Product Description

Award-winning author of The Angels Will Not Care

P.I. Cecil Younger works out of Sitka, Alaska, a land of perfect beauty and not-so-perfect lives, where there is nothing more dangerous than an unsolved crime — except maybe the man trying to solve it....

Three years ago someone brutally killed four people on the scow Mygirl. In a crowded courtroom Cecil Younger helped the accused go free. Now the man charged with the Mygirl murders has disappeared. As a storm bears down on the Alaskan coast, two people connected with the case die in separate, sudden, and bizarre explosions of gunfire.

Younger is certain that someone is trying to finish the grisly job begun on the Mygirl three years earlier. But to prove it he must chase down a wooden sloop on the wind-lashed sea. Out in the lethal storm Younger will come face-to-face with the shocking truth that has already twisted so many lives — and now could end his own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #644064 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-30
• Released on: 2001-10-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.com Review
Cecil Younger, the protagonist of John Straley's series of mysteries set in Sitka, Alaska, isn't exactly a slacker, but as PIs go, he doesn't invest his job with a great deal of energy or effort. In Cold Water Burning, his sixth outing, Cecil stumbles with characteristic good nature through his assignment: to find a missing man he himself helped acquit of burning a boat and killing its occupants. The man's vanished, along with $50,000 a tabloid advanced him for his version of how the crime really went down.

A talented stylist whose prose sparkles like the sun on icy tundra, Straley excels at sketching unusually picaresque characters and painting brilliant word portraits of Sitka's beautiful and unforgiving setting. All the elements are in place for a satisfying thriller--the unsolved murders aboard the Mygirl, Cecil's role in helping the accused man go free, and the anger of the victims' survivors, which ultimately places our hero in the murderer's gun sights. But they take second place to Cecil's relationship with his most trusted mentor, George Doggy, and both the plot and the pace--not exactly a breakneck ride to begin with--suffer as a consequence. There's a brilliant scene right out of The Perfect Storm as Cecil heads out on a very large ocean in a very small boat to rescue Toddy, his autistic housemate. Straley manages to stitch the somewhat ragged edges of the plot together convincingly enough, but he may need to light a fire under Cecil if he expects him to continue to carry this series. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
In this sixth Cecil Younger mystery, the low-key, rather inept PI from Sitka, Alaska, reopens an unsolved murder case. Three years earlier, Younger worked for Richard Ewers, a deckhand who was acquitted of murdering four people on the fishing scow Mygirl. Now Ewers is missing. His wife, Patricia, fearing revenge, asks Younger to find him, but the PI is hesitant because his mentor, retired police chief George Doggy, still thinks Ewers was guilty. Then a cop kills Patricia during a shootout at the trailer of Sean and Kevin Sands, whose parents were murdered on the Mygirl. A large sum of money, paid to Ewers by a tabloid newspaper, is missing, and Younger realizes he must follow its trail to discover what really happened three years before. During a climactic, white-knuckle chase at sea in the midst of a horrific storm, the easygoing Younger finds the answers, learning startling truths about trust and honesty. Straley's writing style is strong but, unlike most Alaska mystery writers (Dana Stabenow, Sue Henry), he allows the dazzling locale to serve only as background to his charactersASitka's often feckless inhabitants. The psychology of Straley's antisocial characters, like violent Kevin and emotionally damaged Sean, drives these novels as much as does the action. (Jan. 2)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The sixth Cecil Younger mystery may also be the best. Three years ago, someone murdered four people. There was a suspect, but not enough evidence, and the case was never solved. Now the man accused of the murders has disappeared, and his wife asks Cecil, a private investigator in the small Alaska town of Sitka, to look into it. But soon the accused murderer's wife has herself been killed, and, suddenly, a dead case comes back to life. Like most small-town private-eye novels, the Younger tales rely heavily on their assortment of characters, and readers familiar with the series will be pleased to revisit Sitka and its residents. Newcomers to the series may find the story takes awhile to get going, but patience is rewarded: this is a solid mystery, well told. And, with its back-from-the-past story, this particular Younger novel is more satisfying than its predecessors. Fans will be delighted, and readers unfamiliar with the series will find themselves searching out the previous entries. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Local with a bias
I will start out declaring my bias: I lived in Sitka, Alaska for 7 years (now in Juneau for the past 3) and know John and the people of Sitka well. It is for this reason actually I thought I would share something, possibily of interest, with readers or potential readers of John's work.

It was quite obvious to me that John used his latest novel not only to entertain his readers, but to tip his hat to the people of Sitka who have provided him such good material and, more importantly, friendship over the past many years.

Many of the positive side characters and a few of the main ones in this latest novel are John's friends and neighbors. If not in total, at least enough to convey a "tip of the hat" from John to them. While this is not unique to this book or John as a writer, he references so many local people and in such a way that reading the book was like watching him shake hands and pat the backs of his fellow Sitkans.

I hope readers are able to pick up on this and that it allows them to feel perhaps even more immeresed in the Sitka by the Sea John describes so well.

Colder Water Burning is HOT!
Cold Water Burning by John Straley is the latest foray of Cecil Younger the private eye. In this outing, our intrepid hero (who is on the wagon) is caught up in a nasty investigation involving a murder of a family. The more Younger digs, the more bodies turn up. An excellent tale that reaches heights of poetic expression without being corny. By far the best novel of Straley's to date. Though all good, this one is quite touching. The descriptions of the folks of Sitka could be like that of any small town America.

Sitka depopulated - almost
Every few pages there is a body. Even at book's end a skeleton shows up. Nevertheless, this is not a bloody book. It is a tightly constructed mystery with well delineated characters. It moves right along, with ravens, like a Greek chorus, checking on the action. Plenty of red herrings to mislead the reader. Recommendable.