John Straley Books in Order
John Straley has written 14 books, published between 1992 and 2024. The first book is The Woman Who Married a Bear (1992) and the newest is Big Breath In (2024). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 14
- Published
- 1992–2024
- Pages on record
- 2,580 in 11 of 14 books
- Reading time
- 43–65 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 2,580 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 11 of 14 titles with a page count on record.
Fourteen catalogued books by John Straley run from The Woman Who Married a Bear (1992) to Big Breath In (2024). Cecil Younger, a private investigator, is the recurring character of the first series; Cold Storage forms a second. Straley is a poet as well as a writer of detective fiction, and lives in Sitka, Alaska. Crime, suspense and the Pacific Northwest recur as subjects.
How many John Straley books are there?
John Straley has 14 books, released between 1992 and 2024. They include 2 series and 2 titles listed outside any series.
John Straley Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 14 John Straley books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 11992–2/4
- 219932192/4
- 319962882/4
- 4199812/4
- 519992722/4
- 620012722/4
- 720083622/4
- 8The Rising and the Rain2008 · 75 pages · confirmed 2/42008752/4
- 920132982/4
- 1020182412/4
- 1120202642/4
- 1220212882/4
- 132022–2/4
- 14Big Breath In2024 · confirmed 2/42024–2/4
John Straley books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
Cecil Younger in order
8 booksCold Storage in order
4 booksStandalone books
2 books2 John Straley titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Do you have to read John Straley books in order?
You only need to read John Straley books in order within each series: the books listed here span 2 separate series, and each series has its own publication order.
Where to start with John Straley
Start with The Woman Who Married a Bear (1992), the earliest published title.
What is the newest John Straley book?
Big Breath In (2024) is the newest John Straley book released so far.
Is there a new John Straley book coming?
No next John Straley book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
John Straley at a glance
- Still publishing
- John Straley published a book as recently as 2024.
- Release pace
- John Straley books have appeared about one every 3 years on average.
- Length
- 2,580 pages across the 11 of 14 books with a recorded length, a median of 272 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most John Straley books, 5 of 14, were published in the 1990s.
What the John Straley books are about
12 of the 14 John Straley books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: mystery & detective is tagged on 8 of 12. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Mystery & detective 8 of 12 books
- Alaska 6 of 12 books
- Private investigators 6 of 12 books
- Younger, cecil (fictitious character) 5 of 12 books
- American literature 2 of 12 books
- Crime 2 of 12 books
- Suspense 2 of 12 books