Helpful Score: 1
This is the 3rd entry in the engaging Anna Pigeon series. This one takes place in Mesa Verde National Park amid the cliff dwellings of the Anasazi Indians. Anna encounters some strange doings at the Park including a higher than average number of unexplained illnesses and injuries. On top of this, she has a murder to contend with of one of her closer friends at the Park. Some attribute the strange illnesses to the spirits of the Anasazi but Anna is able to untangle what is really happening with the help of FBI agent Stanton. Overall, I would recommend this one. I especially enjoyed it because of the locale. I have visited Mesa Verde a few times and Barr is great in her descriptions of this enchanting place!
Helpful Score: 1
This time Anna is at Mesa Verde Park in SW Colorado, where forces are at work, but are they modern or ancient? People are sickening and some have died; Anna gets involved with trouble colleagues and must use her wits to keep from becoming the next on the list. I enjoyed the history and geography information which enlivened the adventures, ancient and modern. I stayed up late to finish it...you will too! A solid mystery.
Helpful Score: 1
Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series is an exceptional creation. It is unique in that each one of the books is set in a different National Park, though there are some doubles. Ms. Barr's descriptions of the park, the inner workings of the National Park System, history, environment, flora, fauna and applicable issues make reading these mysteries a fulfilling adventure. Like many such series, it will serve the reader well to read them in order. This isn't necessary as each mystery will stand alone quite well. But Anna's personal story is the thread that makes the series complete. Anna herself is a masterful creation. Human, flawed, introspective, complex, she is the window through which the reader sees much of the beauty our National Park System has to offer. From Mesa Verde, the Florida Keys, Lake Superior to environments that are dry, wet, cold, and hot, the drastically changing settings and Anna's evolving personal life keep this series fresh and engaging. It will be no surprise to the reader that Ms. Barr is a former Park Ranger. I'll admit I haven't read the last three books in the series with good reason. They are my emergency kit. When I have waded through a piece of substandard literary junk and need a dose of quality writing, an Anna Pigeon mystery is a perfect fix.
Helpful Score: 1
A new national park assignment, a new mystery.
When I read her books, I feel as if I am visiting.
Always a good read.
When I read her books, I feel as if I am visiting.
Always a good read.
Helpful Score: 1
From Publishers Weekly: "Barr lands another successful entry in the solid series featuring Anna Pigeon, the down-to-earth National Park Service ranger last seen in A Superior Death (1994). The daily problems at Mesa Verde National Park are mostly straightforward, although Ted Greeley, the contractor installing a water line, tends to irritate folks (especially the park archeologist, incensed about Greeley's indifference to buried Anasazi artifacts), and Patsy Silva, a park secretary, is getting "weird" messages from her ex-husband, who has joined Greeley's crew. The summer takes on darker hues when ranger Stacy Meyers panics so badly during the evacuation of an asthmatic child that he is useless. Soon afterward, Stacy vanishes; his corpse is found tucked away in the park in a scene of death that is "pathologically neat." Anna is assigned to assist Frederick Stanton, the deceptively "vague and bumbling" FBI agent sent in on the case; as they match wits with an unknown adversary, their working relationship takes on warmer tones than at their last meeting. Despite being troubled by memories of her late husband and her increasing fondness for alcohol, Anna (usually) displays that common sense and appreciation for nature that makes her such good company." Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
