Book review: Inspired by his wife, latest John Straley novel features a fierce woman biologist

“Big Breath In”

By John Straley; Soho Press, 2024; 288 pages; $28.95.

John Straley, the acclaimed Alaska author of 13 crime novels in two series, is back with a stand-alone novel. Straley’s previous books, which most recently include “So Far and Good” and “Blown by the Same Wind,” have always drawn upon his experience working as a criminal defense investigator. He’s also made considerable use of the setting, particularly the rain-soaked environment of Southeast Alaska. With “Big Breath In,” he’s moved his story to Washington state and given investigating responsibilities to a woman who’s a retired marine biologist.

Readers will sense that Straley had particular fun with his new story. As he explains in his acknowledgment section, the work was inspired by the life of his wife, the well-known whale biologist Jan Straley. He gave his principal character Delphine much of Jan’s own backstory, with some significant differences. We first meet Delphine in a hospital, where she’s being treated for terminal cancer. Delphine had been married to a criminal investigator (named John), who died four years earlier in a bicycle accident. Delphine sees a woman with a baby being mistreated by a sketchy man, is gifted a motorcycle by a friend dying of her same cancer, and finds the will and strength to ride into the danger of a child trafficking operation.

At the start, Delphine is seen devoting herself to writing up memos about her 40 years of whale research, for the benefit of her colleagues and students. Details of the lives of whales — humpbacks, orcas and especially the more mysterious sperm whales — weave into the storyline. While this science aspect risks slowing down the plot, any reader with an interest in whales will enjoy the digressions. Moreover, the whale elements establish Delphine’s attention to detail, her curiosity about the world and her determination to solve mysteries. Whales, with their big breaths and big brains, are, after all, both mysterious and analogous to other forms of life.

At one point, Delphine applies her understanding of animal physiology and behavior to that of murderous men. “See, mammals with large brains and a high degree of dexterity in their environment have what you might think of as imaginations. ... Big-brained animals like you tend to imagine getting what you want first, before you come up with a sensible strategy to get it.”

From her first notice of the couple and baby on a Seattle street, Delphine is torn away from her notes to embark on a rescue mission that involves those three, her fellow patient and his family, a mysterious man known as The Babysitter, an investigator from Delphine’s and John’s past, an architect looking for advice on piping whale songs into a wealthy home, an undercover agent, foreign-speaking women caring for babies, neo-Nazis, gold dealers and gold counterfeiters, and a group of lesbian bikers. The deceased John is also a very real presence, as Delphine recalls their lives together and his cautionary wisdom about searching for truth and criminals. John’s one great talent, she had learned, was “talking with men who often weren’t aware of their mistakes.”

The plot gets pretty crazy. It’s often more madcap than believable, but who can forget an image of an entire bus, with occupants, being buried underground? Or want to miss a lesbian biker barbecue with good French wine and a tub of Dungeness crab? Who will reject the idea of a terminally ill woman gunning her motorcycle across Washington state in pursuit of justice? Suspension of belief is called for, and the reward is a rollicking hero’s journey.

Straley has always had an uncanny talent for combining violence and humor, and “Big Breath In” includes measures of both. Characters are beaten, tortured, knifed, shot and killed on the same pages with comic situations and hilarious arguments. When Delphine forces her way into a room where a pool of blood covers the floor, she’s wearing a large yellow coat that could be mistaken for that of a first responder. “She and John had always talked about how it was much better to be thrown out of somewhere than it was to be denied access.” Inside, she manages to phone-hire a Russian translator, then pick a lock to discover adoption papers and fake Nazi gold bars. She knew the gold was fake because she “had seen photos of actual Nazi gold on the History Channel.”

Straley also has fun with political commentary. The child trafficking, Delphine learns, is a result of a “national abortion ban” that resulted in more unwanted babies, government responses to make it easier to adopt, and a market for illegal adoptions and stolen children. Elsewhere, Delphine’s friend, planning to take her children along to investigate a group known as the Aryan Nations boys, argues, “after all this foolishness with our former president, the Aryan Brotherhood is like the chamber of commerce around here.” And, “This close to northern Idaho, there are more weapons and ammunition in the hands of delusional paranoids than in the hands of the National Guard.”

Delphine — so determined, smart, tough, caring — does, of course, rescue babies in the end. That was never in doubt. She learns something about herself in the process, something other than the importance of completing her research notes. Meanwhile, “A thousand miles to the north, a male sperm whale hunted along the coastal ledge ... The darkness of the world’s largest ocean did not seem to daunt him.”

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