So Far and Good: A Cecil Younger Investigation #8 by John Straley (English) Pape

Description: So Far and Good by John Straley To his chagrin, Alaskan PI Cecil Younger learns his teenage daughter has launched her own detective agency. But when her first case goes awry, shes going to need some help from an unlikely source- her father, whos currently locked up in prison.To his chagrin, Alaskan PI Cecil Younger learns his teenage daughter has launched her own detective agency. But when her first case goes awry, shes going to need some help from an unlikely source- her father, whos currently locked up in prison.The verdict from the three-judge panel is in. Cecil Younger, bumbling criminal defense investigator and totally embarrassing father, has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for his involvement in . . . well, a number of things, ranging from destruction of private property to killing a guy. But compared to the original twenty-five-year sentence, its not so bad. His success with getting his sentence reduced has attracted the attention of his fellow inmates, and one man, "Fourth Street," reaches out for advice for his upcoming parole hearing in exchange for protection and companionship.When he isnt reading Adrienne Rich or James Baldwin with Fourth Street, Cecil spends his time filling up large yellow legal pads. He writes, mostly, about his teenage daughter, Blossom, who is on a Nancy Drew-like quest to help her friend, George, discover the truth about her biological parents, which turns out to be complicated. Shortly after submitting a mail-in genetics test, George learns she is the infamous "Baby Jane Doe" who was kidnapped from her Native mother shortly after she was born. A media and legal circus quickly ensues, and Georges reunion with her birth family isnt the heartwarming story the journalists hoped it would be. There is an even darker secret about the baby-snatching case, a secret threatens to destroy not just Georges family-but Cecils as well. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography 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. Review Praise for So Far and Good "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 "In this page-turning mystery novel set in Alaska, Cecil Younger, a PI in prison, deals with the multifaceted relationships that exist behind bars while outside a stolen child is forced to return to parents she doesnt know. Who is family? Who isnt? For Younger, family is everything, always. A romantic view is that we would die for our children but the more compelling story is how one man chooses to live for his child; a harrowing look at the lengths a parent will go to for the child he loves." —Marcie Rendon, author of Murder on the Red River "Theres no one writing crime fiction quite as lyrical, twisted, and funny as John Straley. Ive been a fan of his work from the start and Im never disappointed . . . Straley summons his exceptional skills to keep us engaged and speeding through the heart-stopping (and sexy) twists and turns to one hell of a satisfying conclusion. One of his very best!" —James W. Hall, author of the Thorn novels "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 "John Straleys quirky tales always satisfy, and So Far and Good is most satisfying. Readers have come to expect the unexpected from the Alaskan private eye Cecil Younger, and the latest Cecil Younger investigation, essentially a family love story, is nothing short of stunning. Straleys troubled characters, especially Cecil, are etched in three-dimensional completeness and poetic humanity . . . In the hands of a master like John Straley, crime fiction achieves dazzling importance. So Far and Good is outrageous, gripping, brilliant."—Manuel Ramos, author of Angels in the Wind"A character well worth meeting." —Reviewing the Evidence"Straleys 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 hes serving a (much-reduced) seven year term for past misdeeds and passing the time helping other inmates work on their parole packages. Hes also corresponding with his daughter, who has decided to join the family vocation with her own sleuthing project, which traces a friends 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"Cecil Younger is back! John Straleys fans will be thrilled to catch up with the good-hearted but bumbling criminal defense investigator at the center of the Cecil Younger Investigation series . . . The story twists and turns in mostly believable and sometimes horrifying ways that will keep a reader turning pages into the night . . . the verisimilitude of all his novels is owed to his own intimate knowledge of the crime world and the legal and prison system associated with it. —Anchorage Daily News "In fewer than 300 pages, John Straley sets up this bloody mess complete with a full cast of multi-faceted characters, then proceeds to unpick the plot . . . Along the way, Straley skillfully explores themes of sexuality, violence, and power in and out of prison. Yes, theres plenty of violence but most of it ends up working against the goals of those who commit it, just like in real life. Overall, the emphasis is not on violence, but on the relationships between the characters . . . Finally, who doesnt love a great setting and fun references?"—The Sitka Sentinel"For the better part of 30 years, I have counted myself as a major fan of John Straleys sporadic series featuring Alaska-based PI Cecil Younger. From the outset, 1992s Shamus Award-winning The Woman Who Married a Bear, the books have combined grittiness, social issues and introspection with whimsy and slapstick, as the hapless investigator moves from crisis to crisis, both business and personal."—BookPage"Straley reminds us just why the Younger novels were so popular, and why its so good to have the man back." —Booklist"Its been far from ordinary all along--that is, John Straleys Alaskan crime fiction series featuring Cecil Younger, a not-quite-lawyer who at this point has served four years so far in the Lemon Creek Correctional Center . . . The riotous mixture of misunderstandings, negotiations, escapes, and frankly amorous pressures and actions makes SO FAR AND GOOD a page-turner from the start . . . No need to read Straleys other Cecil Younger Investigations before this one, as its hands-down the best yet. But when the winters getting under your skin and you want to remind yourself that it could be worse in, say, Alaska . . . scoop up the other seven and have your own literary festival." —Kingdom Books"Setting. Setting. Setting . . . It grabbed my attention and wouldnt let go. There is a tremendous amount of plot packed into this fast-paced novel." —Gumshoe Review"Shamus Award winner Straleys 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 2018s Babys First Felony . . . Memorable characters match the vividly realized Alaskan settings. Readers will eagerly await the next installment."—Publishers Weekly"Just because Sitka, Alaska, private eye Cecil Younger is in prison doesnt mean he cant bobble a new case as completely as any of his old ones . . . How many genre novelists mix as many different kinds of events and reflections as Straley?"—Kirkus ReviewsPraise for the Cecil Younger investigations "Straley knows how to wrap deadly violence in a bubble of black humor that suits the novels 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." —The New York Times "Mr. Straleys prose continues to dazzle . . . His word-pictures have a hallucinatory brilliance appropriate . . . to the eerie beauty of the Alaskan landscape." —The Wall Street Journal "Inimitable." —The Seattle Times "A fascinating Alaskan setting, great characters, a highly unusual plot and remarkably good writing. Its a winner." —Tony Hillerman, New York Times bestselling author of the Leaphorn and Chee novels "John Straley is an Alaskan treasure. Babys 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 Times bestselling author of The Snow Child "The voice is so original that is can only belong to John Straley . . . Definitely up there with the great ones." —Chicago Tribune "Thoroughly enjoyable and slightly wacko . . . Ironic humor reminiscent of the Coen brothers and violence worthy of Quentin Tarantino." —The Boston Globe "Straley is one of the best prose stylists to emerge from the genre in a long time, and his evocation of the chilly, dangerous landscape and climate effectively sets a foreboding tone." —San Francisco Chronicle "Straleys done the impossible. Hes reinvented the private eye novel." —The Denver Post Review Quote Praise for So Far and Good "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 "In this page-turning mystery novel set in Alaska, Cecil Younger, a PI in prison, deals with the multifaceted relationships that exist behind bars while outside a stolen child is forced to return to parents she doesnt know. Who is family? Who isnt? For Younger, family is everything, always. A romantic view is that we would die for our children but the more compelling story is how one man chooses to live for his child; a harrowing look at the lengths a parent will go to for the child he loves." --Marcie Rendon, author of Murder on the Red River "Theres no one writing crime fiction quite as lyrical, twisted, and funny as John Straley. Ive been a fan of his work from the start and Im never disappointed . . . Straley summons his exceptional skills to keep us engaged and speeding through the heart-stopping (and sexy) twists and turns to one hell of a satisfying conclusion. One of his very best!" --James W. Hall, author of the Thorn novels "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 "John Straleys quirky tales always satisfy, and So Far and Good is most satisfying. Readers have come to expect the unexpected from the Alaskan private eye Cecil Younger, and the latest Cecil Younger investigation, essentially a family love story, is nothing short of stunning. Straleys troubled characters, especially Cecil, are etched in three-dimensional completeness and poetic humanity . . . In the hands of a master like John Straley, crime fiction achieves dazzling importance. So Far and Good is outrageous, gripping, brilliant." --Manuel Ramos, author of Angels in the Wind "Straleys 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 hes serving a (much-reduced) seven year term for past misdeeds and passing the time helping other inmates work on their parole packages. Hes also corresponding with his daughter, who has decided to join the family vocation with her own sleuthing project, which traces a friends 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 "Cecil Younger is back! John Straleys fans will be thrilled to catch up with the good-hearted but bumbling criminal defense investigator at the center of the Cecil Younger Investigation series . . . The story twists and turns in mostly believable and sometimes horrifying ways that will keep a reader turning pages into the night . . . the verisimilitude of all his novels is owed to his own intimate knowledge of the crime world and the legal and prison system associated with it. -- Anchorage Daily News "In fewer than 300 pages, John Straley sets up this bloody mess complete with a full cast of multi-faceted characters, then proceeds to unpick the plot . . . Along the way, Straley skillfully explores themes of sexuality, violence, and power in and out of prison. Yes, theres plenty of violence but most of it ends up working against the goals of those who commit it, just like in real life. Overall, the emphasis is not on violence, but on the relationships between the characters . . . Finally, who doesnt love a great setting and fun references?" -- The Sitka Sentinel "For the better part of 30 years, I have counted myself as a major fan of John Straleys sporadic series featuring Alaska-based PI Cecil Younger. From the outset, 1992s Shamus Award-winning The Woman Who Married a Bear, the books have combined grittiness, social issues and introspection with whimsy and slapstick, as the hapless investigator moves from crisis to crisis, both business and personal." -- BookPage "Straley reminds us just why the Younger novels were so popular, and why its so good to have the man back." --Booklist "Its been far from ordinary all along--that is, John Straleys Alaskan crime fiction series featuring Cecil Younger, a not-quite-lawyer who at this point has served four years so far in the Lemon Creek Correctional Center . . . The riotous mixture of misunderstandings, negotiations, escapes, and frankly amorous pressures and actions makes SO FAR AND GOOD a page-turner from the start . . . No need to read Straleys other Cecil Younger Investigations before this one, as its hands-down the best yet. But when the winters getting under your skin and you want to remind yourself that it could be worse in, say, Alaska . . . scoop up the other seven and have your own literary festival." --Kingdom Books "Setting. Setting. Setting . . . It grabbed my attention and wouldnt let go. There is a tremendous amount of plot packed into this fast-paced novel." --Gumshoe Review "Shamus Award winner Straleys 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 2018s Babys First Felony . . . Memorable characters match the vividly realized Alaskan settings. Readers will eagerly await the next installment." -- Publishers Weekly "Just because Sitka, Alaska, private eye Cecil Younger is in prison doesnt mean he cant bobble a new case as completely as any of his old ones . . . How many genre novelists mix as many different kinds of events and reflections as Straley?" -- Kirkus Reviews Praise for the Cecil Younger investigations "Straley knows how to wrap deadly violence in a bubble of black humor that suits the novels 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." -- The New York Times "Mr. Straleys prose continues to dazzle . . . His word-pictures have a hallucinatory brilliance appropriate . . . to the eerie beauty of the Alaskan landscape." --The Wall Street Journal "Inimitable." --The Seattle Times "A fascinating Alaskan setting, great characters, a highly unusual plot and remarkably good writing. Its a winner." --Tony Hillerman, New York Times bestselling author of the Leaphorn and Chee novels "John Straley is an Alaskan treasure. Babys 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 Times bestselling author of The Snow Child "The voice is so original that is can only belong to John Straley . . . Definitely up there with the great ones." --Chicago Tribune "Thoroughly enjoyable and slightly wacko . . . Ironic humor reminiscent of the Coen brothers and violence worthy of Quentin Tarantino." --The Boston Globe "Straley is one of the best prose stylists to emerge from the genre in a long time, and his evocation of the chilly, dangerous landscape and climate effectively sets a foreboding tone." -- San Francisco Chronicle "Straleys done the impossible. Hes reinvented the private eye novel." -- The Denver Post Excerpt from Book 1 THE TEST Its not hard remembering how long you have been in prison. Days pass and your daughters birthdays, holidays without the usual food, then seasons go by: a fall where you need a wool cap but dont have one, a winter where slush wets your socks in the exercise yard, and your feet may stay wet all day depending how many pairs of socks you have, and a spring where unseen songbirds titter from the rocky field beyond the coils of razor wire. I can remember how long I have been in. What bothers me is that as time goes on, I begin to forget when, if ever, I will be getting out. There is a single time-accounting sergeant who is in charge of keeping the book on time. He or she keeps track of your time, down to the minute you were logged into jail when you were first booked in on your charges. The TA sergeant also calculates your "good time." In Alaska, for every three days of time in prison that you dont cause any trouble, you earn one day off your sentence; but not always. If you participate in certain rehabilitative services, that time within the program does not earn good time. It can be tricky to know how much time you have officially lost for certain infractions. Inmates are supposed to be informed of loss of good time, but often that information slips through the cracks. Infractions can be written up or not, and inmates are never sure if the report makes it into the hands of the probation officer and then to the TA sergeant. An inmate can ask for a TAA or a "time accounting audit," but its a pretty big deal, and its generally believed that unless your attorney requests the audit with some justification by the court, the TA sergeant will simply add days or weeks, just for making them go through the extra work. The truth of it is no one ever likes the answer the TA sergeant gives, so most of us dont ask. We wait. I was originally sentenced to twenty-five years, but my lawyers and I went before the three-judge panel, and I gave the longest allocution in the history of Alaska, and they lowered my sentence to seven years. On the day Im writing this, I have served four years. Im close to what should have been my release date, but the events I am writing about occurred six months ago. It wasnt too long after the decision of the three-judge panel, and I was still feeling the weight of the twenty-five lift off my back. I was floating. Sad still, and sick of being inside . . . but floating. Perhaps it was the floating that made me do some of the stupid things that resulted in my losing a chunk of good time, and set this whole horrific shitstorm roaring through every part of my life--my caged life and my free life too. So I wait and I spend the time writing. I know I lost some good time, but Im not sure how much and what for. It could be months or a year. My lawyer doesnt want me writing anything down, of course, but I have to. I want to write it all down, not because Im trapped inside prison but because Im frightened of prison being trapped inside of me. During the years I have spent here, I have seen human beings so overwhelmed by rules, walls and changing protocols that they become pale with something I once thought was the result of insanity or inconsolable grief. They take in everything they ever used to enjoy as if it were now an insult to the very idea of pleasure. The food, the sex, the work, the books they read, the art they make--it is all meaningless without the freedom to enjoy it. Just two weeks ago, a story made the rounds about a guy who made it out after being in prison for twelve and a half years. He had dreamed of rebuilding his motorcycle and riding it to the Arctic Circle with a big-breasted girl riding bitch on the back. Well, the "girl," who was almost forty years old, bailed somewhere outside of Tok Junction not far up the highway because the bikes hard suspension hurt her back so much she decided she would rather work in a roadhouse serving wildland firefighters than rattle her way up that bumpy road. Once alone, our man became more and more obsessed with limitations--speed limits and traffic signs. He was in violation of his parole and screaming across the northern tundra, trying to eat up the horizon before his arms turned numb or the bugs and road dust sealed his eyes shut. But eventually even a straight road to the horizon seemed too limiting, too narrow. Word came back to us that the RCMP found him wrapped around a bridge abutment somewhere in the Northwest Territories, his bike in pieces and his body having been consumed by scavengers. A majority of the inmates, even the short-timers, envied him. This is all a long way of saying that I am writing this story about my daughter to remind myself of a certain kind of freedom that I want to carry in my mind throughout this entire experience inside. Its a freedom that I associate with my daughters goodness, and maybe, more broadly, with just the possibility of human goodness. There were several investigations concerning the events that caused me to lose good time and will keep me in here until . . . I dont know when. One was conducted by the Alaska State Troopers and the Department of Corrections; another by the office of Child Protective Services, which got involved, as you will soon learn. Obviously I wasnt present to see anything that happened outside Lemon Creek Correctional Center, so in writing this, I wanted to double-check the facts from those investigations. My attorney was given those reports. Ive also had the advantage of being able to talk with my daughter, Blossom Younger. She gave me her written reports, letters and diary, which you might think is a rare display of openness between a teenage girl and her incarcerated father. In truth, she gave me all her written materials in order to hide them from the other investigations, which turned out to be a well-reasoned ploy because my lawyer and the Department of Corrections threw up quite a few walls against the discovery of my personal possessions. No adult investigator thought there would be much of Blossoms stuff in my possession. Blossom spoke with me during her visits about what happened in the basement, and she cried like a baby, long after her bruises had healed and the cuts had sealed together and the stitches had come out. She wept without control, but she hadnt cried when it first happened. Then she was a tough and smart-mouthed teenager who could handle all the troubles of the adult world, thank you very much. She thought she was a freedom fighter, and she thought she was fighting for my freedom, bless her soul, but once she learned I had that more or less covered, she started opening up to me and her mother, and her rage all spilled out "like the insides of a gutted fish." Those were her words. She made me promise not to paint her as a wimp in this account, and as you will see, there is nothing wimpy about our daughter. But you might judge me harshly and miss my love for her if I didnt clue you in to her tender nature. I write now in pencil on a yellow pad--several yellow pads, actually. I usually work while Im at my job in the library or when Im alone in my bunk. I make two copies of everything I write, and I hide both copies: one in a safe place and the other with a person I trust. I write to keep from beating my head against the wall for whatever time I have left in here, and I write to remember how much I love my daughter; that love is the most civilizing force that remains in my life. Loving her and respecting her, eventually learning to let her go, will make me a valuable human being . . . at least that is the belief I cling to. Ill tell this story as if I were on the outside with Blossom. She is only seventeen, but she thinks of herself as my partner in our investigative business, which is not true, but there is nothing much I can do about that now. I enjoy writing as if I know what she is thinking and what happened to her. I also believe this account is accurate. For all the harm and what ultimately happened to her, I am deeply sorry, but again, there is nothing to be done about it now. Blossoms mother is Jane Marie DeAngelo. We were married in a small ceremony in Sitka on the beach out near the ferry dock. Blossom is our only child. Jane Marie was born and raised in Juneau; her sister and her family still live in the family home there. Jane Marie lives on her boat, The Winning Hand . Our friend and the man Im supposed to take care of, Todd, now lives in Jane Maries sisters house. Todd did not like living on the boat--Jane Marie takes it out at unexpected times--and he is now working at a nursing home downtown and takes his schedule very seriously. Even though there is a lot of noise in the house with people coming and going, it is near the nursing home, close to the capitol building, and Todd has a tiny room where he is comfortable. Blossom sees him every day and she takes him shopping whenever he needs anything. They also enjoy going to the movies in Juneau, where there are more choices than in Sitka, where we used to live. Jane Marie is a research scientist and professor at the University of Alaska. She moors her boat, which doubles as a research vessel, in Aurora Harbor, which is close to Juneau-Douglas High School, where Blossom goes to school. Im incarcerated at Lemon Creek Correctional Center, some eight miles down the road from the high school. Jane Marie also works out of a small office near St. Details ISBN164129406X Author John Straley Series A Cecil Younger Investigation Language English Year 2022 ISBN-10 164129406X ISBN-13 9781641294065 Format Paperback Publication Date 2022-11-08 DEWEY 813.6 Series Number 8 Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2022-11-08 NZ Release Date 2022-11-08 US Release Date 2022-11-08 UK Release Date 2022-11-08 Subtitle A Cecil Younger Investigation #8 Audience General Pages 288 Publisher Soho Press Imprint Soho Press We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:141360449;

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