No Place Like Nome...

John Straley was the first mystery writer I ever read who made Alaska his natural canvas: his investigator, Cecil Younger, seemed to understand the people and the environment, and he blended the oddities of their lives and deaths with liberal dashes of humor and explosive action. Here’s a good place to start if you’ve never read Straley (or if you’d like to resume an old acquaintance), as Younger goes to great lengths to work on the case of a client even after she turns up dead.