John Straley Bücher

Ein ödes Kaff am Ende der Welt – das ist Cold Storage in Alaska. Die Angel ins klare Wasser halten, ein Bierchen kippen, viel mehr gibt es hier nicht zu tun. Doch der erste Eindruck täuscht – vor allem seitdem Clive McMahon, der verlorene Sohn des Ortes, wieder da ist. Nach sieben Jahren Knast will er ein gesetzestreues Leben beginnen. Sein Bruder Miles hält davon nicht viel – vor allem nicht von Clives Plan, eine alte Bar neu zu eröffnen. Außerdem muss es in Cold Storage per Gesetz genauso viele Kirchen wie Kneipen geben – ein Relikt aus der feuchtfröhlichen Gründerzeit. Doch Not macht erfinderisch: Wer sagt, dass man nicht predigen und ausschenken kann? Ein geniales Konzept, mit dem Clive so einiges im Ort durcheinanderbringt …

Cecil Younger, ein Privatdetektiv aus Sitka, Alaska, nimmt ein Angebot für eine kostenlose Kreuzfahrt auf dem Luxusliner "Westward" an. Er soll den Schiffsarzt beobachten, da viele Patienten verstorben sind. Doch kaum an Bord, entdeckt Cecil die erste Leiche.

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.

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.

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.

Set against the backdrop of the Pacific Northwest and southeastern Alaska, this collection of poems celebrates the beauty and rhythms of nature. Straley's narrative style combines sharp wit with intricate details, reflecting on seasonal cycles and the earth's abundance. By blending personal reflections with political themes, he crafts elegies that resonate with honesty and universality, establishing himself as a significant voice among emerging poets.

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