Cecil Younger Books In Order

Publication Order of Cecil Younger Books

The Cecil Younger series is a famous series of mystery, fiction, thriller, and crime novels. It is written by a well established United States writer named John Straley. The series is comprised of a total of 7 books, which were released between the years 1992 and 2018. Each and every book of this thriller and mystery series features the chief protagonist in the role of a private investigator named Cecil Younger. Author Straley has given the description of Cecil Younger an alcoholic, who remains drunk all the time. But, he doesn’t let his drinking habits come in the way of his investigations. Cecil keeps getting involved numerous mysterious in and around his city throughout the series. He uses his detective skills and intelligence to look through every possible angle of a particular case and ends up catching the culprits in the end.

Author Straley has done the setting of all the stories of the series in Sitka, Alaska; and has also mentioned Cecil Younger as hailing from Sitka. The series’ books consist of intriguing plots that keep getting even more intriguing and mysterious as the stories proceed further. The characters look well developed and interesting. John Straley has given each one of them believable personalities that the readers are able to read and connect with. Even the villains are described in unique ways, making their contribution to the stories even more interesting. In addition to Cecil Younger, a number of other important characters have been mentioned by author Straley in this thriller series. Some of the prominent ones include, Louise Root, Hannah, Doggy, Toddy, Priscilla DeAngelo, Blossom, etc.

All these characters have played essential roles in keeping the stories alive and exciting to read. An important factor of the books that makes them stand out is the excellent description of the perfect beauty of the subarctic port of Sitka. Each book describes a different aspect of Sitka, which the readers find engaging enough to fall in love with. The readers from all across the world reached out to this series with great enthusiasm and loved every part of it. They enjoyed reading all the books very much and gave praising reviews for each one of them. Many critics from around the world commented on the books with praises and appreciations in various literary journals and social platforms. Even the fellow writers of John Straley praised him for his excellent work. All the rave reviews and comments gave a motivational boost to author Straley and made him more confident to write many more books in the future.

Author John Straley is an award winning author from Sitka, Alaska. He is well known for the creation of the character of PI Cecil Younger. Author Straley’s first book featuring this popular character went on to win the Shamus Award in the Best Debut PI Novel in 1993. Before becoming a noteworthy novelist, Straley tried his hand at a variety of jobs. He has worked as a horseshoer, machinist, secretary, millworker, foreman, private investigator, and wilderness guide. Author Straley came to Sitka in the year 1977 and fell in love with the place. Since then, he has not left the place and doesn’t even have any plans of doing it in future. John Straley is happily married to a marine biologist named Jan Straley. She too is famous for her work study on humpback whales. After having a successful run with his first novel series, author Straley is thinking of developing another mystery series with a new character. He likes to keep in touch with his fans and provides them updates about the recent happenings in his life and career as well as the release dates of his upcoming novels.

The debut book of the Cecil Younger book series written by author John Straley is entitled ‘The Woman Who Married A Bear’. It was released by the Soho Crime publication in the year 2005, after its first release in 1992. At the start of the book’s story, it is shown that Sitka is a sub-arctic port in Alaska, which is surrounded by the snow-clad mountains from all sides. The people of Sitka are described as being honest in their work. They like to consume too much of alcohol. There are also events of the appropriation of the money of other people, loud music heard in bars at nights, and people engaging in mean fights. In the old cemeteries of the Russians, parties of rowdy youths take place frequently. They are often seen sitting on the overturned gravestones. Even though Sitka is not straight-laced, the port town is not accustomed to instances of murder. So, when a game guide gets killed by a former miner, the news spreads liked fire in the whole of Sitka. The mother of the victim claims that her son has been wrongly killed and summons Cecil Younger to help her get justice. Even though the case is very old and solved ostensibly, the lady asks Cecil Younger to investigate it anyway. Cecil agrees and goes on to unravel a fairy tale that appears contrived for hiding a deep conspiracy.

Another interesting volume of this series is called ‘The Curious Eat Themselves’. This book was also published by Soho Crime publishers in 2006, following its initial publication in 1993. The primary characters mentioned in this particular book include Toddy, Louise Root, Cecil Younger, Hannah, and Doggy. Author Straley has set the story in Otter Creek and Sitka. At the beginning of the story of the book, it is depicted that Cecil Younger finds himself in a jam. He was hired by Louise Root for investigating and catching her rapist, who had raped her at the gold mine of Otter Creek when she was employed there in the capacity of a cook. Louise was Hannah’s best friend, who is the former girlfriend of Cecil Younger. He had agreed to provide all the help to Louise to get justice, but now is saddened by the news that Louise’s dead body has been recovered from the nearby ocean.

The killer had brutally murdered her by slashing her throat. When Hannah learns about Louise’s murder, she seems disappointed with Cecil again. Shortly after, Cecil sees that a number of people require his help and have asked him to take up investigations for them as soon as possible. And all those investigations turn out to have links with the killing of Louise. This makes Cecil realize that the case is very much complicated. He suspects that the waste management program of the Global Mining, where Louise used to work, has something to do with her murder. He traces the clues and succeeds in establishing and proving the truth that Global Mining has been releasing cyanide into the open, causing the death of many people in the nearby areas. He even hunts down the rapist and killer of Louise Root and makes sure that justice is served to the innocent woman.