The Music of What Happens [Hardcover]

John Straley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1996

Taking on the case of a woman who is convinced her custody battle is part of a conspiracy to take her son from her, Alaskan private eye Cecil Younger prepares to confront a state senator, only to become involved in a murder. 25,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"I never find the smoking gun or the lead pipe with the bloody fingerprints on it, because everyone is looking for those. I find everything else, everything that has been left in the overturned rooms: the surface that wasn't blood-spattered, the dust on the knickknacks and family photo albums, but not on the exceptionally clean retirement plaque; the music on the radio in the empty hallway after everyone has been taken to jail or the morgue. I do this because there is always trace evidence of innocence, and innocence is largely overlooked, even by a man oiling a gun with a child crying in the background on the day before a killing." That voice is so original it can only belong to Straley, who introduced us to Alaskan investigator Cecil Younger in The Woman Who Married a Bear and The Curious Eat Themselves. This time out, Younger is trying to help the sister of an old girlfriend keep custody of her little boy. The wealthy, powerful family she has married into says she's unstable, an unsuitable mother -- but their opposition has sinister roots.

From Publishers Weekly

After this case, Xanax-popping PI Cecil Younger of Sitka, Alaska, may make it a rule never to work for friends. Priscilla DeAngelo recruits him to help her in a bitter custody battle over her son. In no time, Cecil confronts her ex and finds himself flat on the pavement of a Seattle parking lot. Back in Juneau, Priscilla confronts Senator Wilfred Taylor, whom she suspects of conspiring to keep her son away from her, and the senator ends up dead in the stairwell. With Priscilla under arrest for murder, Cecil finds himself not only working on the custody case but reacquainting himself with an old flame, Priscilla's sister, Jane Marie, and locking horns with legendary defense attorney Harrison Teller, who seems to have a finger in every pie. A web of subplots adds to the depth of a story that encompasses possible organized crime, senatorial paper shredding and obsessive love. By its conclusion, the whirlwind ride leaves the reader gasping for breath, as Shamus Award-winning Straley (The Woman Who Married a Bear) tells a dark story illuminated by the wild vigor of both the Alaskan landscape and his own writing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Edition edition (February 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055309677X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553096774
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,341,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars needlessly confusing, February 27, 2001

By 

Mark Bonney (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Music of What Happens (Mass Market Paperback)

I consider John Straley one of my favorite authors. I pick up one of his books when I can't think of what else to read, because I know I will not be disappointed, but this time he failed me. He's a fine writer and his descriptions of the down-and-out life in Alaska are right on the money, but I found the plot in this particular book to be needlessly confusing. Poor Cecil is confused enough the way it is without having to wade through the conspiracies in this one. But any book that starts with the line "It was early spring when I was released from the psychiatric ward" can't be all bad.