The Woman Who Married a Bear

A Cecil Younger Investigation, Book 1

By: John Straley

Narrated by: David Chandler

Cecil Younger, local Alaskan investigator, is neither good at his job nor great at staying sober. When an old Tlingit woman, unimpressed by the police's investigation, hires him to discover why her son, a big-game guide, was murdered, he takes the case without much conviction that he'll discover anything new.

But after a failed assassination attempt and the discovery of previously missed evidence, Younger finds himself traveling across Alaska to discover the truth in the midst of conspiracies, politics, and Tlingit mythology. High drama meets local color as Cecil Younger works to uncover the motive and identity of the killer.

©1992 John Straley (P)2018 Recorded Books

Jumbled narrative, no theme, but a lot of foul language.

This novel was impossible to follow, changing from character to character with little to no explanation. Character development was nonexistent. The F word is offensive in my opinion and was used whenever the author was unable to find a descriptor. Individuals do not realize that the use and overuse of expletives makes them sound uneducated.
The narrator read well but did not differentiate his inflection between characters. Usually this would not matter, however, it made an already convoluted storyline even more difficult to follow.
Gratefully this title was included with my membership, so it was not an additional expense. I would definitely not recommend.

Good story

Too much detail on being a drunk and liking it. Took away from the whole story.

Too much dialog about Cecil's alcoholism

The story devotes too much dialog to Cecil's drinking than to solving the mystery. it appears that the mystery is resolved by dumb luck rather than skill. This novel does not generate my interest in following this author or character.

pretty good

I lived the setting of the story. honestly, I got a little lost sometimes I'm the descriptions of cecil's despair from drinking.

Wedding Cake

The story was beautifully written. The detailed descriptions of Alaska made me almost feel like I was there. But. Most of the descriptions, about 80%, did absolutely nothing to further the story. It was like eating a slice of wedding cake, working my way through inches of sweet, buttery icing, to get to a few inches of actual cake. The main character was not a sympathetic individual, a grown man with serious daddy issues and a drinking problem and a self destructive streak a mile wide. And when you get right down to it, the plot itself really did not make much sense. The motivation just was not credible. It's worth listening to just for the sake of the prose but I will probably not be looking for anything else from this writer.

made me lose interest several times

too detailed descriptions and not enough storyline. the creative descriptions were over used and dragged on. losing focus on the plot

Not sure if I can stomach another one of Straley’s books

He really likes his own pros. In fact there is so much flowery prose that you sometimes forget where the story is or where it might be going it’s hard to stay connected because of his excessive excessive pros but David Chandler does an excellent job of reading

Great Narrator ...

The story was....ok... The narrator made it worth the time to listen all the way through.

Confusing

I am having a hard time writing a review. I bought this book because I really like David Chandler as a narrator. The plot was straight forward but the story was, let’s say scattered. Way to much about the primary character being an alcoholic. The abridged version maybe better. I’ll have a hard time buying another book by the author.

I enjoyed the native lore

I liked the book , nothing stands out as poor story telling. I liked the native stories.