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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 shoeing. John never saw himself living in Alaska (where there are no horses left to shoe), but when his wife, Jan, a prominent whale biologist, announced she was taking a job in Sitka, the two headed north and never left. John worked for thirty years as a criminal defense investigator in Sitka, and many of the characters that fill his books were inspired by his work. Now retired, he lives with his wife in a bright green house on the beach and writes in his weather-tight office overlooking Old Sitka Rocks. The former Writer Laureate of Alaska, he is the author of ten novels.
Praise for Cold Water Burning Straley tells a heckuva good story, but the real pleasure in reading him is his prose. Like author Nevada Barr, he creates a vivid sense of place, and readers almost feel as if they've visited Sitka. --Chicago Tribune Vivid seamanship, myriad plot skews, intriguing Alaska, and new dad Cecil, the poster boy for angst-riddled, flawed decisions, make this a standout. --Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review The sixth Cecil Younger mystery may also be the best . . . This is a solid mystery, well told . . . Fans will be delighted, and readers unfamiliar with the series will find themselves searching out the previous entries. --Booklist Praise for the Cecil Younger investigations Strong and sobering . . . With his storyteller's sense of dramatic action, [Straley's] in his glory. --The New York Times Book Review Mr. Straley's prose continues to dazzle . . . His word-pictures have a hallucinatory brilliance appropriate . . . to the eerie beauty of the Alaskan landscape. --The Wall Street Journal It's always a pleasure to read Straley's vivid studies of these folks--the slightly cracked, rugged and very funny characters of the Far North. --The Seattle Times Staley's done the impossible. He's reinvented the private eye novel. --The Denver Post Like the Coen brothers on literary speed, John Straley is among the very best stylists of his generation. --Ken Bruen, Shamus Award winning author of The Guard Lesser writers look to their characters' poor choices and attempts to rectify them, John Straley loves his characters for just those choices. H lderlin wrote: 'Poetically man dwells on the earth.' Some of us wind up in limericks, some in heroic couplets. But damned near every one of us, sooner or later, ends up in one of Straley's wise, wayward, wonderfully unhinged novels. --James Sallis, author of Drive and the Lew Griffin mysteries What a wild wild ride. Straley grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go. You think left and he goes right. You think up and he goes down. Cecil Younger is a continuously great but flawed and wobbly investigating hero. --Willy Vlautin, author of The Motel Life [A] superb series of Alaska mysteries . . . What Straley offers is excitement, high comedy and a mega work out for the senses. --Literary Review
