OK, it has to be said. I know it's only 3 games in but STUPID BLUE JAYS! OK, that feels better. Congratulations to Brighton Seagulls for staying up another year in the Premiership.
It's a hot day today and we're watching a Father Brown, enjoying a slight breeze. I haven't finished any more books yet but hope.
Favorite Authors - Nevada Barr
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| Nevada Barr |
I have not read this series in order, although I've tried to correct that more recently.
"Deep South is the 8th book in the Anna Pigeon mystery series by Nevada Barr. I have read 10 or so books in the series and I have to say this is one of the better ones.
Anna Pigeon is a Park Ranger for the US National Park Service. Each story highlights a different national park around the US. In this story, Anna decides to bite the bullet and apply for a promotion and gets the job as District Ranger on the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. With some trepidation she moves to this new job; it being a new area for her and she feeling somewhat nervous about becoming a boss and dealing with the the administrative aspect of the job and of having to lead Rangers instead of just being one.
She gets off to a somewhat rocky start as her two subordinates feel some resentment in being bossed by a woman and leave her to her own devices in the first two incidents. Anna gets involved in a ruckus at the campground where she is housed, two cars of teenagers causing problems with the campers. During this Anna discovers a young girl, drunk an abandoned. It turns out another girl is missing and she is found later, nearby and unfortunately, murdered. The body has been covered by a white hood with eye holes cut out and a noose placed around her neck. During the upcoming investigation, Anna and her two rangers and the local sheriff must keep racial implications in the back of the mind.
In its way, it's one of the more straight-forward mysteries of this series. As incident after incident crops up, Anna deals with it and continues with the investigation. She is threatened by an alligator (maybe left at her place on purpose), she deals with feelings for this new sheriff, she deals with the obstructionism of her deputy rangers and all the time she learns of her new district and continues to investigate.
It's an excellent mystery, lots of tension and sufficient action to satisfy you. Anna must deal with being somewhat of a stranger in a strange land, being a woman, white and a Northerner in this area of the US. The story works on many levels. My one minor complaint is that I find it somewhat difficult to believe that she would gain such familiarity with the areas so quickly, since she only just arrived there. But it's a minor complaint as the story is totally engrossing. And, you'll understand this when you read it. Give you doggie a hug. Excellent story! (4 stars)"
Anna Pigeon is a Park Ranger for the US National Park Service. Each story highlights a different national park around the US. In this story, Anna decides to bite the bullet and apply for a promotion and gets the job as District Ranger on the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. With some trepidation she moves to this new job; it being a new area for her and she feeling somewhat nervous about becoming a boss and dealing with the the administrative aspect of the job and of having to lead Rangers instead of just being one.
She gets off to a somewhat rocky start as her two subordinates feel some resentment in being bossed by a woman and leave her to her own devices in the first two incidents. Anna gets involved in a ruckus at the campground where she is housed, two cars of teenagers causing problems with the campers. During this Anna discovers a young girl, drunk an abandoned. It turns out another girl is missing and she is found later, nearby and unfortunately, murdered. The body has been covered by a white hood with eye holes cut out and a noose placed around her neck. During the upcoming investigation, Anna and her two rangers and the local sheriff must keep racial implications in the back of the mind.
In its way, it's one of the more straight-forward mysteries of this series. As incident after incident crops up, Anna deals with it and continues with the investigation. She is threatened by an alligator (maybe left at her place on purpose), she deals with feelings for this new sheriff, she deals with the obstructionism of her deputy rangers and all the time she learns of her new district and continues to investigate.
It's an excellent mystery, lots of tension and sufficient action to satisfy you. Anna must deal with being somewhat of a stranger in a strange land, being a woman, white and a Northerner in this area of the US. The story works on many levels. My one minor complaint is that I find it somewhat difficult to believe that she would gain such familiarity with the areas so quickly, since she only just arrived there. But it's a minor complaint as the story is totally engrossing. And, you'll understand this when you read it. Give you doggie a hug. Excellent story! (4 stars)"
"The Anna Pigeon books are comfort food. I always enjoy entering Anna's life and finding out about which National Park she will be working at. In this story she is in Cumberland Island Park in Georgia as a Fire fighter, there with other Park Service employees just in case. Also in the mix are the Loggerhead turtles, coming ashore during their annual migration to lay their eggs and as well, a plane crash and possible murder. The story meanders through the mystery, Anna is lovely as ever. I also liked the bits involving Frederick, her FBI friend in Chicago, and her sister in New York who is receiving threatening letters and phone calls. All in all, I enjoyed very much and look forward to my next Anna Pigeon mystery, Blind Descent, set in Carlsbad Caverns, NM. (3 stars)"
"Since I discovered the Anna Pigeon series a few years back, I've tried to read one or two every year or so. Hard Truth by Nevada Barr is the 13th book in the series and the 12th I've read so far. Anna Pigeon is a US Park Ranger and each book is generally set in a different US National Park, where Anna has found herself transferred for one reason or another.
In Hard Truth, Anna, newly married, has been transferred to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, filling the position of district ranger. This will mean a year away from her husband who stays back at Natchez, Mississippi. She has arrived at this position as the park has conducted a search for 3 lost girls, all belonging to a religious commune that resides just outside the park proper.
The story starts with Heath and her aunt Gwen Littleton who are camping in the park. Heath is an ex-mountain climber who was paralyzed in a fall and is still adjusting to her new life as a paraplegic and not going about the process too smoothly. The two discover two of the lost girls, both traumatized, both suffering injuries and dehydration. This brings Anna into the situation as well. The story now moves between the two women, Heath coping with her new limited body and trying to help one of the young girls, Beth, or as she calls her, the limpet. Anna, while working to learn the job in her new area and also to learn more about the other rangers who work there also works to discover where the other lost girl might be and who might have been involved in kidnapping them. The two girls, themselves, still traumatized, offer not too many clues as to what happened to them.
It's is at times a slow-paced story but still very interesting as Anna tries to sort things out in her mind and to find clues to what might have happened. We get a decent view of the park as well. The story gets darker and grittier as it moves along and the pace picks up rapidly as everything starts to fall together. There are many suspects that Anna must try to sort through and in the end must try to close out the case all the while trying to keep herself, the girls, Heath, and others alive from a dangerous, psychotic killer. As in most of her stories, Nevada Barr doesn't disappoint. (4 stars)"
In Hard Truth, Anna, newly married, has been transferred to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, filling the position of district ranger. This will mean a year away from her husband who stays back at Natchez, Mississippi. She has arrived at this position as the park has conducted a search for 3 lost girls, all belonging to a religious commune that resides just outside the park proper.
The story starts with Heath and her aunt Gwen Littleton who are camping in the park. Heath is an ex-mountain climber who was paralyzed in a fall and is still adjusting to her new life as a paraplegic and not going about the process too smoothly. The two discover two of the lost girls, both traumatized, both suffering injuries and dehydration. This brings Anna into the situation as well. The story now moves between the two women, Heath coping with her new limited body and trying to help one of the young girls, Beth, or as she calls her, the limpet. Anna, while working to learn the job in her new area and also to learn more about the other rangers who work there also works to discover where the other lost girl might be and who might have been involved in kidnapping them. The two girls, themselves, still traumatized, offer not too many clues as to what happened to them.
It's is at times a slow-paced story but still very interesting as Anna tries to sort things out in her mind and to find clues to what might have happened. We get a decent view of the park as well. The story gets darker and grittier as it moves along and the pace picks up rapidly as everything starts to fall together. There are many suspects that Anna must try to sort through and in the end must try to close out the case all the while trying to keep herself, the girls, Heath, and others alive from a dangerous, psychotic killer. As in most of her stories, Nevada Barr doesn't disappoint. (4 stars)"
"A very good intro to the Anna Pigeon series. Anna is a US Park Ranger/ Law enforcement officer. In this story she is working at a National Park in West Texas and discovers a dead park ranger. This discovery leads Anna to try and solve what she perceives as the Rangers' murder. Nevada Barr describes the park setting extremely well and develops Anna's character nicely. I've read other Barr mysteries but it's nice to finally read the first in the series. (3 stars)"
"Another comfort read from Nevada Barr. In the 7th book in this excellent series, we find our intrepid National Park ranger, Anna Pigeon, on a leave of absence, in New York, watching over her psychologist sister, Molly, who is critically ill. Anna is staying with her friend Patsy who is the chief administrator at the national park on Liberty and Ellis Islands. Even though preoccupied with her sister's health, Anna finds herself embroiled in a mysterious death on Liberty Island. The story moves along a nice pace, sometimes a bit slowly, as Anna moves between the hospital and her off-duty investigation of a young girl's death, presumed suicide. Nevada Barr knows how to string along a neat mystery and to build the tension to an exciting climax. Always entertaining to read, I enjoyed this latest installment and look forward to visiting with Anna soon to see what new National Park will find her embroiled in a mystery. (3 stars)"
"I like Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mystery series very much. Anna is a US Park Ranger who finds herself assigned to work in the varied National Parks in the US each book. Each book lets you have a view of new areas of the US and at the same time people the stories with interesting characters and thrilling mysteries. In Winter Study, for the first time in the series, Anna returns to a park she's worked at before. This is Isle Royale National Park, an island park located in Lake Superior near Michigan.
As you can guess from the title, the story takes place in mid-winter, as Anna joins a group of scientists who are conducting the annual study of the wolf packs that reside at Isle Royale. At the same time, a representative of Homeland Security is visiting to gauge whether the park should be open year round (it closes in the winter normally), as Canada is such a threat to US security (the last comment is a joke of course, but the park being on the border with another country is a security concern)
So you've got winter conditions, a group of people isolated on a frigid island and a mystery. Call it the 'And then there Were none scenario'. Nevada Barr ramps up the story and tension and creates an excellent story. We have the death of one of the members, people wandering off in the cold, wolves in the vicinity, extreme frigid temperatures and all add up to a tense, interesting story.
There are frustrating thriller scenarios; why do people wander off on their own and why don't the others seem to notice or to care, that sort of thing. Anna gets beaten and frozen but she's a tough lady and always manages to work through these dangerous situations.
All in all, it's an interesting story, with surprising, even if maybe far-fetched results, but even so, in true thriller style, satisfying. I like Anna Pigeon very much. She's a strong-willed, stubborn, interesting woman and I've enjoyed pretty well all of this series so far. (3 stars)"
"Another solid Anna Pigeon mystery, this one is set in Carlsbad Caverns. Almost a parlor mystery in its inception as Anna's friend Frieda is injured in a closed cavern with limited people about to have committed the murder attempt. There are many claustrophobic periods as Anna crawls through narrow tunnels with other cavers trying to extricate Frieda. A totally new experience for me, this caver's world, both exciting and terrifying. The mystery broadens once the group is above surface, with many suspects. Excellent mystery all round and most enjoyable read. (3 stars)"
The complete listing of Nevada Barr's books can be found at this link.
Enjoy the upcoming week.
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