Just as Richard Russo has made the fictional small towns of upstate New York and Maine his own, John Straley has made his mark in the desolation of southeastern coastal Alaska--creating a sympathetically cockeyed universe of characters whose language and idiosyncrasies define them. Cold Storage, Alaska tells the story of Clive McCahon, who had abandoned the coastal fishing town to become a drug dealer in Seattle, but is returning home after seven years in prison. His younger brother, Miles, stayed behind and, having become something of the town's caretaker, is unsettled by Clive's return. They are cut from different wood; as their cancer-stricken mother puts it: "Clive would lift her off her feet and swing her around the kitchen while Miles fretted about what might get broken."
Straley is best known for his mystery series set in nearby Sitka, but Cold Storage is only a crime novel in that it's got knee-capping crooks, soft-hearted cons and a ramrod cop. Mostly, it's a story of a town with nothing much to offer but rain, salmon fishing, drink and gossip--but that's plenty for Straley to work with. Cold Storage may be "a town that gloried in [its] bad habits... clinging to the side of the mountains with no roads, no cars, and virtually no sense of the outer world," but in Straley's hands, it is rich in character, music, humor and compassion. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.