To his chagrin, Alaskan PI Cecil Younger learns his teenage daughter has launched her own detective agency. But when her first case goes awry, she’s going to need some help from an unlikely source: her father, who’s currently locked up in prison. The verdict from the three-judge panel is in. Cecil Younger, bumbling criminal defense investigator and totally embarrassing father, has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for his involvement in . . . well, a number of things, ranging from destruction of private property to killing a guy. But compared to the original twenty-five-year sentence, it's not so bad. His success with getting his sentence reduced has attracted the attention of his fellow inmates, and one man, "Fourth Street," reaches out for advice for his upcoming parole hearing in exchange for protection and companionship. When he isn't reading Adrienne Rich or James Baldwin with Fourth Street, Cecil spends his time filling up large yellow legal pads. He writes, mostly, about his teenage daughter, Blossom, who is on a Nancy Drew–like quest to help her friend, George, discover the truth about her biological parents, which turns out to be complicated. Shortly after submitting a mail-in genetics test, George learns she is the infamous "Baby Jane Doe" who was kidnapped from her Native mother shortly after she was born. A media and legal circus quickly ensues, and George's reunion with her birth family isn’t the heartwarming story the journalists hoped it would be. There is an even darker secret about the baby-snatching case, a secret threatens to destroy not just George’s family—but Cecil’s as well. Praise for So Far and Good “In So Far and Good , John Straley once again proves he is a quite mad and thoroughly masterful crime-fiction blend of Dashiell Hammett, Robert Frost and Kurt Vonnegut.” —Stephen Mack Jones, author of the August Snow thrillers "In this page-turning mystery novel set in Alaska, Cecil Younger, a PI in prison, deals with the multifaceted relationships that exist behind bars while outside a stolen child is forced to return to parents she doesn't know. Who is family? Who isn't? For Younger, family is everything, always. A romantic view is that we would die for our children but the more compelling story is how one man chooses to live for his child; a harrowing look at the lengths a parent will go to for the child he loves." —Marcie Rendon, author of Murder on the Red River "There’s no one writing crime fiction quite as lyrical, twisted, and funny as John Straley. I’ve been a fan of his work from the start and I’m never disappointed . . . Straley summons his exceptional skills to keep us engaged and speeding through the heart-stopping (and sexy) twists and turns to one hell of a satisfying conclusion. One of his very best!" —James W. Hall, author of the Thorn novels "John Straley writes crime fiction that reveals the human heart. Not so much through the crimes his characters commit, but the way they try to save those they love. So Far and Good is his most moving, engrossing book yet. I could not put it down." —Leigh Newman, author of Still Points North: One Alaskan Childhood, One Grown-up World, One Long Journey Home "John Straley’s quirky tales always satisfy, and So Far and Good is most satisfying. Readers have come to expect the unexpected from the Alaskan private eye Cecil Younger, and the latest Cecil Younger investigation, essentially a family love story, is nothing short of stunning. Straley’s troubled characters, especially Cecil, are etched in three-dimensional completeness and poetic humanity . . . In the hands of a master like John Straley, crime fiction achieves dazzling importance. So Far and Good is outrageous, gripping, brilliant." —Manuel Ramos, author of Angels in the Wind “A character well worth meeting.”  —Reviewing the Evidence “Straley’s Alaskan PI Cecil Younger is one of the more eccentric, enjoyable offerings in crime fiction today. In So Far And So Good , Cecil is plying his trade out of prison, where he’s serving a (much-reduced) seven year term for past misdeeds and passing the time helping other inmates work on their parole packages. He’s also corresponding with his daughter, who has decided to join the family vocation with her own sleuthing project, which traces a friend’s history to a notorious case of a baby taken away from her Native mother. The story makes for a heady mix, all set against an uncanny backdrop—a frozen near-wilderness peppered with private eyes.” —CrimeReads “Cecil Younger is back! John Straley’s fans will be thrilled to catch up with the good-hearted but bumbling criminal defense investigator at the center of the Cecil Younger Investigation series . . . The story twists and turns in mostly believable and sometimes horrifying ways that will keep a reader turning pages into the night . . . the verisimilitude of all his novels is owed to his own intimate knowledge of the cri