Customer Reviews

The Woman Who Married a Bear: An Alaskan Mystery

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I enjoyed this book a lot. The Alaskan setting is beautifully described by someone who knows it intimately. The characters are (mostly) unique and memorable; even the potentially cliche-ridden drunken P.I. Younger has a complicated and intriguing background. The writing is economical in the way good poetry is economical -- comparisons with Raymond Chandler are apt, as he's one of the few mystery writers who manage to achieve the same balance. And the animal characters -- ravens, bears, eagles -- are used brilliantly to enhance the drama of the story. I found the mystery itself rather weak: of COURSE the guy who's doing time for the crime didn't commit it, and the isolated setting means that the number of suspects is necessarily limited. The P.I.'s elderly client doesn't tell him the eponymous legend until very late in the book, but that was a wise decision on the author's part, as it clearly gives away who done it. But the climax is still exciting enough, and calls on all of Younger's considerable resourcefulness. I'm definitely planning to read the rest of the series.

"The Woman Who Married A Bear" is an incredibly wonderful novel. It is filled with one-of-a-kind characters who mesh into a compelling, tangled story line. Add to that mix the uniqueness of Sitka, Alaska and and the craftsmanship of Straley as a writer, and you have a fine reading experience. I've ordered the other novels in the Cecil Younger series, and I can't wait to get at 'em.

Having read The Curious Eat Themselves and being intrigued by the way Straley uses Alaskan wildlife (especially the appearance of ravens), geography and climate to enhance the often creepy mood permeating the storyline I sought out his first. I'm glad I did. Here is an Alaskan version of vintage Chandler. I marveled at the similarities between this novel and The Big Sleep or The Little Sister with the strong matriarch in Straley's novel (analagous to the patriarchs found in Chandler's work) fighting to preserve the family name and honor, no matter what the cost. Also fascinating is Straley's use of Tlingit myths and stories as allusions to the plot twists in The Woman Who Married A Bear. Here is a series of private eye novels with authenticity in voice, setting and style. I plan to read the entire series in chronology.

When a young man, I wanted to go to Alaska for adventure. This writer made me believe I had made the trip. John Straley writes this mystery as an existential poet who describes a place and people who live a hard scrabble near-wilderness existence verging on a mythological one. I look forward to reading more of this author and am pleased to see that he has published a book of poetry sold on Amazon.

The opening chapter of the book is an amazing evocation of Sitka. This man knows the town, and southeast Alaska very, very well.

Main character Cecil Younger is hard to follow at times, but it's worth the trip. Loved this book!

Straley's novels have the feel of a classic PI novel but the Alaskan setting keeps the stories fresh. The characters are beliveable and can be identified by anyone who has spent anytime in SE Alaska.

John Straley has a unique place in which to set his story, and unique people to act the parts, each of which might hamper or bog down a writer with less ability. Instead, Straley blends the setting and the characters into the story so that the whole comes out complete. This is a very satisfactory book to read; it is interesting, has fast and slow paced sections, there are no "tag" ends that have been forgotten or left hanging, and having lived in Southeast Alaska most of my life, I know his grasp of the details is perfect. Even though authors quite often grow "out" of their original genre, I am sure the integrity of John Straley's writing will endure no matter the subject matter.

Buk Guru and Mrs. Buk Guru took a low rent vacation hard by the warm blue green sea in western Puerto Rico. THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A BEAR was a boon companion. For 5 days I basked in the balmy blue-green waters of the Carribbean Sea. I had bites of conch, grouper, and red snapper. Each night I took a small bite of John Straley. This work was penned in 1992 but the words are timeless. Straley worships in the cathedral of nature as the procedural bounces from Sitka to Juneau to Anchorage. The protagonist Cecil Younger is deeply flawed. He has dropped out of college, let down his judge father and separated from "the woman who once loved him". But when not swimming in a bottle of whiskey our deeply flawed hero is insightful, philosophical, pantheistic, sensitive, appealing to the ladies, and; a supplicant in the cathedral of nature. The highlight of Straley's pantheism is a description of 2 humpback whales blowing a bubble net to trap and eat herring. The prose is beautiful, mystical and unrivalled by lesser authors. 18 years after penning this fine wine has aged well. The novel is like an intricately woven Zuni basket weaving strands of Yupik legend, Arctic travelogue, and a stale unsolved cold-blooded murder. Leave the cell phone and laptop home. Take this book on vacation.

In Sitka hard boiled drinker Cecil Younger sits outside the Alaskan state run Pioneer Home for the elderly without any money and no idea what happened to his credit card. He cannot afford the ferry to leave town and wonders what cure to try next to battle alcoholism as only Haiku writing so far has helped a little. Cecil blames or thanks his drinking problem depending on how many he already has on his wife deserting him.

When his potential client Mrs. Victor finishes her breakfast Cecil enters the facility to talk with her. The elderly Tlingit woman hires Cecil to learn the whole truth why someone killed her son Louis, a big-game guide; she rejects the official position that a crazy man convicted of the murder committed the crime. Needing to escape his troubles and knowing the irony of taking on The Brown Bear Man Case, Cecil agrees to investigate to help the grieving mom get some closure though he expects to find nothing different until someone tries to shoot him. Cecil travels to Juneau and Anchorage to talk with family members and hunting guides not realizing that opening up this solved case could lead to a second murder, his.

THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A BEAR is a terrific Alaskan private investigative tale that grips the audience on several fronts. Readers will appreciate the fallen hero struggling to regain some of his self esteem, but not always succeeding. Cecil's inquiries are electrifying as the suspense mounts with every new person he questions and his tour of Alaska enhances the excitement. Readers will welcome John Straley as a super addition to the forty-ninth state mystery pantheon.

Harriet Klausner

A first person private eye set in Alaska. Cecil Younger is a college dropout PI without a car or a gun and with a severe alcohol problem, There's a lot of local color, with Eskimo and Tlingit lore, but otherwise it's very much in the tradition of Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald. I'm a big fan of those writers so I don't know how I've managed to miss this excellent writer for so long. This was published in 1992 and this is the first time I've read any John Straley. Luckily for me it's the first of a series so I have a lot of good reading in front of me and I've started ordering the successors