Boar Island by Nevada Barr

First Line: Fists white-knuckled on the crutches, sweat running into her eyes, Heath grunted like a sumo wrestler.

When Heath Jarrod finds her adopted daughter Elizabeth in the midst of a suicide attempt, she calls in the cavalry-- her Aunt Gwen and her friend Anna Pigeon. Anna has had to deal with quite a lot throughout her career, but cyber-stalking and bullying is alien territory. The three adults think it best to take Elizabeth away from her stalker, and since Anna is about to assume her temporary post as Acting Chief Ranger at Acadia National Park in Maine, the other three follow her and stay in a house on Boar Island.

But the move does not solve the problem. Elizabeth's stalker has followed them east, and Heath, Elizabeth, and Gwen are not alone on their small island. Anna also has a big distraction on her hands: a violent murder has been committed by a killer who's uncomfortably close to her.

I've been a fan of Nevada Barr since the first book in the series, Track of the Cat, but this one is not one of her best. For one thing, the setting of Acadia National Park was a bit of a stretch, and it never really came to life as other parks have under Barr's tender loving care.

It was certainly good to see paraplegic Heath Jarrod and her adopted daughter Elizabeth again, as well as their dog Wiley. In many ways Heath is Anna in a wheelchair: prickly and opinionated, an animal lover with the heart of a lion who enjoys her own space and doesn't know how to quit. When spending time together with Heath, Gwen, and Elizabeth, Anna finds herself examining the choices she's made in her life and how well she fits in this small family group. Readers also get to see that time is beginning to catch up with Anna; in fact, she loses a bit of her super woman status (and not just because Heath is the larger focus of the book).

Two mysteries fuel Boar Island: Elizabeth's cyber-stalker and the killer who's running loose in Acadia National Park. For the most part, the focus is on the killing and two women-- Denise and Paulette-- with close ties to the murder victim. With the emphasis on the murder, this means that the second mystery concerning the cyber-stalker is put on the back burner and loses much of its suspense and tension. In fact, I forgot about it most of the time. 

By book's end I was wondering where Barr had misplaced her magic fairy dust that she's so often used to lift her books head and shoulders above the rest. That dust that makes her story so real that I'm literally cheering Anna on in her latest battle. It may be missing here, and this book may not be one of the stronger ones in the series, but I will always be on the lookout for the next Anna Pigeon mystery. She's family. 
 

Boar Island by Nevada Barr

ISBN: 9781250064691

Minotaur Books © 2016

Hardcover, 384 pages

Law Enforcement, #19 Anna Pigeon mystery

Rating: B-

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.  


 

Destroyer Angel by Nevada Barr

First Line: Paul Davidson was stopped on the overpass outside of Denver International Airport, amused as always by the statue of the great blue Gumby horse rearing against the white peaks of the terminal roof in the background.

Paul Davidson has sent his wife, Anna Pigeon, off on an autumn canoe trip in upstate Minnesota. With Anna are her friend Heath, a paraplegic; Heath's 15-year-old daughter, Elizabeth; Leah, a wealthy designer of outdoor equipment; and Leah's 13-year-old daughter, Katie. For Anna, it's a time to relax and recharge. For Heath and Leah, it's time to test cutting-edge camping equipment designed for the disabled.

On the second night out, Anna goes off on a solo float down the Fox River. When she returns, she finds that four heavily armed men have taken the other four females hostage. Anna has extremely few resources and absolutely no access to the outside world-- and she's got two days to rescue her friends before they are either killed or flown out of the country. 

No one can put five females and an old dog out in the middle of nowhere, make them face untold danger, and have readers clapping and cheering like Nevada Barr can. Sure this is a thriller. Of course, it's an adventure story-- women against killers and nature. Naturally Anna Pigeon gets to impart valuable information on responsible camping, and you'd better believe that much-needed comic relief is interspersed throughout all the deadly seriousness. But Destroyer Angel is more than the sum of its parts-- and its descriptions.

This book succeeds as both thriller and adventure story, but what makes it special are the women. Unarmed, with no food, and a gargantuan task ahead of her, Anna goes feral in an attempt to get the job done. Introduced in an earlier book, I was happy to see the changes Heath and her adopted daughter Elizabeth have undergone. Peppering up the gumbo are Leah, a woman more used to living in her mind than dealing with humans, and her spoiled daughter Katie. The interactions of the four kidnapped females are fascinating as they go through the various stages of fear, hunger, and exhaustion. Can they rise above being mere victims? I'll leave that for you to discover.

If you've never read Nevada Barr, you can read Destroyer Angel as a standalone because it is pretty complete on its own; however, longtime fans of the series are really going to savor Anna's tactics since we know her from earlier books. This was a book I had to tear myself away from forcibly. The second time I sat down with it, I stayed glued to the pages until the end. Welcome back, Anna! I missed you!

Destroyer Angel by Nevada Barr

ISBN: 9780312614584

Minotaur Books © 2014

Hardcover, 352 pages

Environmental Mystery, #18 Anna Pigeon mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Amazon Vine

The Rope by Nevada Barr

Title: The Rope
Author: Nevada Barr
ISBN: 9780312614577
Publisher: St. Martin's, 2012
Hardcover, 368 pages
Genre: Police Procedural, #17 Anna Pigeon mystery, prequel
Rating: A
Source: Amazon Vine

First Line: Regis Candor took a swig of his beer and watched his neighbor, Jenny Gorman.

A fiercely held belief among old-timers is that Glen Canyon was even more beautiful than its relative to the west, the Grand Canyon. To those of us who've seen the Grand Canyon, it defies belief that another could be even more awe-inspiring. None of us will ever be able to form our own opinions, however, because a dam was built on the Colorado River, Lake Powell slowly filled, and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was formed.

Anna Pigeon's husband is dead, and life as she's known it has ended. In an attempt to escape memories and make a clean start, she decides to become a park ranger and accepts the first opening she's offered. Before she knows it, she's boarded a bus and headed for Page, Arizona, and Lake Powell-- an incredible blaze of colors from the water and the sky to the red sandstone cliffs.

She doesn't mix all that much with the other employees, and on a day off she decides to go for a hike... and never returns. Since she wasn't the friendliest of souls, her co-workers think she didn't like the job and has moved on, but that's not the case.   

Anna wakes up, trapped at the bottom of a natural dry well. She's naked. She has no supplies, and she has no clear memory of how she got in this situation. As Anna slowly pieces things together she realizes that someone has put her in this natural prison and that no one else even knows that she's missing. If she's to survive, this city girl is going to have to survive, to outwit her captor, and to emerge triumphant. The alternative is unthinkable.

Once again Nevada Barr hits a home run. Her setting is a land of incredible beauty, and she's a master of putting her readers right in the middle of the place she's chosen-- not just with breathtaking descriptions, but with facts. It's evident that Barr is as sickened as I am with how visitors treat the area, and some of her facts made me glad that I never tested the waters during any of my visits there.

This prequel was a sheer delight to read, allowing me to see Anna as she was at the very beginning and to watch her develop into the character I've come to love and trust. If you haven't read any of the Anna Pigeon books yet and you're wondering if you should read them in order of publication (starting with Track of the Cat) or in chronological order with The Rope, you could do it either way. (Personally I would prefer order of publication.)  For those of you who have no intentions of committing to the entire series, please don't pass up the opportunity to read this book.

If you read the last book in the series, Burn, and did not care for the violence or the rather graphic subject matter, you don't have to worry about it in this book even though your antennae probably twitched at the words "naked, at the bottom of a well."  Just sit back, relax, and enjoy this story about our Anna at the very beginning.

The Rope at Amazon.

The Rope at The Book Depository.

The Rope at Your Favorite Indie Bookseller.  

Burn by Nevada Barr

Title: Burn
Author: Nevada Barr 
ISBN: 9780312614560
Publisher: Minotaur, 2010
Hardcover, 384 pages
Genre: #16 Anna Pigeon mystery
Rating: A+
Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.

First Line: "Shit, Blackie, this one's dead, too."

In this, her sixteenth outing, National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon is still recuperating from the events of Winter Study and Borderline. While her husband, Paul, keeps on working, Anna stays with a friend in post-Katrina New Orleans, little knowing that she's soon going to be fighting for what's right out in the concrete jungle.

While staying in one of her friend's apartments, Anna sees the creepy Jordan, a bartender by night and a "gutter punk" by day. Observing some of Jordan's behavior, Anna comes to believe he's a pedophile. But Jordan is not what he seems, and his connection to Clare Sullivan, an actress whose family was murdered in Seattle, is at the very heart of Barr's powerful plot.

If I'd known how good this book was, I would've kissed Barr when I attended her author signing at a local bookstore. For some reason, I caught on almost immediately to one of Barr's surprises, and I was able to gobble this book up at a fast clip. (In comparison, my husband was listening to the audio version and was confused. When I ascertained that he was within a very few pages of the reveal, I clued him in, and he settled down to enjoy the book, too.)

Anna isn't all that much different in the wilds of New Orleans as she is out in the middle of a national park, as you can see from her thoughts on the local "gutter punks":

These kids were not her brand of criminal. She wasn't well versed in their migration patterns, did not know their natural habitat, what they preyed upon or what preyed upon them-- but people who valued fear and enjoyed pain were scary. Healthy animals, bunnies and foxes and cougars and grizzlies, ran from what frightened them and avoided pain at all costs. When they stopped behaving this way it was because they were sick, rabid.

Anna may not be in Kansas anymore, but her observations are finely tuned.

A word of warning: this book deals honestly and in some detail with the loathsome subject of child sexual abuse and pornography. Did I enjoy the subject matter? No. Did I secretly harbor a tiny little wish that Anna was in a park keeping visitors away from the bears? Yes, for a few pages. However, one of the most important things I've loved about the character of Anna Pigeon throughout sixteen books is that she constantly evolves as a person.

At the beginning of the series, she fought for what she believed in, but if she could get away with staying away from people, that's what she would do. She's kicked her dependence on alcohol, she's learned to trust another human enough to fall in love and marry, she's knowingly coming to the end of her career, and she's still brave enough to fight-- and in fact she puts more of her heart into the battle than she ever did before.

In Burn, Anna found herself in a situation that literally made her sick, but children needed her desperately, and she refused to turn her back. You can't ask for better than that.

Imagine my surprise when I went to Amazon to check out the reviews for what I believe to be an excellent book, and found that it was rated 2.5 stars out of 5. Why? The subject matter.

"There's so much ugliness in the world today that I refuse to read about it for fun."

There's a lot of truth to that statement; however, I can't help but feel that many of these people turning up their noses at Barr's choice of subject matter in this book would also turn their heads and refuse to see when confronted face-to-face with the actual horror. (It's so nasty and uncomfortable, don't you know?)

I read most of the reviews, and it seemed to boil down to a consumer's version of Tough Love: Write about what I want you to write about, or I won't buy your books. I want blue skies and sunshine and cute animals!

Fair enough. I'm happy to let everyone read what they want, as long as I get to do the same. I'll continue to enjoy Anna's evolution as a character wherever she may roam, and I won't tell y'all that Anna will be at Lake Powell the next time she appears. I'll keep all that azure water, sky and sunshine to myself. I don't know about the cute animals, though. I've seen plenty of birds, fish and lizards at Lake Powell....

Buy from Amazon.

Buy from The Book Depository.

Buy from an Indie Bookseller. 

Borderline by Nevada Barr

Title: Borderline
Author: Nevada Barr
ISBN: 9780399155697, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009
Genre: Police Procedural, #15 Anna Pigeon mystery
Rating: C

First Line: Wailing cut through the perfect darkness.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to let a few days go by before I write a review. When I finished this book and wrote the details down in my book journal, I rated it a B. Now that Borderline is fully digested, I changed the B to a C. This hurts because this is one of my favorite mystery series, and Anna feels like an old buddy of mine.

In this book, Anna is still trying to recuperate from all the horrendous doings up at Isle Royale in Winter Study. Diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, she's basically told to take a vacation. The good thing about this is that she's able to take her vacation with her husband, Sheriff Paul Davidson. This is good for both Anna and the readers of this series because Davidson is a good guy and an interesting character but gets precious little "air time".

The two of them decide to go on a rafting trip down the Rio Grande and through Big Bend National Park in Texas. Big Bend has had its share of troubles post- 9/11 since it's right on the border. The Rio Grande is running high and strong due to storm run-off, and the raft Anna's group is on is swamped. While trying to recover supplies from the swift water, a young, very pregnant Hispanic woman is found caught in a snag. Anna can't save the young woman, but she does manage to save the baby before shots start being fired and members of the rafting party start dying. Anna and Paul have to get everyone-- including a newborn baby-- to safety. With young people along, it's not easy:

The twins were resilient but Lori and Chrissie had not been taught to face adversity. They were products of the Barney generation where everybody always wins, trophies are given all around regardless of which team wins and playground insults are dealt with by the courts. They had been trained to passivity and entitlement, skills that were useless in the present situation. Had they also been trained to obedience it would have helped, but in Barney's world everyone was a leader, regardless of ability.

Now comes the part where I have to explain why I downgraded this book. The book was schizophrenic. The first part was excellent. The young people in the rafting party all came to life, and having Anna in charge of a baby and teenagers was a stroke of genius. The suspense was first-rate; I had no idea how many of them would make it out of the canyon, and I kept wondering who was taking shots at them.

Once they were out of the canyon and effectively rescued, it almost felt as though I'd started reading an entirely different book. Anna's observations of the dead Hispanic woman coupled with the Texan politicos on the scene made it all too easy for me to figure out whodunit. Me...the person who never sets out to solve the mystery!

This is a must-read for anyone who's a Nevada Barr fan. The first part of the book is just too strong, and being able to see Anna interact with a baby and young people is something not to be missed. Just don't expect it to be one of the strongest books in the series. Of course...this is my opinion only, and your mileage may definitely vary. If you've read the book and really enjoyed it, please leave a comment and tell me. I always want to hear differing viewpoints!

Winter Study by Nevada Barr

Title: Winter Study
Author: Nevada Barr
ISBN: 9780399154584, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2008
Genre: Police Procedural, #14 Anna Pigeon mystery
Rating: A

First Line: The Beaver was spotless.

It's been fifteen years since National Park Service law enforcement officer Anna Pigeon was at Isle Royale National Park, and then she had the good sense to work there in the summer. However, she just couldn't pass up the chance to work with the famous "Winter Study"--scientists and researchers who study the wolf and moose populations of northern Michigan as their predecessors have for fifty years. In terms of data and knowledge gained, it's the most valuable study of its kind. Now it's in danger of being shut down due to Homeland Security's concerns about its Canadian border location.

It's a thousand times colder than that proverbial well digger's knee. Anna has so many layers of clothing on she feels like the Michelin woman, and she's still freezing. The staff quarters are less than salubrious, and to make matters worse, the resident Homeland Security bureaucrat is a complete jerk. Then strange things begin to happen. Wolves appear at their living quarters (an unheard of behavior), and they find the mutilated body of a fellow researcher out in the snow--along with the huge tracks of an unidentified beast. What in the world is going on, and with the weather closing in and shutting them off from the outside world...is anyone really safe?

I've been a "friend" of Anna's since her very first appearance in Track of the Cat. For two people who look no more alike than Laurel and Hardy, Anna and I share many psychological similarities. We both detest the cold, we both become depressed when too many overcast days string themselves together, we both prefer solitude and nature to most of the humans we know, we'd rather take a beating than walk into a cave, and it's usually more than we can take to put up with bombastic idiots. With that many quirks in common, you can see why I like her.

Barr worked her magic on me once again. As I turned the pages, I broke out in goosebumps and had to cover up with a blanket. She knows how to describe the cold! Whenever Anna and her cohorts went trekking any distance over the snow, I felt as though I were trudging right along with them, and I desperately wanted eyes in the back of my head because the creature that was killing people seriously creeped me out. I was there with Anna in almost every possible way I could be except physically. I had a vague idea of what was going on, but by the time Anna revealed all, I still hadn't pieced it all together.

For me, Winter Study is another strong entry in one of my favorite mystery series. And one that I will never consider actually reading in the winter. Without doubt, I'd keel over from terminal cold and goosebumps!