Miles lived in Cold Storage, Alaska his whole life. Not so much for his older brother Clive. Clive had a run in with the law and was in prison for selling drugs. After getting out of jail, Clive decides he needs to turn his life around and returns to Cold Storage.
Miles also has been taking care of his mother along with everyone else in Cold Storage. He is a physician's assistant. However, there is not a doctor in Cold Storage. So it all falls on Miles shoulders.
Clive comes back to find that his mother has just passed away. While walking though the town, Clive comes across an old tavern that has seen better days. Clive decides that he is going to renovate this tavern. In order to get a license, he also has to have this not only be a bar, but a church as well. Clive also has several problems...he thinks the animals talk to him and he has another that he is hiding from his ex partner Jake.
COLD STORAGE, ALASKA is a little on the strange side. However, I really liked it. The story line kept me interested in what was going to happen next in this small town. There are a lot of small story lines for the different characters that all intertwine with the two main characters. I know that I am not crazy about the cold in Wisconsin, so I can't even image what it must be like in Alaska. The description of winter in Alaska by John Straley makes me think that winter in Wisconsin is not so bad after all.
John Straley writes a book that has not only about two brothers who find their way back to each other, but has some very funny parts to it as well. I recommend COLD STORAGE, ALASKA.
An offbeat, often hilarious crime novel set in the sleepy
Alaskan town of Cold Storage from the Shamus Award winning
author of the Cecil Younger series.
Cold Storage, Alaska, is a remote fishing outpost where
salmonberries sparkle in the morning frost and where you
just might catch a King Salmon if youβre zen enough to wait
for it. Settled in 1935 by Norse fishermen who liked to
skinny dip in its natural hot springs, the town enjoyed
prosperity at the height of the frozen fish boom. But now
the cold storage plant is all but abandoned and the town is
withering.
Clive βThe Milkmanβ McCahon returns to his tiny Alaska
hometown after a seven-year jail stint for dealing coke. He
has a lot to make up to his younger brother, Miles, who has
dutifully been taking care of their ailing mother. But Clive
doesnβt realize the trouble heβs bringing home. His vengeful
old business partner is hot on his heels, a stick-in-the-mud
State Trooper is dying to bust Clive for narcotics, and, to
complicate everything, Clive might be going insaneβlately,
heβs been hearing animals talking to him. Will his arrival
in Cold Storage be a breath of fresh air for the sleepy,
depopulated town? Or will Cliveβs arrival turn the whole
place upside down?
No excerpt available.
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