Big Breath In

(Hardback)

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Description

This new stand-alone from the former Writer Laureate of Alaska and author of the acclaimed Cecil Younger series introduces an amateur sleuth with an ax to grind-and a child to save. This new stand-alone from the former Writer Laureate of Alaska and author of the acclaimed Cecil Younger series introduces an amateur sleuth with an ax to grind-and a child to save. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, retired marine biologist Delphine is on the brink of throwing in the towel. She has outlived her PI husband and feels like a burden to her son and his growing family. One night, while contemplating how to go on, Delphine witnesses a woman and her young child being victimized by her apparent boyfriend. When Delphine later discovers the woman has gone missing, she embarks on a quest to track her down and help her and the child. What begins as a chance encounter balloons into an at-once zany and heartfelt rescue mission across the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, Delphine encounters the dregs of humanity-grappling with schemers, kidnappers, and murderers-as well as its joys. With the help of a few friends, a retired PI, and a queer biker gang, Delphine becomes determined to stop the bad guys from getting away with it . . . knowing full well it may be her last hurrah. While Big Breath In stands alone, longtime Straley fans will recognize the characteristic wit, heart, and contemplation of life that threads through every one of his books-and discover a new heroine to fall in love with.

Reviews

Praise for Big Breath In

For more than a quarter century, John Straleys mystery and detective fiction has both enriched and diversified those genres at the same level as Dashiell Hammet, James Crumley, Carl Hiaasen and James Lee Burke. But in his newnovel, Big BreathIn, his deeply compassionate fiction transcends genre,taking us to altogether new places. Using the marine ecology work of his own internationally renowned wife, Jan, as a point of departure, John pays homage to the genius of one of the most beloved field biologists to ever emerge from the Pacific Northwest. No other fiction writer can do what John Straley has done."
Gary Paul Nabhan, recipientof the Western State Book Award, a John Burroughs Medal forNature Writing, and the James Beard Award for Food Writing

Praise for John Straley

[Straley] writes crime novels populated by perpetrators whose hearts are filled with more poetry than evil.
The Wall Street Journal

Its always a pleasure to read Straleys vivid studies of these folksthe slightly cracked, rugged and very funny characters of the Far North.
The Seattle Times

Lesser writers look to their characters poor choices and attempts to rectify them, John Straley loves his characters for just those choices. Hlderlin 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 Straleys wise, wayward, wonderfully unhinged novels.
James Sallis, author of Drive and the Lew Griffin mysteries

What a warm, engaging, profoundly human book this is: its skin crackling, its heart enormous and open. It's a mystery with judicious blasts of violence and dread, but it opens also onto the bigger mysteriesof community, of family, of place. The several lives that intertwine throughout the story reach moments of quiet grace that resonate stealthily but deeply.
John Darnielle, author of Wolf in White Van

John Straley, one of Alaskas best-known and best-loved writers, continues to deliver.
Anchorage Daily News

Terrific . . . Like the earlier novels in the series, this one is funny and quirky, a lighter change of pace from the Younger books and a delight for fans of small-town comic mysteries with a bit of bite.
Booklist, Starred Review

Excellent . . . Readers looking for action will be amply rewarded, but the books main appeal lies in the vividly drawn characters and the authors enchanting descriptions of the Alaskan outdoors. This thoughtful look at the politics and culture of a bygone era should win Straley new fans.
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Author Bio

John Straley was a criminal investigator for the state of Alaska. He is the Shamus Award-winning author of The Curious Eat Themselves, The Woman Who Married a Bear, and The Big Both Ways, and was appointed the Writer Laureate of Alaska in 2006. He now lives in Carmel, California.