Search - Blind Descent (Anna Pigeon, Bk 6)

One of her best -- you actually feel trapped in the caverns!

I'm reading all of Barr's Anna Pigeon mysteries in sequence, and while I like all of them, this one is my least favorite so far, partly for personal reasons. The personal part is that I am claustrophobic, and the whole idea of caving in "wormholes" gives me the willies. As a matter of fact, I just had to put the book down a couple of times because I was so uncomfortable. Less personal, the book has a lot of spelunking and climbing technical lore in it that I just didn't follow. Ultimately, the plot is OK and the characterizations good, so if you don't share my personal phobias, plunge in.

I am really enjoying this series. I really like the mysteries and I enjoy reading about all the national parks where they are set.

Anna Pigeon's willingness to come to the aid of an injured friend trapped in the bowels of Carlsbad Caverns (the part off-limits to the general public) forces her to wrestle with her own claustrophobia-induced demons. In doing so, she places herself in greater physical peril than in most of the earlier books ... or perhaps it just seemed that way to this claustrophobic reader.

Anna remains one of the more interesting and three-dimensional amateur sleuths around today, and while the supporting cast is not necessarily so well-defined (and there are moments when readers who hadn't read the earlier books might have to struggle a little too much to understand relationships), there is a level of elegance to the writing which is not often found in works that have no pretensions to high literature.

This is a well-written novel with an engaging protagonist and a clever plot. Light reading doesn't get much better.

I generally like the Anna Pigeon stories, although sometimes they get a bit tedious. This one is my favorite of the four or five I've read in the series. I am fascinated by caves, yet have a healthy near-claustrophic fear of them. So does Anna Pigeon.

When she joins a rescue team to descend into the almost unexplored deep parts of Carlsbad Caverns, all sorts of interesting things transpire. The writing is excellent--I could actually feel the emotions (fear, primarily) as the story went on. This story even affected my dreams for a time!

I recommend it. The mystery elements are good, but the actual feeling of being way down deep in the bowels of the earth in tiny, tight places as well as in huge empty underground rooms is the main reason to read this amazing story.

Anna Pigeon,the intrepid National Park Service ranger investagates a mon-
ster man-eating cave in NM's Carlsbab Caverns,When a fellow ranger is injured in a caving accident,Anna chokes back the willies of claustrophobia
and joins the recue team.Burrowing 800ft below ground,she negotiates airless tunnels,gaping pits,vaulting caverns and silently flowing rivers,
each hazard w/a daunting name like Razor Blade Run or the Wormhole.At the end of the dangerous descent,she reaches her friend and hears her say
"It wasn't an accident".

Nice Barr book. Easy read, suspensful.

Good thrill, quick read

The best! The story, plot and characters are vintage Nevada Barr. "On the edge of your seat", nail bitig suspense in parts. How does she keep on besting herself?

Anything I've read by Nevada Barr has been great! Her characters are 'real'...flaws and all.

Love all her books tough park ranger

I like her books, enjoy reading about the national parks.

When a fellow ranger is injured in a caving accident, Anna Pegeon chokes back the willies of claustrophobia and joins the rescue team. At the end of a dangerous descent, she reaches her friend to hear "It wasn't an accident".

mystery

Interesting. a page-turner.

Anna Pigeon, park ranger is now is the New Mexico's Carlsbad Cavern going 800 ft. below ground to rescue a trapped fellow ranger. When she reaches her, she hears her friend say, "It was not an accident".

Anna Pigeon, the intredpid National Park Service ranger in Nevada Barr's superb wilderness mysteries, ahs had some perilous experienced in the five novels that preceded "Blind Descent", but none compares with this thrilling subterranean adventure in the underground caverns of Lechuguilla, a "monster man-eatting cave" in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns. When a fellow ranger is injured in a caving accident, Anna chokes back the willies of claustrophobia and joins the rescue team. Burrowing 800 feet below ground, she negotiates airless tunnels, gaping pits, vaulting caverns, and silently flowing fivers, each hazard with a daunting name like Razor Blade Run or the Wormhole. At the end of the dangerous descent, she reaches her friend and hears her say, "It wasn't and accident."
Barr's descriptions of this Stygian underworld-so beautiful, so mysterious and so treacherous-have a stunning visceral quality, largely because of her heroine's affinity with the natural world. Strong, independent and proud of it, Anna is less appreciative of nature's higher orders. ('If she had a tail,' she says of her edgy encounter with another caver, 'it would have been lashing.') Her abrasiveness may blind anna to the subtler signals of human behavior, but alone in the darkness, she can see clear to the heart of the matter.

A would be killer is drawing Anna Pigeon deep into the darkness and closer to hell than she's ever gone before.