Dana Stabenow, Laurie R. King, and S. J. Rozan.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/045121286X/?tag=2022091-20
2004
(An original anthology of short fiction blends the mystery...)
An original anthology of short fiction blends the mystery and fantasy genres in a collection of magical mystery from Anne Perry, Charlaine Harris, Simon R. Green, Sharon Shinn, Michael Armstrong, Anne Bishop, Donna Andrews, Dana Stabenow, John Straley, and other notable authors.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/044101464X/?tag=2022091-20
2006
(Alaska, 1935: Slippery Wilson is on his way out of town w...)
Alaska, 1935: Slippery Wilson is on his way out of town when he runs into a woman, her neice, and a crashed car. His life is about to get a lot more complicated. It's 1935 and jobs are scarce, but Slippery Wilson walks off his job at a logging camp after a gruesome accident kills a coworker. He's headed for Seattle with all his savings; he plans to buy a piece of farmland and be his own boss. When he stops to help a woman get her car out of a ditch, his life takes a serious detour. The woman is Ellie Hobbs, an anarchist from the docks of Seattle who watches out for her young niece and dreams of flying planes. But right now, she's got one busted nose and has just stuffed a dead man's body into the trunk of her car. So begins the action that will take Slip, Ellie, her niece, and her noisy yellow bird on a heart-stopping adventure up the Inside Passage from Puget Sound to Alaska.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EGMBKPC/?tag=2022091-20
2008
(John Straley crafts here a collection of poems that pay h...)
John Straley crafts here a collection of poems that pay homage to his home of the Pacific Northwest and southeastern Alaska. His narrative poetry is infused with sharp wit and delicate details, as he meditates on the natural world of the Pacific coastline and its rhythmic seasonal patterns, cycles of rain, and rich abundance of earth. Straley intertwines the personal and political to create elegies of refreshing honesty and universal scope, making The Rising and Rain a powerful work by one of the top emerging poets today.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1602230331/?tag=2022091-20
2008
(All-new from the top names in mystery and fantasy - inclu...)
All-new from the top names in mystery and fantasy - including a never-before-published Sookie Stackhouse story from Charlaine Harris! This follow-up to Powers of Detection showcases bestselling and award-winning names from Simon Green to Laurie King to Sharon Shinn - with original stories featuring otherworldly investigators trailing uncanny criminals across fantastical realms. From video game characters seeking civil rights and a cave dragon loan shark pondering an investment to Santa Claus’s Australian vacation and an enemy of Sam Spade’s out for revenge - plus visits to the Nightside and Sookie Stackhouse’s hometown - these stories will take readers around the world on a magical mystery tour.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441016375/?tag=2022091-20
2008
(Cold Storage, Alaska, is a remote fishing outpost where s...)
Cold Storage, Alaska, is a remote fishing outpost where salmonberries sparkle in the morning frost and where you just might catch a King Salmon if you’re zen enough to wait for it. Settled in 1935 by Norse fishermen who liked to skinny dip in its natural hot springs, the town enjoyed prosperity at the height of the frozen fish boom. But now the cold storage plant is all but abandoned and the town is withering. Clive “The Milkman” McCahon returns to his tiny Alaska hometown after a seven-year jail stint for dealing coke. He has a lot to make up to his younger brother, Miles, who has dutifully been taking care of their ailing mother. But Clive doesn’t realize the trouble he’s bringing home. His vengeful old business partner is hot on his heels, a stick-in-the-mud State Trooper is dying to bust Clive for narcotics, and, to complicate everything, Clive might be going insane - lately, he’s been hearing animals talking to him. Will his arrival in Cold Storage be a breath of fresh air for the sleepy, depopulated town? Or will Clive’s arrival turn the whole place upside down?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EGMBKPM/?tag=2022091-20
2014
(Shamus Award-winner John Straley returns to his criticall...)
Shamus Award-winner John Straley returns to his critically acclaimed Cecil Younger detective series, set in Sitka, Alaska, a land of perfect beauty and not-so-perfect locals. Criminal defense investigator Cecil Younger spends his days coaching would-be felons on how to avoid incriminating themselves. He even likes most of the rough characters who seek his services. So when Sherrie, a returning client, asks him to track down some evidence to clear her of a domestic violence charge, Cecil agrees. Maybe he’ll find something that will get her abusive boyfriend locked up for good. Cecil treks out to the shady apartment complex only to discover the “evidence” is a large pile of cash - fifty thousand dollars, to be exact. That is how Cecil finds himself in violation of one of his own maxims: Nothing good comes of walking around with a lot of someone else’s money. In this case, “nothing good” turns out to be a deep freeze full of drug-stuffed fish, a murder witnessed at close range, and a kidnapping - his teenage daughter, Blossom, is snatched as collateral for his cooperation. The reluctant, deeply unlucky investigator turns to an unlikely source for help: the misfit gang of clients he’s helped to defend over the years. Together, they devise a plan to free Blossom and restore order to Sitka. But when your only hope for justice lies in the hands of a group of criminals, things don’t always go according to plan.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0769342WX?ref_=dbs_mng_calw_6&storeType=ebooks
2018
(In the not-so-distant future in Cold, Storage, Alaska, a ...)
In the not-so-distant future in Cold, Storage, Alaska, a man is kidnapped from prison and placed in a drug-induced haze. Why? To find a missing nuclear bomb. It's been seven years since Gloomy Knob landed in the Ted Stevens High-Security Federal Penitentiary and five years since the end of the war, the one North Korea started when they sent a missile to Cold Storage, Alaska. Serving a life sentence for the murder of his sister, Gloomy spends his time trying to forget about the past. Then one day, an old family friend grabs Gloomy from his off-site work station and smuggles him away in a hollow tree trunk. Instead of celebrating his newfound freedom, Gloomy finds himself slowing coming unmoored. Prison is where he feels he belongs for the unspeakable wrongs he has committed, but his kidnappers have other plans. They want information from Gloomy, and they want it soon, or his wife, his friends, and the entire town of Cold Storage may all get obliterated. As Gloomy struggles to escape, the memories he fought hard to repress begin to creep out from the strange corners of his mind, first in rivulets, then in waves. In a drug-induced haze, Gloomy decides to wade in, and what he discovers may just bring him the closure he desires - if it doesn't kill him first.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RL8V9SL/?tag=2022091-20
2020
investigator novelist writer author poet
John Straley was born in 1953 in Redwood City, California, United States. He was the youngest of five children. He grew up in the Seattle area and in New York City.
John Straley attended high school in New York City. He attended Grinnell College before transferring to the University of Washington for a degree in writing. He received a Bachelor of Arts in English and a certificate of completion in horseshoeing.
John Straley has worked as a secretary, horseshoer, wilderness guide, trail crew foreman, millworker, machinist and private investigator.
John Straley was a mule packer for a local outfitter guide, spending summers in the high meadows of the Pasayten Wilderness. His future wife, Jan Straley was working as a seasonal backcountry ranger there. They met, forged a bond and eventually married. While Straley’s horseshoeing training allowed him to get by, it didn’t take him long to realize that the career held no real future for him. So when his wife, a marine biologist, took a job in Sitka, Alaska, he happily followed her. That availed Straley new opportunities to pursue.
John Straley landed a job with the Alaska Public Defender’s office. The opportunity came after he had tried his hand at a number of jobs and careers in Alaska; and the fact that he was expected to fill the role of private investigator only made him that much more anxious to apply his mind to the purposes of Alaska’s Public Defense system.
Straley was introduced to the Private Investigations (PI) world by his parents who filled his young life and their home with detective novels. He remembers making his way through thousands of titles in the detective genre over the course of his childhood. Being a private investigator quickly stripped him of some of the romantic notions he held about the role. But Straley, none the less, thrived. Writing came into the picture soon after. The activity was encouraged as much by Straley’s personal experiences in the PI field as it was by the books he read. By the time he sat down to write his first novel, Straley was pretty certain that the wealth of personal experiences he brought to the table would immediately set his works apart. Straley was quickly proven wrong. Every publisher he approached turned him down. The eventual turn of his luck can be imputed to Richard Nelson, an anthropologist, and friend who told John Straley to give Soho Press a try. The publisher, which was based in New York City, had a firm interest in detective fiction, and Nelson believed that they would be Straley’s best hope of achieving his publishing dreams. Nelson wasn’t wrong. The manuscript Straley submitted to them eventually became ‘The Woman Who Married a Bear’, his first novel. This was the same novel that Bill Clinton bought from a bookstore he visited during his term.
Before long, John Straley was a successfully published author with a string of critically acclaimed detective novels under his belt, most of which revolved around the Cecil Younger character. He retired from his PI work in 2015, but he never forgot the field. Straley doesn’t really write about the cases he’s worked on over the years, even though he has had the pleasure of contending with a number of high profile clients and targets. That being said, he does take inspiration from the things he’s seen and the people he’s met.
(All-new from the top names in mystery and fantasy - inclu...)
2008(In 1922, The Nation launched a series of forty-nine artic...)
2003(A collection of twelve all-original mystery tales set in ...)
2002(After years on the job as a private investigator in Sitka...)
2001(High drama meets local color as a private investigator wo...)
1992(Cold Storage, Alaska, is a remote fishing outpost where s...)
2014(Shamus Award-winner John Straley returns to his criticall...)
2018(An original anthology of short fiction blends the mystery...)
2006(Random acts of violence, murder, and revenge abound in th...)
2004(Trapped on an Alaskan cruise line, PI Cecil Younger must ...)
1998(John Straley crafts here a collection of poems that pay h...)
2008(In the not-so-distant future in Cold, Storage, Alaska, a ...)
2020(Alaska, 1935: Slippery Wilson is on his way out of town w...)
2008(In the Alaskan town of Sitka, the living is tough and the...)
1997(In the third entry to the series, Alaska P.I. Cecil Young...)
1996(The second book in the Cecil Younger P.I. series set in S...)
1993John Straley is married to a marine biologist Jan Straley. They have a son and live in Sitka, Alaska.