Nevada BarrResenhas

"13 1/2" by Nevada Barr
recounts the story of Dylan, an 11-year-old boy convicted in 1971 of murdering his family with a hatchet, sparing only his older brother Rich, who was severely injured. He is dubbed "Butcher Boy." Polly, fleeing an unimaginably abusive home at 15, makes her way to New Orleans. As an adult, she encounters Marshall Marchand and falls in love with him, as do her two daughters. However, she soon discovers that Danny, Marshall's brother, appears to be overly controlling. Appearances can be deceiving.

Temporarily working as a presuppression firefighter on Cumberland Island, GA, for three weeks, Anna was ready to soak up the sun, breathe the fresh ocean air, and witness the hatching of the endangered baby loggerhead turtles while raking in some much-needed overtime pay. But, after a fatal plane crash on the island, she finds herself investigating a possible murder as an NPS law enforcement officer. Surrounding her is another cast of quirky, semi-strange co-workers who seem to flock to the National Park Ranger positions. The plot in this fifth book in the series—laced with magnificent descriptions of the local wildlife and landscape—is captivating and suspenseful as Anna gets beat up, attacked by ticks and chiggers, then nearly killed while trying to bring down a killer. Good to the last page.

Still recovering from the nightmare at Isle Royale National Park, Anna is on leave and seeing a psychiatrist. She and her husband go on a float trip down the Rio Grande at Big Bend National Park with a guide and some college students. They find a pregnant woman caught in some vegetation, and while they are unable to save the woman, Anna performs an emergency C-section with her husband's pocket knife. They encounter a starving cow, and one of the college students insists they must rescue the cow. The guide is shot, and the person doing the shooting seems to be targeting their party when a second member is shot. With the river rising and the loss of their raft, they must try to climb (with a baby in arms), but it puts them in danger. They don't know who they can and cannot trust. The book was written sometime after 9/11 made it more difficult for Mexicans to enter the United States. Barbara Rosenblat does a good job narrating the story.½

Not one of her best, but since I was at Mesa Verde last month, I could envision the places she was describing.KIRKUS REVIEWAs historians and contractors slug it out over replacing the ancient waterlines in Mesa Verde National Park, noncombatant park ranger Anna Pigeon battles a demon of her own: her growing attraction to Stacy Meyers, a law-enforcement temp unhappily married (what did he and Rose Meyers ever see in each other, anyway?) and burdened with a special-needs stepchild. Soon enough, though, there are more immediate problems: contractor Ted Greeley's hiring of Tom Silva, estranged husband of park superintendent's secretary Patsy Silva, who immediately feels she's being harassed by her obsessive ex; a midnight sabotage attempt on Greeley's excavation equipment; a nip-and-tuck airlift of an asthmatic girl who collapses in the Cliff Palace; Stacy's strangely dissociated behavior during the rescue; and finally the eerie discovery of Stacy's corpse, neatly laid out on the fire-pit floor of the Cliff Palace without a mark to indicate how he died. Whodunit, and why, and how? Not as intense or as ingenious as A Superior Death (1994), and this time Anna's struggles with alcoholism and the continuing grief of widowhood eclipse the more routine intrigues of the plot. But the supporting characters have stubborn lives of their own -- you never get the sense that they've spent their whole lives waiting to be suspects in a murder case -- and Barr's sense of place is as wondrous as ever.

KIRKUS REVIEWPrequel to Barr?s popular Anna Pigeon series.For readers who have always wondered what made Anna Pigeon forsake a Manhattan theatre career for the life of a ranger/sleuth in the country?s most godforsaken locales, some answers: Anna, traumatized by the sudden departure of her husband, Zach, shuts her eyes and picks a job, any job, as long as it?s different from her old life. And what could be more alien than a summer as a seasonal assistant in the National Park Service, where she is immediately assigned to help ranger Jenny, aka the Fecal Queen, remove human waste deposited by tourists on the shores of the otherwise pristine Lake Powell, Utah. This dam-created lake nestled in deep canyons is a favorite destination for houseboaters, including bands of partying overprivileged 20-somethings. Unused to desert conditions, Anna embarks on an ill-advised solo hike, where she surprises three college-age boys raping a young woman. The next thing Anna knows, she awakens in a sinkhole, naked, with a bruised skull and a dislocated arm. Intermittently conscious, with nothing to drink but the apparently drugged contents of a canteen, Anna discovers the corpse of the rape victim (whose name bracelet identifies her as Kay) buried nearby. Anna eventually vows to get in even better shape to handle the rough terrain�and characters¥of her new world. Along the way, the obvious culprits turn out not to be so obvious, and Barr succeeds in keeping us guessing as to who the real psychopaths are.Cliffhangers, literal and literary, abound.

Suspenseful story. Anna Pigeon is helping with a bear study at the National Glaciers State Park. A camper is found dead and Anna is asked to help solve by the park director. Lots of twists and turns with an unusual outcome.

Diver found in remains of an old ship wreck in the bottom of Lake Superior off the coast of Isle Royale. Good read.

First Anna Pigeon novel. Takes place in Guadelupe Natl Park in Tx. Anna solves the mystery of two accidental deaths.

(audio) Good story about park ranger Anna Pigeon who is called on to help bring back a friend deep in the depths of a newly explored cave in NM. Murder and intrigue ensue. Good to the last page.

(2014) Not her best in the series. A compelling story of Anna trying to rescue her friends who have been kidnapped by 4 evil men in the north woods of Minnesota. I had sympathy for all of the women, but the story just goes on way too long with too many implausible turns as Anna manages to stay hidden thru the entire book, jet manages to get 3 of the 4 men killed along the way. And even to the end where she manages to pick the last guy off at long range with a pistol. Really! And then when the organizer shows up, even he is dispatched in all be it clever way. Just too neat and tidy. I'm glad I'm done with that. KIRKUS: Park ranger Anna Pigeon faces down�or, more accurately, hides from and bedevils¥an unusually dangerous criminal in upstate Minnesota's Iron Range.When you work in the national parks, what do you do with your time off? If you're Anna, you take a camping trip with your friends Heath Jarrod, a paraplegic who once saved your life, and Leah Hendricks, an outdoor gear designer, as well as their respective daughters, so Heath can test the latest equipment Leah's designed for other-abled campers. And if you're Anna, things quickly turn violent. A gun-toting heavy dubbed ?the Dude? confronts the party with three equally well-armed minions and announces his plan to kidnap Leah and Katie Hendricks and kill Heath and her adopted daughter, Elizabeth. Luckily for the women, Anna happens to have stepped out for a few minutes to spend some quality time alone with nature, and although the Dude has been informed that there's a fifth woman, he's easily persuaded that she canceled out at the last minute. So begins a prolonged game of cat and mouse in which Anna, unarmed and accompanied only by Heath's elderly dog, Wily, stalks the oblivious predators and their victims, watching for her chance to disarm or kill the small-time thugs¥leering Sean Ferris, witless Jimmy Spinks and gangbanger Reg Waters¥or grab the brass ring by neutralizing the Dude. The formula guarantees nonstop suspense (though not so much if you're convinced that Anna and her friends will survive), but Barr (The Rope, 2012, etc.), writing as usual with welcome delicacy and feeling, works a surprising number of variations on her theme, right up to the predictable but satisfying final twist.A tour de force that's both the most one-dimensional and the most satisfying of Anna's recent adventures.Pub Date: April 1, 2014ISBN: 978-0-312-61458-4Page Count: 368Publisher: MinotaurReview Posted Online: March 6, 2014Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014

(1995) Pidgeon is now working as ranger at Mesa Verde in Colorado. Went back to this book in the series that I hadn't read after our trip to Mesa Verde last month. With the park still vivid in my mind, the use of the location really hit home. Barr really does her homework and knows the location very well. In a seemingly very quiet park, suddenly one of the park employees is found dead in a kiva and it seems that supernatural forces could only have killed him. When a couple of kids with asthma get very sick in the Cliff Palace (one dies), Anna is convinced that they are related to the murder of Stacy Meyers. With the help of an FBI agent they confront the culprit Ted Greeley, who has been using the park as a dumping ground for toxic chemicals that produce cyanide gas. He is illegally dumping it and paid by manufacturers in the area who want it gone. Stacy and later a cohort of Ted's learn of the plan and threaten to expose it before they both are killed. KIRKUS REVIEWAs historians and contractors slug it out over replacing the ancient waterlines in Mesa Verde National Park, noncombatant park ranger Anna Pigeon battles a demon of her own: her growing attraction to Stacy Meyers, a law-enforcement temp unhappily married (what did he and Rose Meyers ever see in each other, anyway?) and burdened with a special-needs stepchild. Soon enough, though, there are more immediate problems: contractor Ted Greeley's hiring of Tom Silva, estranged husband of park superintendent's secretary Patsy Silva, who immediately feels she's being harassed by her obsessive ex; a midnight sabotage attempt on Greeley's excavation equipment; a nip-and-tuck airlift of an asthmatic girl who collapses in the Cliff Palace; Stacy's strangely dissociated behavior during the rescue; and finally the eerie discovery of Stacy's corpse, neatly laid out on the fire-pit floor of the Cliff Palace without a mark to indicate how he died. Whodunit, and why, and how? Not as intense or as ingenious as A Superior Death (1994), and this time Anna's struggles with alcoholism and the continuing grief of widowhood eclipse the more routine intrigues of the plot. But the supporting characters have stubborn lives of their own -- you never get the sense that they've spent their whole lives waiting to be suspects in a murder case -- and Barr's sense of place is as wondrous as ever.Pub Date: April 6th, 1995ISBN: 0425197255Page count: 320ppPublisher: PutnamReview Posted Online: May 20th, 2010Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1st, 1995

(2011 Very good prequel to the Anna Pidgeon novels. This one starts off with Anna at the bottom of a ?jar? at the park at Lake Powell. She is trapped and cannot get out. Water in a canteen is tainted with a drug but is all that is keeping her alive. Someone has left sandwiches but nothing else. A young skunk becomes her only companion until she is finally rescued. It turns out that one of the other rangers has become jealous of her and has done these things to her. She is finally rescued in another situation by the woman's husband who forces the woman off a cliff to her death. Thru all of this Anna has been convinced to stop being a seasonal interpreter and become a full time law enforcement ranger. Really good.KIRKUS REVIEWPrequel to Barr's popular Anna Pigeon series.For readers who have always wondered what made Anna Pigeon forsake a Manhattan theatre career for the life of a ranger/sleuth in the country's most godforsaken locales, some answers: Anna, traumatized by the sudden departure of her husband, Zach, shuts her eyes and picks a job, any job, as long as it's different from her old life. And what could be more alien than a summer as a seasonal assistant in the National Park Service, where she is immediately assigned to help ranger Jenny, aka the Fecal Queen, remove human waste deposited by tourists on the shores of the otherwise pristine Lake Powell, Utah. This dam-created lake nestled in deep canyons is a favorite destination for houseboaters, including bands of partying overprivileged 20-somethings. Unused to desert conditions, Anna embarks on an ill-advised solo hike, where she surprises three college-age boys raping a young woman. The next thing Anna knows, she awakens in a sinkhole, naked, with a bruised skull and a dislocated arm. Intermittently conscious, with nothing to drink but the apparently drugged contents of a canteen, Anna discovers the corpse of the rape victim (whose name bracelet identifies her as Kay) buried nearby. Anna eventually vows to get in even better shape to handle the rough terrain�and characters¥of her new world. Along the way, the obvious culprits turn out not to be so obvious, and Barr succeeds in keeping us guessing as to who the real psychopaths are.Cliffhangers, literal and literary, abound.Pub Date: Jan. 17th, 2012ISBN: 978-0-312-61457-7Page count: 368ppPublisher: MinotaurReview Posted Online: Nov. 21st, 2011Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1st, 2011

(2010)Another very good yet disturbing Anna Pidgeon novel about child trafficking. A few graphic scenes were hard to read but really necessary for this story. A mother in Seattle is accused of killing her two girls and husband, but tries to find them, convinced they were taken by a sex ring. Anna is stationed in New Orleans, however very little of the Natl Park aspect of the story is used.Bookmarks Magazine: With its focus on pedophilia and human trafficking, Burn is Barr's darkest and creepiest mystery yet. Although some critics were disturbed by its subject matter, most were thrilled by Barr's crackling prose, pulsating action, and authentic characters. While praising the riveting and increasingly complex park ranger, they also hailed Claire as Barr's finest creation, as multifaceted and genuine as she is sympathetic. Barr even manages to work in some insightful reflections on marriage, identity, and aging. Although critics diverged in their opinions of Barr's rendering of the Big Easy--"an insider's tour" (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) versus a "pedestrian tourist route" (New York Times Book Review)--all were fascinated watching Anna maneuver through a wilderness of a different sort.

(2009)Another very good Anna Pidgeon story. Read this one as a ?staff pick? for library's 10 in 2010 adult reading program. ?(Suite 101)Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after the killings described in Winter Study (2008), Anna Pigeon has been placed on administrative leave from her job as a National Park Service ranger. To distract her from painful memories, Anna's new husband, Paul Davidson, takes her to Texas' Big Bend National Park for a rafting trip on the Rio Grande,During a turbulent journey down the river, Anna discovers a pregnant woman dying in a strainer. Anna performs an emergency Caesarean section that saves the baby's life. Minutes later, a sniper opens fire on Anna's rafting group, killing two of its members.Darden White, former Secret Service agent and current chief of security for Houston mayor Judith Pierson, breaks into Anna's narration with his own revelations. Judith, whom he has known since she was a child, wants to run for governor of Texas. She also suspects her husband, Charles, of infidelity. As the novel reaches a climax, Darden and Anna's separate stories merge.?Turns out that Judith is the one behind the murders and is trying to catch and kill the baby as it was the child of her husband and his lover, the woman found in the river. Darden helps Anna in the climax by shooting Judith before she harms the baby or kills Anna. The baby then is taken by Charles, Judith's husband. Anna and the remaining rafting group finish the trip that had been interrupted.

(2008)(audio)Another very good Anna Pidgeon story finds her on Isle Royale on Lake Superior during the winter. She is helping with a wolf/moose study required as Homeland Security needs to make the island more secure. Gets caught up in the personal lives of other members of the study that leads to death of one of the women. Booklist Review:Readers who have followed intrepid forest ranger Anna Pigeon fighting forest fires, crawling through caves, investigating crimes at national monuments, and tracking bears in service of our National Park system will find her back almost where she began, at Isle Royale National Park. Unlike her earlier visit (A Superior Death, 2003), however, this one takes place during the dead of winter, when the park is usually closed to all but the wolves and moose and the researchers who have been studying them in their unique environment. This year, however, tension is high; Homeland Security may shut down the winter study project, which has been going on for 50 years. But Anna, in her usual role as Park Service interloper-emissary ("How would you like to snowshoe over rough terrain, collecting blood-fat ticks and moose piss?") suspects that there's more at stake here than the study, and when murder intrudes, she knows she's right. The environmental quotient in Barr's novels is always high; the facts about wolves are fascinating, as are descriptions of frigid landscape, alternately beautiful and horrifying. There's plenty of drama, too, as Anna finds herself alone and in danger more than once, but what many readers return to this series for is Anna herself, strong, funny, perceptive, and well aware that she is a small part of a dynamic, ever-changing natural world.

(2005)Pretty good tale about Anna Pidgeon being stationed at Estes Park. Tries to find missing young girls. Becomes very disturbing at end when child abuse is vividly described.

(2004)(audio)Next in Anna Pidgeon series finds her at Yosemite National Park undercover as a waitress at the Park lodge. She is trying to learn the fate of 4 young people who frequent the park as workers or visitors who have disappeared.

(2003) Another very good Anna Pidgeon story about posting at Dry Tortugas National Park where illegal immigrant smugglers are trying to get over 300 Cubans into the country via this remote island.

Audio/Another very good Anna Pidgeon story. She tries to solve the apparent murder on the Natchez Trace of one of a group of hunters/poachers that it turns out hired one of her deputies to cover up the accidental death.

Audio/Very good Anna Pidgeon story as she is temporarily assigned to Glacier Natl Park to record grizzly bear activity by DNA methods. While on assignment, a murder occurs in the high country that appears to be by human, but in end was accidental by a huge grizzly that had been raised in captivity.

Very good Anna Pidgeon mystery about the death of a high school girl on the Natchez Trace as Anna just starts her new posting with the Natl Park Service.

Very good. Natl Park Ranger Anna Pigeon in NY to look after ill sister, finds herself investigating apparent suicides she thinks were murders.

Good mystery about fire fighters in Calif. forests and a murder appearing to take place during a firestorm.

I have read all of the Anna Pogeon books and I'm really just tired of her I think. This one seems incredibly sub-par and hokey and she's just completely annoying as a character. It's obvious from the beginning who the bad guy is and the whole thing is pretty much a snooze. No more Anna Pigeon books for me.

Anna Pigeon fascinates me as a protagonist- maybe I need to read more mysteries, but I find it refreshing to have a 40-something year old lady park ranger solving mysteries (a nice contrast to all the YA/middle grade I've been reading lately). Five books into her series though and I still sometimes find it hard to keep track of the cast of characters in the park, which in this one had multiple last names that sounded similar (Hammond, Hanson, Hull...)

I came somewhat close on IDing the killer this time though it wasn't obvious to me until the last fifth of the book or so, and even then the motive felt a little late-coming. For completionists' sake, will keep going with this series albeit at a leisurely pace, while enjoying the look back into contemporary 1990s.

There's a B-plot here with Anna's sister Molly and Frederick the Fed trying to figure out who's threatening Molly, but it didn't feel as connected.