Death and the Language of Happiness

Straley, John

ISBN 10: 0553096796 / ISBN 13: 9780553096798

Published by Bantam Dell Pub Group, Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A., 1997

About this Item

BOOK SMALL REMAINDER DOT BOTTOM EDGE. Seller Inventory # 004932

Bibliographic Details

Title: Death and the Language of Happiness

Publisher: Bantam Dell Pub Group, Westminster, Maryland, U.S.A.

Publication Date: 1997

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

In plumbing the connection between the murder of a young woman found in a motel bathtub and the death of a man eighty years before, the eccentric Alaskan native, Cecil Younger, must confront the ghosts of the past. By the author of The Music of What Happens.

Review:

What makes this latest Alaskan mystery a must is--as always--the sheer beauty and energy of John Straley's writing. "His right hand engulfed mine in a leathery grip and I held onto it for longer than might have been called for," says detective Cecil Younger of a meeting with an ancient bearer of secrets about old and new murders. "It wasn't until after my grip tightened on his that I felt the quaver of his body his left hand betrayed. I saw in his blue eyes the distant haze of ice, the toehold of confusion and uncertainty. William Flynn was a very old man in a durable body. His soul was a weary traveler. Looking at him I began to feel uncomfortable, as if I were walking over a canyon on a narrow railroad bridge hearing a train whistle far down the line." Available in paperback are Straley's other wonderful books about Younger, The Curious Eat Themselves, The Music of What Happens, and The Woman Who Married a Bear.