COLD STORAGE ALASKA by John Straley

Friday 56 Rules:

 *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader  *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post in Linky at Freda's Voice Also Book Beginnings by Rose City Reader.

Cold Storage Alaska

I have loved all of John Straley's crime books, his prose often like poetry, his characters unusual and memorable; and I have no reason to think Cold Storage Alaska is any different. The setting is Alaska, a land of starkness, in people and place.

page 56:
"I'm sorry," Jake Shoemaker simpered in an uncommonly polite voice. "I know this must be inconvenient for you." Oscar sat on the couch, his hands tied behind his back. "I mean it's more than just inconvenient; this is frightening, I'm sure."

Book beginning:
Anabelle had put the tea kettle on just moments ago. Now it was whistling, yet she didn't get up to attend to it. Recently the past had become a hallucination constantly intruding into the present moment, so she wasn't certain what really needed doing. 

Book description:

"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 you’re 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 “The Milkman” 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 doesn’t realize the trouble he’s 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 insane—lately, he’s 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 Clive’s arrival turn the whole place upside down." (goodreads)

 What do you think? Is this a book you'd keep reading?
Thanks to Soho Crime for a review/feature copy of this book.

Teaser/First Chapter: Cold Storage, Alaska by John Straley; and A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Miz B; choose two teaser sentences from a random page of your current read.

Cold Storage Alaska

Teaser:

Miles wasn't eager to show that police officer around. No matter where they were from, visitors always wanted to ask questions. They started with history: Why is this place here? To this Miles would usually answer, "Fish...mostly." He longed to tell the whole story but the truth is people really didn't want to know. (ch. 2) 

from Cold Storage, Alaska by John Straley; Soho Crime
An offbeat, often hilarious crime novel set in the sleepy Alaskan town of Cold Storage from the Shamus Award winning author. Clive “The Milkman” McCahon returns to his tiny hometown of Cold Storage, Alaska 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 doesn’t realize the trouble he’s bringing home. (goodreads)

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First Chapter, First Paragraph is a weekly meme hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.

A Single Breath

 First chapter:

As she leaves the shelter of the headland, the full force of the wind hits Eva. Her hair whips back from her face and she hugs the flask of coffee tight to her chest. Clouds of sand gust along the shoreline, sending a tangled knot of fishing line pinwheeling along the beach.  

A woman passes in the other direction, her purple coat flattened to her back by the wind. The fur-trimmed coat is pulled tight to her face, making Eva wish she had thought to wear a hat. She had forgotten how raw the weather is on the coast; in London it is muted by buildings and watched from behind windows.

from A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke; Touchstone
A young widow discovers her husband was not who he claimed to be and finds herself falling in love with the wrong man. Threading together beautiful, wild settings in Tasmania and suspenseful twists, A Single Breath is a tale of secrets, betrayals, and new beginnings. (goodreads)

Do the teasers and the first chapter entice you to want to read these books?