Alaska, alcohol, antagonism inform Straley's crime novels

Straley said most of the crimes he investigates are alcohol-related in one way or another. Bar fights, domestic violence -- Alaska is a national leader in per-capita domestic violence, he said -- sexual assaults; almost everything traces back to alcohol.

"Not a lot of whodunits," Straley said. ". . . Alcohol is the biggest problem in Alaska."

Straley's first six novels featured a detective named Cecil Younger who lives in Sitka, Straley's home since 1977. Straley's new novel, "The Big Both Ways," is set in 1935 and follows a logger, a radical union organizer and her niece on a journey from Seattle up the Inside Passage in a dory. Straley worked on the book for six years and was inspired by John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" and Alaska writer Robert DeArmond's "Voyage in a Dory."

"The Big Both Ways" is the first fiction published by Alaska Northwest Books, an imprint of Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co.

Read More