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Title details for The Big Both Ways by John Straley - Available

The Big Both Ways

#1 in series

by John Straley
Barry Press
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

John Straley brings his storytelling abilities to a new level in this completely original period crime story.

It's 1935, and Slip Wilson, rattled by the gruesome accidental death of a coworker, has quit his job at a logging camp, hoping to make a clean start in Seattle. But along the way he rescues a woman and her young niece from their car in a ditch, and his life takes a hard turn. The woman, Ellie Hobbes, is an anarchist with big dreams—but first, she has to take care of that pesky dead body in the trunk of her car.

So begins the action that will take Slip, Ellie, her niece, and her noisy yellow bird on a thrilling adventure up the Inside Passage from Puget Sound to Alaska.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Cold Storage

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    February 4, 2014

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781482957457
      • File size: 336713 KB
      • Duration: 11:41:29

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this somber, exhilarating period adventure, narrator Barry Press helps listeners empathize with the several lead characters, from an indigent logger to a world-weary woman labor organizer and an orphaned girl and her bird. As they make their way from Seattle to Sitka to Juneau, the story takes on a Mark Twain flavor, but there's murder, too, and union trouble in the Northwest circa 1935. Press's voice adds to the author's portrayals of diverse characters in situations not of their choosing who are burdened with a crime that has a life of its own. In well more than 25 years of audiobook reviewing, I have rarely encountered an audiobook as masterfully written and effectively performed as this. D.R.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from March 31, 2008
      In this gripping tale of survival, betrayal and murder set in the Pacific Northwest in 1935 from Straley (Cold Water Burning
      ), Slip Wilson is just trying to find work, food and a little justice when he hooks up with a bottle-blonde, Ellie Hobbes, who drags him into her edgy, ragtag life. At the last minute, Ellie, a notorious “red” union organizer who faces mounting problems with antiunion forces, and her young niece hop aboard the same rickety boat Slip is escaping on that's traveling from Seattle to Juneau. The odd trio barely catches a breath as weather, hunger, a Seattle homicide detective and a revenge-seeking gang of thugs hound them all the way up the Inside Passage. Ellie isn't big on explanations, so Slip isn't sure until nearly the end of their journey if she's a heroine or a scoundrel. Straley's beautifully understated narrative, vivid sense of place and unapologetic, unadorned characters make this a riveting, unpredictable ride.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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