Blown By The Same Wind

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Description

Mysterious dreams of grizzly bears, a bumbling FBI agent, and a tense hostage negotiation have the town of Cold Storage, Alaska, turned upside down. Things in the sleepy fishing town of Cold Storage, Alaska, are changing. It's the summer of 1968; the men are wearing their hair long, the Vietnam War is at its height, and multiple assassinations have gripped the country. But some things remain the same. Ellie's bar is still the place to catch up on the town gossip, and there's a lot to talk about, from the boys who have returned from the war (and the ones who haven't), to the robberies that are plaguing the locals, to the new guy in town- a famous monk from Kentucky. Ellie, herself a fugitive of sorts, is curious about this "Brother Louis," and worries about his motives, but he seems harmless enough. However, when a handful of other outsiders arrive to town and start poking around the bar and asking questions, Ellie begins to have reservations. Have they followed this mysterious monk, rumored to be the famous author Thomas Merton, to Cold Storage And what is it that they want, particularly the inept FBI agent with the strange name- Boston Corbett Inspired by assassination conspiracy theories, the life of Thomas Merton, and the changing tide of the '60s, Blown by the Same Wind is a coming-of-age story for the town of Cold Storage itself.

Reviews

Praise for Blown by the Same Wind

[A]n impressive adventure thriller suffused with metaphysical concerns.
Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal

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

John Straley, one of Alaskas best-known and best-loved writers, continues to deliver . . . Straley has brought together an intriguing mix of historical events to play within his wild imagination.
Anchorage Daily News

Well worth reading.
Dayton Daily News

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 Straleys 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

The action unfolds amid deep discussions among the characters of religion, philosophy, war and peace, the law, and politicsall leading to a surprising climax and unexpected conclusion. An engaging, if quirky, read.
New York Journal of Books

If you've embraced Donald Westlake, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, or the Junior Bender books from Timothy Hallinan, I hope you're already ordering a copy of Blown by the Same Wind. You're going to have a lot of fun.
Kingdom Books

A stunner. Straley weaves his wonderful, idiosyncratic characters into a twisty plot and a beautifully rendered setting.
Historical Novels Review

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

[Blown by the Same Wind]reads like a cross between historical fiction and mystery, with a dose of off-the-wall weirdness thrown in for good measure.
Library Journal

Reliably off-kilter . . . Perfect.
Kirkus Reviews

Praise for the Cold Storage Novels

[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

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 Devil House

Straleys prose is achingly perceptive, cinematically vivid and just pure pleasure to read.
Scott Hawkins, author of The Library at Mount Char

Straley has brought together what are clearly social and political issues he cares deeply abouteven as he lampoons them . . . John Straley takes us on a wild ride, but with the reins held firmly in his able hands.
Anchorage Daily News

Author Bio

John Straley, a criminal investigator for the state of Alaska, lives in Sitka, where he and his wife, a marine biologist, raised their only son. 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.