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In February, 2017 John was honored by the Alaska State Legislature for more than three decades of public service to the state in the fields of poetry, law and literature. Read more about the citation on KCAW.org, the website of Sitka's public radio station.
“f there’s a dean of American cold-climate crime novelists, it must be criminal investigator John Straley, the author of a dozen thrillers set in Alaska. His latest book, “Blown by the Same Wind,” is the fourth entry in a recent series set in the isolated cannery town of Cold Storage. Its chief protagonist is the real-life Trappist monk known to his abbey-mates as Brother Louis but to the outside world as acclaimed author Thomas Merton.
In 1968 Brother Louis comes to Cold Storage, he says, in search of somewhere to pray and write, away from the intrusions of unwanted celebrity. He is also wrestling with “a kind of weakness in his faith.” Witnessing bears and other large creatures here, he wonders: “Maybe he was nothing but an animal, with no sacred nature, but only a storyteller’s imagination?”
So convincingly does the author convey the inner and outer lives of his unique central character, one might be content if Brother Louis’s story remained a strictly theological puzzle. But harsher events occur and must be dealt with. With “Blown by the Same Wind,” Mr. Straley has produced an impressive adventure thriller suffused with metaphysical concerns."
—Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
“John Straley, one of Alaska’s best-known and best-loved writers, continues to deliver. The plotting gets a little crazy — but never dull — when it ties into conspiracy theories related to the assassinations of both Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King. Who are those Southern men with their white supremacist talk and interest in a leathery old mummy? What will Thomas Merton do to soothe the troubled waters? And, of course, Straley writes knowingly of crime; his long experience as a criminal investigator informs the behaviors of his bad-luck and bad-actor characters. [And] there’s something to be said for growing up in a small fishing town where young people learn to handle boats, fix motors and hold onto their dreams.”
- Nancy Lord, former Alaska Writer Laureate, Anchorage Daily News
The number of oddballs per capita is even greater in Cold Storage, Alaska, John Straley’s community of rugged individualists, wounded souls, and free spirits featured in three previous novels. It’s 1968, the Vietnam War is raging, and an assortment of strangers has descended on the rough-hewn fishing town, all with different agendas.
Though written with a straight face (as any good tall tale must be), Blown by the Same Wind is a trip, as the hippies of Cold Storage would say. Outlandish, yes, especially the conspiracy theory involving its nuttier characters, but the grounding presence of Merton and a traumatized Vietnam vet he befriends lend the book a gentle spirituality. Even in a world torn by war and racism, they exemplify the notion that goodness and grace are possible.
—Air Mail
“Cold Storage feels like a living, breathing place from the start, the author describing all the little details of life in an easy-going, fluid style . . . There is extreme beauty in Straley’s writing, countered with extreme brutality at points in the story . . . This is a great novel if you seek a world to escape into and ponder for hours afterwards.”
—Crime Fiction Lover
"Think nothing could possibly make Cold Storage, Alaska, any goofier? Think again. Resonant 1968 memories, racist conspiracies, Zen-like mysticism, and the reliably off-kilter takes of the regulars. Perfect."
—Kirkus
“Readers looking for action will be amply rewarded, but the book’s main appeal lies in the vividly drawn characters and the author’s enchanting descriptions of the Alaskan outdoors. This thoughtful look at the politics and culture of a bygone era should win Straley new fans.”
—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“John Straley writes crime fiction that reveals the human heart. Not so much through the crimes his characters commit, but the way they try to save those they love. So Far and Good is his most moving, engrossing book yet. I could not put it down."
—Leigh Newman, author of Still Points North: One Alaskan Childhood, One Grown-up World, One Long Journey Home
“Shamus Award winner Straley’s gripping eighth Cecil Younger investigation finds the Sitka, Alaska, PI doing prison time for the desperate measures he took to save the life of his teenage daughter, Blossom, in 2018’s Baby’s First Felony . . . Memorable characters match the vividly realized Alaskan settings. Readers will eagerly await the next installment.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Straley’s Alaskan PI Cecil Younger is one of the more eccentric, enjoyable offerings in crime fiction today. In So Far And So Good, Cecil is plying his trade out of prison, where he’s serving a (much-reduced) seven year term for past misdeeds and passing the time helping other inmates work on their parole packages. He’s also corresponding with his daughter, who has decided to join the family vocation with her own sleuthing project, which traces a friend’s history to a notorious case of a baby taken away from her Native mother. The story makes for a heady mix, all set against an uncanny backdrop—a frozen near-wilderness peppered with private eyes.”
—CrimeReads
“In So Far and Good, John Straley once again proves he is a quite mad and thoroughly masterful crime-fiction blend of Dashiell Hammett, Robert Frost and Kurt Vonnegut.”
—Stephen Mack Jones, author of the August Snow thrillers
“Straley knows how to wrap deadly violence in a bubble of black humor that suits the novel's beautiful but harsh setting, where whales open their maws to dine on oceans of salmon fry and men kill one another while ravens fly overhead, screaming with laughter.” - NEW YORK TIMES
“Straley humanizes slapstick mayhem in his exceptional seventh Cecil Younger mystery... Hilarious.” –PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, STARRED REVIEW
“John Straley is an Alaskan treasure. Baby’s First Felony is a page-turning, darkly hilarious murder mystery turned upside down. With the help of a crazy cast of characters, investigator Cecil Younger is taking on the criminal underbelly of an Alaska seaside town, even as he faces the equally terrifying trials of parenting a teenager. As always, Straley has brought his unflinching eye, compassionate heart and lyrical voice to the story. Northern noir at its best.” – EOWYN IVEY, PULITZER FINALIST AND NEW YORK TIMESBESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SNOW CHILD
Boston Globe pick for one of the best crime novels of 2014
Straley strikes the perfect balance of humor and pathos in this story . . . - New York Times Book Review
Dashes of magical realism mixed with ironic humor reminiscent of the Coen brothers and violence worthy of Quentin Tarantino make this second series novel a winner. Compelling characters and deft treatment of themes like redemption and the power of community take it to a level beyond. -- Boston Globe
Lesser writers look to their characters' poor choices and attempt to rectify them, John Straley loves his characters for just those choices. . . . damned near every one of us, sooner or later, ends up in one of Straleys wise, wayward, wonderfully unhinged novels. -- James Sallis, author of Drive
Like the Coen brothers on literary speed, John Straley is among the very best stylists of his generation. Cold Storage, Alaska is truly stunning, poetic, and smart. -- Ken Bruen, Shamus Award winning author of The Guard
Comic, engrossing, exotic yet familiar, it's precise to the place and its feel, keen on character and foible, full of lore and history, and rich in little off-to-the-side sightings . . . Over the top good. -- Gary Snyder, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Turtle Island
I had to feign illness and stay in bed to track the tale. Big and exaggerated like Alaska, intimate and interwoven like a village, Cold Storage has deeply defined characters, facts about Alaska, and a sophisticated soundtrack. So well written I swear I heard the music. -- Marika Partridge, Former Director of NPR’s “All Things Considered
By the time readers reach the last page the characters will feel like old, cherished friends. - Richmond Times-Dispatch
[Cold Storage, Alaska] has the tone of an ensemble comedy... A marriage of 'Northern Exposure' with 'Waking Ned Devine. -- Anchorage Daily News
What a warm, engaging, profoundly human book this is: it's skin crackling, its heart is enormous and open. It opens onto the bigger mysteries-of community, of family, of place. The several lives that intertwine through the course of the story reach moments of quiet grace that resonate stealthily but deeply. -- John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats
Straley has created a wonderfully evocative place in Cold Storage. His evocation of nature and human nature approaches the lyrical, and he seems guided by Faulkner’s dictum that the only thing truly worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself. -- Booklist (starred review)
The cast of eccentric characters, the sharp, witty dialogue, and the chaotic, frenzied pace of the narrative would do Preston Sturges proud. Those who like their crime with a healthy side of humor could hardly do better. Quirky, funny and compulsively readable. -- Kirkus
for The big both ways
A thrilling journey . . . sure-footed and deeply evocative. -- Seattle Times
Moving . . . and utterly absorbing. -- Denver Post
A riveting, unpredictable ride. -- Publisher's Weekly, starred review
A rich tale . . . Straley hits all the right notes here. Booklist, starred review
The voice is so original that it can only belong to John Straley . . . definitely up there with the great ones. -- Chicago Tribune
A fascinating Alaskan setting, great characters, a highly unusual plot and remarkably good writing. It's a winner. -- Tony Hillerman
[An] energetic, fun-for-your-life adventure . . . that Mr. Straley writes with such brio. -- The New York Times Book Review
Straley is one of the best prose stylists to emerge from the genre in a long time. -- San Francisco Chronicle
Mr. Straley's prose continues to dazzle . . . his word pictures have a hallucinatory brilliance . . . -- The Wall Street Journal
By now John Straley is much watched for . . . a humdinger of a book. -- The Boston Sunday Globe
Outstanding . . . satisfies on all levels. -- Kansas City Star
He is intelligent, loyal, tenacious and interesting - everything a new private investigator should be. -- Orlando Sentinel
Straley's evocation of coastal Alaska is as magical as the aurora borealis . . . readers will be delighted. -- Booklist
