::READERS REVIEWS::

Beginning of a great series! - After a friend steered me to the Nevada Barr series featuring Anna Pigeon, this book definitely got me hooked and I can't wait to read all the books in the series. I actually read Track of the Cat in paperback (it was a gift) and have a couple others in paperback and audible form (just got my Kindle a couple weeks ago, so will be reading the remainder of the series on it!)

Even though I tend to read a lot of light hearted fiction, Barr's mysteries draw me in and keep my attention, making it hard to put the book down. I like the descriptive passages that cover the physical environments of the national parks, and the pasages that cover the emotional and mental environments of the characters. Being a fan of national parks, the settings of Anna Pigeon's experiences are more than interesting to me. I have gotten my brother and his wife hooked on the series, too!

[...] - this is Nevada Barr's website and where I got the following list of her Anna Pigeon books. She has also written 3 other books (Bittersweet, 1984; Seeking Enlightenment . . .Hat by Hat, 2003; 13 1/2, 2009; and contributed to a 5th (Deadly Housewives, 2006) that is a collection of short stories by Nevada Barr and many other well known authors. The website is rather neat if you have time to check it out.

1) 1993: Track of the Cat (Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas)
2) 1994: A Superior Death (Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, Michigan)
3) 1995: Ill Wind (Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado)
4) 1996: Firestorm (Lassen Volcanic National Park)
5) 1997: Endangered Species (Cumberland Island National Seashore of the coast of Georgia)
6) 1998: Blind Descent (Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico)
7) 1999: Liberty Falling (Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National Monuments in New York City)
8) 2000: Deep South (Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi)
9) 2001: Blood Lure (Glacier/Waterton National Peace Park in Montana)
10) 2002: Hunting Season (Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi)
11) 2003: Flashback (Dry Tortugas National Park, a grouping of tiny islands 70 miles off Key West) Diana - paperback
12) 2004: High Country (Yosemite National Park in California)
13) 2005: Hard Truth (Rocky Mountain's National Park, Colorado) (14) 2008: Winter Study (Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, Michigan)
15) 2009: Borderline (Big Bend National Park in Texas)

1st in series - 1993 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, 1994 Anthony Award for Best First Novel, Finalist 1994 Macavity Award for Best First Novel. Great start for a great series. They get better and better and you learn a little about some of America's national parks.

Terrible ending to a terrible book - First book in the series but 4th one I've read. Why did I bother? For the setting. I love the southwest and this takes place on the Texas - New Mexico border. Other have pointed out flaws in plot, etc. I'll add my own problems with the book:
1) if Anna is still mooning over her late husband, what is she doing in bed with Rogelio? If she's looking for another committed relationship, why does she run away?
2) why couldn't Zack and Anna afford children? Plenty of people grow up and take real jobs (Zack was a not too-successful actor, unclear what Anna was) when children are expected. It's obvious Anna is intelligent and talented.
3) Cats, domestic and wild, are NOT carrion-eaters (alluded to in the beginning);
4) the young of a wild cat are cubs, not kittens;
5) wild cats do not respond to "kitty, kitty" (nor do domestic cats, unless they are trained/ rewarded for coming);
6) the totally amoral ending (spoiler alert) in most states would leave Anna charged with murder in the 2nd degree or negligent homicide (if a DA is feeling kindly). In any event, she couldn't work for the Feds anymore with a felony rap on her.
7) No one who openly supports a terrorist group like Earth First! (on the FBI domestic terrorism list) as Craig Stevens does can work for the Feds.
8) What grown woman of 39 wears 2 braids?
9) it's not 900 miles from the Texas- new Mexico border to Ajo, AZ, and you can't drive 900 miles in one night anyway, not unless you were driving about 100 miles an hour the entire way. Google maps shows that it's less than 300 miles from Ajo to Guadalupe Mts NP. Add at most 50 miles to her starting point in Mexico.
10) what's with women mystery writers and the seemingly requisite lesbians? Patricia Cornwall, Susan Wittig Albert, JA Jance, Nevada Barr: all of them throw lesbians in long-term relationships as if it is normal. Newsflash: I live in metro NYC and do not know any; I suspect it is not mainstream and it certainly is unnecessary to most of these mysteries. Male mystery writers don't throw in gay characters just to have gay characters.

My bottom line: don't waste your time; the series doesn't get better but Anna drinks more.

Anna Pigeon, Sleuth Extraordinaire! - This is a good mystery with great characters.

Anna Pigeon, sleuth extraordinaire, is a Park Service Ranger, ecofemme who has left New York after the death of her husband. She goes to the Texas desert to make a new life. There she investigates the murders of colleagues with an attitude and esprit of someone you can feel a kinship with right off the pages. She should watch her alcohol intake as she appears to have the makings of someone who can become an alcoholic.

The ending was a bit trite but I didn't care because the rest of the book was so good.

Hmm..what adjective to use? - It was not.....riveting......I was not....mesmorized...

I COULD put it down...

But it was good....I am not sure how to explain. The story line was good, at times the story held me but I would not say it was like a MUST read....

That said, a friend is passing me the rest of the books and I surely will read them..I mean they are not BAD....

First in a successful series - Having read most of the Anna Pigeon series, I did not realize that this was the first until reading some of the review material preparatory to writing this. I was deluded, first, because I had not realized that the pattern of having the heroine about the most physically abused leading character in the genre, had begun from the beginning. If she was 39 when this took place, as is mentioned, it is remarkable that she is still alive today given the terrible beating her body took here and in every succeeding book. What a remarkable specimen. Second, it is mentioned that she has come from New York City wherein she had some bad experiences. Without revealing anything, it can be said, as regular readers, who also are not reading in chronological order know, she later returns to that city for further park rangering in which she is once more given much to endure.
As to this book, it is a good start and lays down various aspects of the heroines character which make her an interesting example of the modern woman outdoing the men in her chosen profession, while at the same time showing that she is all-woman (with the aid of her psychiatrist sister at the other end of the phone) and some available man who finds her excitingly feminine despite her job. She is also, of course, highly sensitive to environmental issues and completely committed to Nature, in all its non-human forms. She is ready to kill a man but not an innocent animal. The latter is the fundamental problem that sets up this story: a park ranger is found apparently the victim of a mountain lion in the national park to which Anna is assigned. To Anna, the attribution of "murderer" to a lion, which requires that it receive the death sentence, is uncalled for, something is just not right about it. To kill an animal, whether guilty or innocent is unfair; to kill a random animal, as has to be done given the lack of identification of a particular guilty one, is too human, that is, inhumane.
From that starting point, other deaths ensue, Anna herself faces death more than once, and only she is motivated to pursue the issue. Meanwhile, as in all the books, we are enmeshed in the intricacies of her continuing self-analysis, doubts, commitments, loves and love-deprivations. In this book, we are also treated to a brief episode of doubt as to whether or not she is actually more attuned to a female than male sexual partner, love partner, just plain partner. This issue she lays before her sister as she does other crises of self.
One's reaction to the totality of this, and other of her books, will be, in part, influenced by the degree to which one's commitments are within a comfort range of the heroines. Similarly, ones interest will be impacted by the degree one likes a book with a steady stream of consciousness monologue by the lead character. None of Watson vis-a-vis Holmes or Hastings vis-a-vis Poirot. It is all Anna vis-a-vis Anna.
At any rate, I think the average reader will find a sufficiency of action, mystery and characterization, to keep her or him reading to the end with a degree of involvement sufficient to make it an entertaining enterprise.

Reviewed by Lois of Adelaide, Australia. - This is the first in a great mystery series by Nevada Barr featuring park ranger Anna Pigeon. I highly recommend the entire series (where are the rest, Kindle?). Well written gripping mysteries by a writer with intimate knowledge of the wonderful national parks in which her stories are set. Enjoy!

anna pigeon - We do not like how she writes. It's hard to follow. It's as if she is trying to impress you with her big words. Most fiction readers do not want to lug around a dictionary when they read their fiction. We won't buy another of her books.