Cecil Younger is a private investigator who takes comfort in the absurdity of the universe.  And the universe is obliging him with a joint phone call from his lawyer and his shrink to convey a message from another client: Someone will pay Cecil well to get rid of a problem...by killing a man. Though the bank is about to foreclose on the house he shares with the autistic Toddy, Cecil knows he's not the man for this job.  Common sense tells him that murder just isn't a good career move.  But he does need the money, so Cecil decides to meet his potential client.  Ninety-seven-year-old William Flynn is none too clear on what's happened this week, but he's razor-sharp on the events of eight decades past.  What's happened this week is the murder of Angela Ramirez, a young woman who used to visit Flynn in the nursing home where he resides.  And the subsequent discovery in Flynn's room of the gun used to kill her--which makes him the prime suspect.  Flynn wants Cecil Younger to find, and kill, the man he believes is responsible for Angela's murder: her husband Simon Delaney. Cecil, his shrink, and Flynn's attorney all figure it may help Flynn's defense to find Delaney, so Cecil sets out on the trail.  It leads him from a rough-and-tumble Aleutian Island town to the perilous streets of Seattle, from the pathetic murder of a drunken woman in a cheap hotel to a decades-old slaughter that is still reaching into the present.  And its dark and chilly grasp may extend to Cecil Younger himself.... What makes this latest Alaskan mystery a must is--as always--the sheer beauty and energy of John Straley's writing. "His right hand engulfed mine in a leathery grip and I held onto it for longer than might have been called for," says detective Cecil Younger of a meeting with an ancient bearer of secrets about old and new murders. "It wasn't until after my grip tightened on his that I felt the quaver of his body his left hand betrayed. I saw in his blue eyes the distant haze of ice, the toehold of confusion and uncertainty. William Flynn was a very old man in a durable body. His soul was a weary traveler. Looking at him I began to feel uncomfortable, as if I were walking over a canyon on a narrow railroad bridge hearing a train whistle far down the line." Available in paperback are Straley's other wonderful books about Younger, The Curious Eat Themselves , The Music of What Happens , and The Woman Who Married a Bear . YA. Cecil Younger, a private investigator, makes his fourth appearance in this mystery set in Alaska and Washington state. The latter was the site of a 1919 tragedy in which four American Legionnaires, marching in an Armistice Day Parade, were killed by Wobblies defending an IWW Hall. One Wobbly was lynched, several others were convicted of murder, and two were never found. Younger searches for links between that event and the modern-day murder of Angela Rameriez, a young woman who often visited 97-year-old William Flynn at a Sitka, AK, retirement home. The old man is quite confused about many things, but lucidly pleads his innocence even though the murder weapon was found in his room. He asks Younger to find and kill Simon Delaney, Angela's husband, whom Flynn believes is the murderer. Younger's therapist and Flynn's lawyer urge the investigator to find Delaney and thus the search is on, taking Younger to the Aleutian Islands and down to Washington, where he locates his man and solves both the murder and the missing pieces of the 1919 puzzle. Straley creates particularly vivid settings. This novel helps clarify the historical role of Wobblies in America by focusing on one event and creating a "what if" scenario. YAs wanting a short, fast-moving mystery will be satisfied by this tale by an award-winning author.?Dottie Kraft, formerly at Fairfax County Public Schools, VA Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. In one of his more puzzling cases, Alaskan p.i. Cecil Younger (e.g., The Music of What Happens, 1996) connects the murder of a young mother to the disappearance years earlier of two boys. His source, a 97-year-old suspect in the woman's death, wants Cecil to locate the woman's missing husband. Cecil flies to the old man's abandoned island shack, where he finds a clue-laden trunk, then pursues the elusive but violent husband. An intriguing story, bolstered by familiar characters (girlfriend Jane Marie, roommate Todd), evocative backdrops, and well-crafted prose. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. Private investigator Cecil Younger is a free-spirited guy with a lifestyle that would make most yuppies shudder. He lives in a ramshackle house in a remote Alaskan village with his current sweetie and a mentally challenged 42-year-old man, sharing meals and expenses with whoever happens along. His latest case is a toughie: he's hired to kill a man. Nonagenarian nursing-home occupant William Flynn has been accused of killing a woman. He says there's a witness, and he wants Cecil to kill the guy so