Burn: An Anna Pigeon Novel (Anna Pigeon Mysteries)

Product Details

• Fitness: New
• Notes: BUY WITH Self-reliance, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and air force to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
• ISBN13: 9780312614560

Description

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Customer Reviews

Not a typical Nevada Barr mystery
If you are looking for a good mystery set amid exceptional descriptions of our national parks, don't by this book. The plot is excellent but the topic is very dark. Reviews hint at a voodoo link which is absent in the book itself. Very difficult to get interested in. Still, probably worth reading if you can deal with horrors of its subject matter. But wait for the paperback version

2010-09-04 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Disappointing
I agree with the others who state that no matter what a good writer she is, Nevada Barr has put us through a very painful experience in reading this book. Though it is just as well-wrought as her other stories, one wishes she hadn't tackled such an excruciating topic. I really wish I hadn't read this book, because now I'm having nightmares of my own horrific childhood experiences.

2010-09-03 (Eureka, CA United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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Good Title
Apparently "burn" is what would be best for this book!! I wanted to buy it till I saw the landslide of negative reviews....it just sounds depraved.

2010-09-03 (Sylacauga, AL, US) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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Disappointed
Very disappointed in this book. I was hoping to get intrigued enough to read more of the Anna Pigeon novels, but book hasn't got me wanting for more....

2010-09-01 | Mystery Maven (ELK GROVE, US, Canada) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 2

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trashy, preposterous and insulting to her fans
I have enjoyed reading the Anna Pigeon series because of the park service connection. This story was way off the mark and included unbelieveable characters and events. There was not one likeable character. The reason for her being in New Orleans for a rest instead of at home was far fetched. The language was trashy and writing tedious. Get back on track Nevada and don't listen to your publishers....they don't seem to know what the fans want.

2010-08-31 | book hunter (Madison, WI) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 1

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Borderline (An Anna Pigeon Novel)

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780425233788
• Notes: BUY WITH Courage, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and mending to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
• Ready: New

Description

The New York Times bestseller by the author of Winter Study.

To list their spirits, Anna Pigeon and her husband head to Texas for a rafting trip on the Rio Grande. The power of the river works its magic- until the raft is lost in the rapids and someone makes the grisly discovery of a pregnant woman caught between two boulders. Soon Anna will learn that nature isn't the only one who wanted to see the woman and her baby dead.

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Customer Reviews

Good story, horrible grammar
I had to reread several passages because whoever copy edited the book completely dispensed with several grammar rules. It really ruined the story for me. I wish these publishers and authors would take more pride and care in what they do.

2010-08-20 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Ten Bucks for a Paperback?
Is the publisher serious?

I love Nevada Barr's mysteries. But at $10, it's gotten to the point where I will not pay $10 for a paperback book.

I'll buy it used, or borrow it from the library.

The publishing world needs to price books where people can afford them, or they will soon price print out of existence.

Maybe that's their goal, to turn us all into Kindle readers?

What a shame. There's something about the "printed" word that e-readers will never replace.

2010-07-19 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Disappointing.
Sloppily-written and sloppily-edited. Anna's usual backward emotional development is absolutely stunted this time around. I didn't find any of it believable, especially her love for her husband. Worst of all, this novel did not describe or evoke the wild beauty of the park, in the way that was so enjoyable in other Anna Pigeon novels. Ms. Barr phoned this one in.

2010-07-19 (PA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Boderline
Wow! A great summer read. This one is so relevant for today's issues with the Mexican border. It kept me on the edge of my bed (I read before going to sleep)and kept me turning the pages. Not good for getting to work on time, however.
I was happy that Anna and her husband were together in this book. It is easy to forget about her relationship with him.

2010-06-14 (Western North Carolina) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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One of Nevada Barr's most compelling suspense novels in this always eagerly awaited series
National Park Service Ranger Anna Pigeon returns from a harrowing experience in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (WINTER STUDY) in a fragile mental state. Her killing, albeit in self-defense, of a mentally deranged serial murderer has left her with a full-blown case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Her superiors at the Park Service have ordered her to take some R&R time to heal her emotional wounds, and her new sheriff/minister husband, Paul, couldn't agree more.

The almost-newlyweds decide on a whitewater rafting trip through Santa Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande River where it creates the border between Texas and Mexico through Big Bend National Park. They could make the trip with fellow rangers, but Anna wants to remove herself from the uniforms and shop talk. So the pair opts for a tourist trip with a seasoned river guide, Carmen, and four college students on a year-end outing.

The outing begins on a light note as the rafters attempt to rescue a hapless, starving cow that strayed across the Rio Grande and is trapped on a cliff because of high water. In their efforts to lead the cow down to safe ground, one of the river rafters discovers what appears to be the body of a pregnant Mexican woman floating in the reeds on the American side of the Rio Grande.

Meanwhile, a high-level political conference is taking place at Big Bend Headquarters where the popular mayor of Houston is preparing to announce her candidacy for governor. She has arrived with her full entourage of security detail and the ever-present press corps.

These two events will converge with the turmoil of the Rio Grande at full flood stage caused by an early monsoon season storm in ways that dwarf the horrors of Anna's encounter on Lake Superior the preceding winter. The group's rescue attempt of the woman attracts a sniper who begins to pick off the rafters one by one.

BORDERLINE, a title that describes not only the geographical location but also the state of Anna's mind, races from page to page with the pace of a raft spinning out of control in a raging flood. Determined to save the life of a helpless infant to assuage her dark feelings for taking another, less innocent life, Anna embarks on often perilous and dangerous feats of bravado, endangering not only her life but that of her husband Paul as well.

Anna must make some tough decisions about her future in the Park Service. Due to her medical leave of absence and her erratic behavior, she is relegated to a mere civilian by investigators of the crimes, leaving her feeling even more frustrated and depressed. It is a time of reckoning for Ranger Anna Pigeon. Should she retire to Mississippi with her husband Paul, or continue in a career she has always loved but that may no longer accept her?

Mother Nature, immigration politics and heroism combine to make BORDERLINE one of Nevada Barr's most compelling suspense novels in this always eagerly awaited series.

2010-06-09 (New York, New York) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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13 1/2

Description

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Customer Reviews

Insightful and Fascinating
I'm glad I didn't let all the negative and lukewarm reviews prevent me from buying this great book from Nevada Barr. Yes, 13 1/2 is not part of the great Anna Pigeon series. This, however, does not mean it's in any way weaker than the books that belong to the series. 13 1/2 offers some very convincing psychological insights into the mind of a killer and of those who are affected by close interactions with him.

It surprises me to see how many reviewers say they "guessed" everything long before the end of the book. I applaud their powers of perception. As for me, I found quite a few unexpected twists and turns at the end of this novel. I'm happy to see that Nevada Barr's talent is not limited to one great series but can also produce really engrossing stand-alone books.

2010-09-03 (Edwardsville, IL) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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This is some scary book!
This is one of the scariest books I've ever read! She keeps the suspense going right up to practically the last minute! I knew I had read and loved all the Anna Pigeon books, but wondered how good a non-Anna book would be. However, I wasn't disappointed one bit. In my estimation, Barr's foray into the territory of dark psychological thrillers has placed her near to, if not on par with Jonathan Kellerman.

I don't want her to abandon the Anna Pigeon novels, but do hope that she continues to write another psychological thriller here and there as well. After all, Anna is aging, and sooner or later won't be able to realistically take the physical abuse she always takes in Barr's novels. This books proves that Barr is equally good writing psychological thrillers!

2010-09-01 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Polly stole the show
First Line: "By the Month or by the Night" read the sign over the entrance to the trailer park.

In a radical departure from her Anna Pigeon mystery series, Nevada Barr gives us a psychological thriller that begins in the 1970s in a trailer park in Mississippi. It then moves to Minnesota with the murder spree of a child dubbed "Butcher Boy." Finally in post-Katrina New Orleans, the adults from both these broken childhoods collide.

Polly escaped from her abusive "trailer trash" childhood at the age of fifteen, running away to New Orleans. Now she's a respected college professor with good friends, her own home, and two small children she adores.

"Butcher Boy" was released on his seventeenth birthday. His surviving brother has vowed to take care of him, and they both head south to that Mecca for runaways: New Orleans.

When Polly meets and falls in love with Marshall Marchand, a restoration architect who's helping to rebuild the city, their pasts are set on a collision course.

I love Barr's books, and although this book is very good, it didn't quite meet my expectations. It has everything to do with the characters. Perhaps it's because my mind is too devious, but there were few surprises with the Marchand brothers. I knew how that part of the plot was going to work itself out. That was a bit disappointing, but the character of Polly did much in making up for the deficiencies of the Marchands.

Even after the train wreck of her childhood, Polly was such a strong, centered, caring person that I wish the book could have focused even more on her. I wanted more Polly. Perhaps you'll understand after reading these two quotes:

"Two girls-- children in Polly's eyes but of the age she'd been the first time she'd come to Jackson Square-- rose from a table tucked between the benches opposite the cathedral doors. They were tricked out in the unfortunate fashion that decreed female children dress as prostitutes in a world full of predators."

"The dog, his head as high as his mistress's shoulder, walked beside her. The child's face was open and trusting. The dog's was not, and Polly was relieved. Children needed bodyguards."


On the face of it, Polly's just another mother who worries too much and reads too much into innocent scenes. But she's not. She's lived in a world of predators and survived. She knows exactly what's out there that she needs to be prepared for. Her children will not have to face what she did, that is, if Polly has the least say about it.

If you haven't read too many books about the twisted minds of killers (like I have), 13½ should make you jump at each creak of a floorboard or pop of an attic beam. And Polly is one character who should not be missed.

2010-08-12 (Phoenix, AZ USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 3

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A Different Nevada Barr
When I see a Nevada Barr title I haven't read, I automatically pick it up because I love her Anna Pigeon series. Was I surprised to discover this novel was an entirely different kettle of fish. This is definitely not Anna Pigeon in a National Park. This is a psycho killer on the loose and it's scary.

The story begins with the killing of a family except for two brothers, one of whom is severely injured, the other only eleven years old. The latter is accused, tried and convicted of the crime which he cannot remember committing.

Another plot line involves a young girl who lives in a trailer park with her mother who is drunk most of the time. There has been a series of husbands and then boyfriends who live with them, and constant fighting so that sometimes the girl can't go inside until the adults pass out. Tiring of this so-called life, she steals her mother's car and runs away to New Orleans.

It's pretty obvious that these story lines will converge at some point, and when they do the atmosphere gets real tense. I felt like I was holding my breath as I read. Barr led me along the garden path until late in the book when I finally figured out who was who and what was really going on. Then I was really scared.

This is a bloody, frightening novel, but the characters are fascinating and the plot is intriguing. The description of post-Katrina New Orleans is, as I would expect, moody, dark, mysterious, and full of odd characters. Not your average mystery novel by any means, but then I wouldn't expect any less from Nevada Barr. I recommend this for all but the squeamish.

2010-07-26 | Rural View (Hallstead, PA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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I 've Read This Before
This was the first novel I have read by Nevada Barr so, I can't compare to her other novels. It's a fast read and some parts are interesting, but the bad brother verses the good brother has been done before and so has the surprise ending.
Polly, the female protagonist had a rough life and a bad first marriage. She meets Marshall who we soon learn is the 'Butcher Boy' from long ago. Will he or won't he kill her? Who is the mysterious Tarot card reader? The story takes place in post Karina New Orleans, but there is not much atmosphere. 13 1/2 is a good beach book.

2010-06-30 | viviankosiba (Central Islip, NY United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Deep South (An Anna Pigeon Novel)

Product Details

• Notes: BUY WITH Boldness, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and navy to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
• State: New
• ISBN13: 9780425178959

Description

Park Ranger Anna Pigeon stumbles upon a gruesome murder with frightening racial overtones in the latest installment of the bestselling series.

"What lifts the Anna Pigeon novels far above most of the other contemporary amateur sleuth mysteries is Barr's exquisite writing--it swoops, it soars, sails then catches you unawares beneath the heart and takes your breath away," proclaimed the Cleveland Plain Dealer of last year's Liberty Falling. In Deep South, Nevada Barr takes our breath away once again as her heroine travels cross-country to Mississippi, only to encounter terrible secrets in the heart of the south.

The handwritten sign on the tree said it all: REPENT. For Anna Pigeon, this should have been reason enough to turn back for her beloved Mesa Verde. Instead she heads for the Natchez Trace Parkway and the promotion that awaits her. Almost immediately, she finds herself in the midst of controversy: as the new district ranger, she faces resentment so extreme her ability to do her job may be compromised, and her life may very well be in danger. But all thoughts of personal safety are set aside with the discovery of a young girl's body in a country cemetery, a sheet around her head, a noose around her neck.

The kudzu is thick and green, the woods dark and full of secrets. And the ghosts of violence hover as Anna struggles for answers to questions that, perhaps, should never be asked. Deep South proves that, "like the parks and monuments she writes of, Nevada Barr should be declared a national treasure" (The Bloomsbury Review).

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After her urban adventures on New York's Ellis Island in Liberty Falling, park ranger Anna Pigeon has finally "heeded the ticking of her bureaucratic clock" and signed on for a promotion in the boonies: district ranger on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Anna's mental images of Mississippi come from black-and-white stock photos from the civil rights movement of the 1960s, so it's not surprising that she finds it beautiful but strange, its residents caught in a teased-hair, fried-food time warp. But she's got more than an unhealthy diet to worry about--as the first female district ranger on the Trace, she immediately encounters more than a few good ol' boys and local miscreants who resent her authority, especially after a 17-year-old beauty is murdered on a booze-soaked prom night near the Trace, her head covered with a KKK-style sheet.

There are plenty of reasons her friends and family might have wanted Danielle Posey dead, ranging from her $40,000 insurance policy to jealousy to flat-out insanity. Anna wonders whether the sheet's a red herring, but she can't dismiss it entirely. Though the local culture's no longer built around segregation, racism still exists at a deep level that Anna finds unsettling. Both Danielle Posey and the prime suspect--her boyfriend--are white, but Danielle had secrets her friends won't reveal. Still, no one else appears to be in danger, until a prankster--or could it be a murderer?--sets an alligator loose in Anna's garage (nearly killing her faithful black Lab, Taco) and a local preacher commits suicide.

With the help of the handsome local sheriff, Paul Davidson, Anna pulls together clues from local history, Civil War reenactors, and the Mississippi mud and kudzu. Anna Pigeon's one tough bird--she survives not only a little alligator wrestling but also a brutal attack that leads her to the truth of what happened to Danielle Posey and why. What's most fascinating is how much of her famous emotional shield she lets slip in the process. --Barrie Trinkle

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Customer Reviews

Not the best in the series, but enjoyable
Just a short review. While I usually enjoy the Anna Pigeon novels, I've got to say that this one was slightly more of a misfire than not. The mystery itself -- the brutal murder of a Mississippi girl on the Natchez Trace National Parkway -- is interesting, but the big problem with the book is that its resolution felt rushed and disappointing, as if Ms. Barr was more interested in the story of Anna's personal life than the raison d'etre of her mystery series. Still, it is an Anna Pigeon novel, and Barr's titular heroine is as endearing as ever, and that more than makes up for the book's shortcomings.

Deep South isn't the best of the series, but it is an entertaining enough read to occupy a lazy afternoon with.

2010-04-13 | Dagnabbit! (Chicago, IL United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Loved this book!
This book was great. I loved trying to figure out the crime, and also, about reading about Mississippi. Now, I need to order another one!

2009-08-14 | massage therapist | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Anna Pigeon in the South - Gators & Murder & Men Oh MY!
This was a great book. Portrayed in the South, Anna is new to the South with lots to learn. In her typical style she accidently stumbles on a murder and the whole book revolves around her solving the mystery in her courageous fumbling style. She battles teenagers, men that don't like women in positions of power, gators and manages to just hedge a little romance too. Again portrays her smartness, persistence, but vulnerability. You will love this one.

2009-04-07 (Illinois) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Southern Reflection
This was an excellent book for giving the feel for the south and its unique natural environment. As usual for Barr, the blend of mystery,romance, nd community together with a special understanding of the environment made this a really fun novel to read. In addition, her understanding of the challenges of leadership makes the novel even more relevant to our times.

2008-08-29 (Fernandina, FL) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Death Road
I have not traveled the Natchez Trace since the parkway was build, but the old road is one from which not even Meriwether Lewis, of Lewis and Clark fame, returned. The Trace is steeped in mystery, death and kudzu, which covers everything if allowed free rein.
Anna Pigeon accepts a promotion and finds, a not unexpected wall of resentment, from male Park Service members under her supervision. What she didn't expect to find on her first watch was the murder of a popular high school coed, whose life had dredged up resentment.
DEEP SOUTH by Nevada Barr leads the reader alone with Anna to a fine conclusion. No guessing on this one, you will be surprised along with Anna when Barr tips her pen.
Nash Black, author of WRITING OF A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

2008-03-25 | Troubadour (Jamestown, KY) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Hard Truth (An Anna Pigeon Novel)

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• Notes: BUY WITH Poise, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and accommodation to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
• Mould: New
• ISBN13: 9780425208410

Description

Just days after marrying Sheriff Paul Davidson, Anna Pigeon moves to Colorado to assume her new post as district ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park. When two of three children who'd gone missing from a religious retreat reappear, Anna's investigation brings her face-to-face with a paranoid sect--and with a villain so evil, he'll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end

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Ranger Anna Pigeon, Nevada Barr's series heroine (High Country, Flashback), meets her match in this engrossing new thriller set in Rocky Mountain National Park. Heath Jarrod is a climber now confined to a wheelchair after an accident that left her crippled, angry and depressed: "For a few months after the fall, she'd played Christopher Reeve, pretending to be as optimistic, as cheerful, but she was a lousy actor and ... she'd rung down the curtain. The first of many curtains." But there's a second act in her future that begins when two terrified, half-naked little girls stumble out of the woods and into Heath's "handicamp"--they've been missing for weeks, but are too traumatized to tell Heath and then Anna where they've been, or what happened to the third girl who disappeared with them. Beth, the younger, wins Heath's heart; with Anna, she pursues an investigation that leads to a bizarre, quasi-religious cult that's set up its headquarters just outside the park's boundaries, and the youth group leader who'd taken the girls into the wilderness and returned without them. Is Robert Proffit the gentle, spiritual man Anna's seasonal law enforcement agent Rita Perry thinks he is, or a twisted rapist and probable killer whose prayers for the innocent girls in his charge mask his evil nature?

The mysteries keep piling on, as one gruesome discovery leads to another, and Heath begins to realize that even though she's lost the use of her legs, the same tenacity that made her one of the world's leading mountaineers has even more rewarding summits to achieve. Barr builds the suspense skillfully and drives the narrative to a bloody, violent, and unexpected conclusion in one of her best mysteries to date. --Jane Adams

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Customer Reviews

3.5: grim, gripping enough, flawed, with excellent narration
"Hard Truth" is certainly a grim tale, with violence and a dark theme running throughout. Even one of the two main females, the guest character Heath Jarrod, struggles with her disability as a secondary thread. That thread, which allows for contemplation about her specific problems and the treatment of similarly afflicted people, at least also provides an opportunity for some personal gain and aid to others in the midst of the grimness.

The darkness of the story, with its degradation of children, bothered me less than I expected and certainly less than many reviewers. Perhaps it was the quality of the narration by Barbara Rosenblat, which was smooth and balanced, or perhaps because the details were not over the top for me. The pace was reasonable, with some sluggishness headed toward the half-way mark.

The main interaction with the perp goes on for an unusually extended stretch compared to a typical detective novel or thriller, which would have more scene changes and back and forth. I guessed the perp fairly early, although without certainty enough to take the edge off.

Two negatives: I'm a big fan of strong, talented women, but there aren't really any good-guy men in this one. I suppose Anna's husband a thousand miles away is probably a good one, safely out of the way this time. The small religious "family" is run by scum, and the author wastes no chances to get her digs in about fundamentalists (easy, somewhat tedious, pickings with characters like these) and more negative commentary about religion than necessary.

2010-07-02 | tburket (Potomac, MD United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Serial killers are depraved! Beware!
Nevada Barr is my kind of writer. Strong, secular, humanist, nature-loving and a woman. I can't understand the murderers she writes about. But, I know they exist. I've had just enough darkness in my life to identify with her protagonist. When Anna Pigeon rights the wrong, I am vindicated. But, like Anna, I know too much to live a traditional life, now. Yes, most of her other Anna Pigeon mysteries have less painful situations. So, start with them, experience the National Parks and their beauty. I take comfort thinking there are rangers and police who, like Nevada Barr, keep their sanity when very bad things happen.

2010-01-26 (Seattle, WA USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Uncomfortable but well written mystery
I agree with other reviewers that this is the darkest and most chilling installment in the series so far. It's not the sort of topic I choose to read about and I, too, noticed the relative lack of engagement with the natural park setting that drew me to this series in the first place. Neither is there much in terms of further developing the Anna Pigeon character. But that said, as far as a mystery story goes, this one was well done--enough so to give me a nightmare.

2009-11-10 (Calgary, AB Canada) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Chilling Graphic Exciting
This was my first Nevada Barr book. This book only averaged a 3 star from the readers but I think it was a very exciting read. The villian is a real villian and the heroes are true heros. Very graphic not for the faint of heart but definitely a thriller.

2009-10-11 (greater boston mass) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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good story but chilling...
I've always loved the spunky Anna and she is great in this book as always. It's the plot itself that I found chilling. Children being abducted and molested, a cult of ex-mormons, all taking place in the remote Rocky Mountains...well, you get the picture. You are on the edge of your seat the whole book. It's certainly not a cozy series any longer but still a very good series.

The author is a great author, but I'm getting a little spooked by the plots. I think I liked her earlier books better when you could expect the men to always be the bad guys!

2009-09-27 | judylynnsbooks (jamestown, ky United States) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Winter Study (An Anna Pigeon Novel)

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780425226957
• Notes: BUY WITH Boldness, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and work to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
• Adapt: New

Description

Soon after Anna Pigeon joins the famed wolf study team of Isle Royale National Park, giant wolf prints are found, and she spies the form of a great wolf from a surveillance plane. When a female member of the team is savaged, Anna is convinced they are being stalked, and what was once a beautiful, idyllic refuge becomes a place of unnatural occurrences and danger beyond the ordinary.

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Customer Reviews

WINTER STUDY heralds a welcome return of a favorite suspense character
Anna Pigeon fans, rejoice! The National Park Ranger/sleuth returns to bookstores after a three-year hiatus by her creator, Nevada Barr. Barr moved to New Orleans just before Hurricane Katrina and took time off from fictional danger and suspense to be a real-life observer of Mother Nature and to clean up and repair her damaged home. She's back with what may be the best Anna Pigeon adventure in her long string of successes.

The setting for WINTER STUDY is not New Orleans, however. The adventurous Anna returns to Isle Royale on the north shoreline of Lake Superior in the dead of winter, with mixed emotions. Very early in her career she spent a summer at the remote island National Park and very nearly lost her life beneath the chilly waters in a diving incident.

The reintroduction of gray wolves to the park's animal population at her current posting in Rocky Mountain National Park prompts her superiors to send her on a six-week fact-finding tour to observe a 50-year study of predator/prey interaction between wolves and moose. She's prepared for the bone-chilling sub-zero cold and hip-deep snows, but she's not ready for the spine-chilling challenge awaiting her in the cramped cabin she shares with the research scientists.

Homeland Security, concerned about guarding the Canadian border, is pushing to open the park year round. Normally closed during the frigid winters in order to control possible illegal aliens from entering the United States across an unguarded frontier, this action would bring to a halt a valuable 50-year study. Washington has sent a Homeland Security official to observe the study and is among her cabin mates.

Anna encounters savagery in nature that seems to put a lie to facts that wolves do not attack humans when one of the researchers is found dead, apparently the victim of an attack by one of the three wolf packs on the island. Doubting the evidence of the attack, Anna begins to suspect that humans may be involved as she finds herself being stalked by an unknown, savage predator.

In her long and adventurous career as a National Park Ranger, Anna has encountered natural and human threats --- from raging forest fires, serial killers and child molesters to dangerous wildlife and nature's own vengeance --- but never has she lived in such close proximity to madness as in WINTER STUDY.

Nevada Barr never fails to serve up a suspense-filled outdoor adventure, filled with psychologically fascinating villains and heroes, action and true-to-life natural settings in America's national parks. The authenticity of her settings and crime fighting is based on her personal experience. She has worked as a ranger at several National Parks, including Isle Royale, and always visits each featured park.

Among her biggest fans are countless numbers of forest rangers and National Park workers who can testify to the authenticity not only of the settings but nod knowingly at some of the behind-the-scenes rivalries and insider humor of the realities of the low pay, rugged living conditions and camaraderie between park service employees. The parks themselves become characters in her page-turning thrillers.

WINTER STUDY heralds a welcome return of a favorite suspense character. We look forward to another adventure with our favorite park ranger. Will Hurricane Katrina be a featured character in another thrilling episode in the life of Anna Pigeon?

2010-06-09 (New York, New York) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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A booklover's review
Love the Anna Pigeon books...very well written and feel like she's a friend....want all of them.

2010-06-05 (Nashville, TN., US) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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winter study
one of miss barr s top three books. a not to be missed adventure.

2010-05-27 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Very boring
Wow! I've read six or seven of NB's books, and this is by far the most boring. Don't waist your time on it.

2010-05-12 (Rogersville, AL USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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Wolves of Isle Royale National Park plus Anna Pigeon means... trouble!
The wolves of Isle Royale National Park are famous, and when the tourists leave the park in the fall, the scientists move in to study these animals... thus begins the annual Winter Study. Much of what we know about unexploited wolf populations and wolf behavior came from Isle Royale until the wolves of Yellowstone National Park became science's new "alpha location."

NPS ranger Anna Pigeon has a short assignment to accompany wolf scientists and personnel representing the Department of Homeland Security to Isle Royale. Immediately, they are spooked with tales and visions of a "windigo," a "voracious and monstrous cannibal that feasted on human flesh and souls on the shores of southern lakes, where no one could hear the crying of its tortured victims" (p. 9).

Perhaps even the wolves are afraid.

A wolf is killed. Then, a researcher. Anna doesn't believe in ghosts, so that leaves her with a tiny pool of suspects. The magic of Nevada Barr's storytelling is that, by page 300, the only way to exclude potential suspects is to have their name be Anna Pigeon or else make them dead!

Nevada Barr consulted with famed wolf researcher Rolf Peterson (who wrote the foreword) to get the biology correct. But this is a mystery book, much closer to a Patricia Cornwell novel in intensity than I am used to.

But Anna Pigeon is still a unique character:

"..Anna had found it hard to believe that these intelligent and phenomenally complex animals [wolves] could be hunted down and butchered so that some fool could have the pelt and head for a hearth rug. But, then, human beings hunted down and butchered one another for stranger reasons" (p. 74).

Isle Royale in the winter can be a very, very cold place, and Nevada Barr tries very hard to get the reader to envision this cold. Alas, this is hard to do, and the continual retelling of cold and snow, and cold and ice, and cold and freezing was too much for me. But as I think about it, Pigeon is always hot or cold, baking or drowning, freezing or slithering through mud. That's what she does!

I enjoyed this book, and look forward to the next installment. Oh, and Anna is married to Paul in Winter Study!

Here's the list of Anna Pigeon novels, and the order in which they've been published (I've starred the ones I've read to date, to remind me):

1. Track of the Cat (1993)*
2. A Superior Death (1994)
3. Ill Wind (1995)*
4. Firestorm (1996)
5. Endangered Species (1997)*
6. Blind Descent (1998)*
7. Liberty Falling (1999)*
8. Deep South (2000)
9. Blood Lure (2001)
10. Hunting Season (2002)*
11. Flashback (2003)*
12. High Country (2004)*
13. Hard Truth (2005)
14. Winter Study (2008)*
15. Borderline (2009)

2010-05-04 (Honolulu, HI USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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