Death And The Language Of Happiness by John Straley

Unfortunately, Straley spends so much time writing about the labor movement and the Armistice Day massacre that the story gets a little lost. The cast of characters was very interesting: recovering addict . Another selection from my Alaska Bookshelf. This was not at all what I expected. John Straley is an excellent writer but his strange book titles gave me a different idea of what he would be like. The story as I found out in the end was based on actual events that the author, as they usually do, blended into a novel narritive. He put the story together and described the charaters and locales well.

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In the Alaskan town of Sitka, the living is tough and the crimes are aplenty. 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 t. 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

Cecil Younger is a private investigator who takes comfort in the absurdity of the universe.

John Straley was born in Redwood City, California. He grew up in the Seattle area and attended high school in New York City. Straley trained, with encouragement from his parents, to be a horseshoer. He attended Grinnell College before transferring to the University of Washington for a degree in writing. After college and a stint in Eastern Washington, he followed his wife to Sitka, Alaska in 1977. After moving through a number of jobs he became a private investigator. Straley will return to the Cecil Younger series, with the first book since 2001, with the release of Baby's First Felony, in July 2018 (Soho Press). Cecil Younger series. The Woman Who Married a Bear (1992)-winner of the 1993 Shamus Award. The Angels Will not Care (1998). Cold Water Burning (2001).

Novelist John Straley has worked as a secretary, horseshoer, wilderness guide, trail crew foreman, millworker, machinist and private investigator. He moved to Sitka, Alaska in 1977 and has no plans of leaving. John's wife, Jan Straley, is a marine biologist well-known for her extensive studies of humpback whales. Book will go one time.

The youngest of five children, John Straley was born in Redwood City, California, in 1953. He received a BA in English from the University of Washington and, at the urging of his parents, a certificate of completion in horse shoein. .More about John Straley. The youngest of five children, John Straley was born in Redwood City, California, in 1953. 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. What makes this latest Alaskan mystery a must is-as always-the sheer beauty and energy of Straley’s writing. Straley’s a real writer. The Washington Post Book World. Thoroughly enjoyable and slightly wacko. Ironic humor reminiscent of the Coen brothers and violence worthy of Quentin Tarantino.

Unabridged Audiobook. The fourth entry to John Straley's Alaska . series finds Cecil Younger with a contract to kill. Cecil Younger is a man that takes comfort in the absurdity of the universe, and the universe is obliging him when he gets a call from his lawyer and psychiatrist, who offers him a job. A client wants to hire Younger to kill someone. Though common sense tells him murder just isn't a good career move, his finances tell him it can't hurt to meet his potential client, hoping he can succeed in appeasing him-without a dead body.

In fact, Straley's fourth (The Music of What Happens, 1996, et. shows his Shandyesque love of loose ends getting the better of his logic: The mystery-mongering is as febrile as old man Flynn. Pub Date: May 1st, 1997.

Straley creates particularly vivid settings. This novel helps clarify the historical role of Wobblies in America by focusing on one event and creating a "what if" scenario. YAs wanting a short, fast-moving mystery will be satisfied by this tale by an award-winning author. In this book Cecil Younger is hired by a 97-year old man to kill someone. He takes the case, intending to discover who was responsible for the killing of a single mother, Angela Ramirez. Along the way he travels from southeast Alaska to Centralia, Washington and learns about a massacre there in 1919 involving the American Legion and the Wobblies. I've enjoyed the Cecil Younger series, but cringe at some of the violence.