Nevada Barr's Best Anna Pigeon Novel Yet

Thanks to Amazon Vine I've just read Nevada Barr's new novel coming out January 17, 2012. The Rope is a prequel to the whole series.

In this story Anna Pigeon is 35 and she is still numb with grief at the loss of her husband, Zach, in an accident she witnessed in NYC. She has a satisfying career as a stage manager on Broadway, but she decides it might help to take some time completely away from everything familiar. She takes a summer job at Glen Canyon National Park, stationed at Dangling Rope Marina on Lake Powell.

Anna and her housemate Jenny work hard at their job clearing the area of human waste, and trying to educate vacationers about the proper way to handle toileting (to put it nicely) in the great outdoors. Jenny likes Anna but can't make a connection. Then Anna disappears. She went hiking alone on her day off and accidentally found herself in a peck of trouble.

In this story we see the making of the strong, independent woman we've grown to love over the years. She enters this summer job weak, too thin, and grief stricken. She ends the summer strong, resilient, and determined to become a national park ranger; I don't think that's giving anything away.

Meanwhile, the characters she meets and the trials and dangers she withstands are engrossing. This is an old-fashioned page turner. Anna learns that the area isn't desolate; it has its own life and beauty. I discovered another place I want to see for myself. I also came away with a new respect for her character now that I know the beginning of her story.

The First Nevada Barr Novel About Anna Pigeon

I've been reading the Anna Pigeon series forever it seems, but in no particular order. Then I picked up a paperback copy of one I hadn't read at a book sale and just realized it was the very first Anna Pigeon mystery. I can't believe I had never read it before.

In Track of the Cat Anna is a fairly new National Park Ranger stationed at Guadalupe Mountains National Park in West Texas. She had become a ranger after her husband died in an accident in New York. Being far from that city and living in a beautiful natural setting helps, but of course doesn't bring her husband back. She still mourns.

As the story begins, Anna is completing a transect of the park looking for signs of mountain lions. Ranchers just outside the park are always complaining that lions from the park are killing their livestock, and the ranchers want to be able to hunt them. Anna loves the animals, and the park periodically does these transects to see if and where the cats are; they also have banded some of them. Anna comes to McKittrick Canyon and finds the body of another female ranger, apparently killed by a mountain lion.

Those of us who know Anna well know that she is a loner. When she needs to talk, she calls her sister, a psychiatrist in New York City. In this book though she makes a friend, which causes difficulty because the friend is also a suspect in the killing. You see, the ranger wasn't killed by a mountain lion. She was murdered.

That's all I'm going to tell you because this is every bit as good a story as the rest of the series. Once you read that first page, you're hooked and won't put the book down until the end. I always recommend Nevada Barr for readers who like strong women protagonists and masterful descriptions of nature, as well as witty internal dialogue. If you aren't an Anna Pigeon follower, please look for Nevada Barr in your local library or bookstore.

Wishing Nevada Barr a Long and Fruitful Life

I'm a huge fan of Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series but yet I haven't read them all. Life keeps intruding, you know. Anyway, I found a paperback of A Superior Death at a book sale and realized this was one I had missed. It's as heart-pounding and funny and scary as all the rest and I absolutely loved it.

This one is set in Isle Royale National Park on the north shore of Lake Superior. Brrr! Anna has recently transferred from Texas so she's cold, freezing cold even though it's June and tourists are coming in to fish. As usual the characters are fascinating, especially one couple who have taken a sort of hippiness to an extreme.

Under the surface of Lake Superior lie many wrecks. You probably know that the Great Lakes are notorious for weather that blows up so suddenly many ships have gone down through the years. Since most are cargo ships, divers haunt the remains looking for something valuable or just out of curiosity about the ships. You just know there's going to be underwater trouble and sure enough there is. I won't tell more; don't want to spoil your fun if you haven't read this one.

This is an earlier book where Anna is still having trouble coping with the death of her husband, Zach, but keeping on keeping on because she's a strong woman with a good hold on reality. She still hasn't gotten a firm hold on sobriety though. I must say Anna is one of my favorite all-time characters; she's so real it's almost spooky. I recommend any of the Anna Pigeon series wholeheartedly.

BORDERLINE by Nevada Barr

I just spent the weekend with Nevada Barr through her book Borderline. I've been a fan of her Anna Pigeon series for years. Anna, a National Park Service ranger, appeals to me because she's brave, gutsy, loves the outdoors, is curious, and when the occasion calls for it she's decisive in the face of danger. Along the way through the series she has changed quite a bit as she's gotten older, but the biggest change happened when she married Paul, a Mississippi sheriff who is also a minister. He seems to be perfect for her, and she has learned to rely on him somewhat instead of only depending upon herself.

That love and trust has never been so evident as in Borderline. Anna had been forced to kill a man in her last posting. No question it was self-defense and warranted, but she is sent to a shrink and ends up having a breakdown. Sent home to recover, she finally feels better and she and Paul go on a rafting trip down the Rio Grande through Big Bend National Park.

There are four teenagers along plus a young woman who is their guide. Anna still struggles to rid herself of the effects of her breakdown but the trip seems to be helping. Then they see a cow named Easter halfway up a cliff. Easter has been there barely surviving for quite a while and will surely die. They decide to rescue her and that's when the trip turns into a tragic adventure.

Many characters in this story are troubled, others genuinely wonderful human beings and as usual Barr fleshes them out and brings them to life. Anna learns things about herself that she never expected and in the process she heals. I think this is possibly the best Nevada Barr ever. I certainly recommend it.

Borderline is available from amazon.com. I am an Amazon Associate.