High Country

First of all, I want to say that the Anna Pidgeon mystery series is stellar and I absolutely love it. I eagerly await every book and would recommend it to anyone.

That being said, there was one glaringly obvious flaw in this book, that I just had to point it out. --(Minor Spoiler References below)--

Anna is supposed to be a law enforcement agent. With her training, and after all her previous exploits in which she is physically harmed, why did she not inform someone of where she was going to be before she went on a 24 mile hike during the winter in one of the most harsh environments?? If someone couldn't have accompanied her, she should, at the least, have called in and let one of the other rangers know where she was going!

Also, at the show more end, when she was walking everywhere, didn't it occur to her that there was a disfigured, partially burned murderer out there who might still want her dead? Yet she continues to be out in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, where even someone who didn't have law enforcement training, and criminals after her, wouldn't dare to walk.

Anyway, I just had to get that off my chest. Other than that, this is an excellent series, well worth reading. I just wish Anna would get a bit more sense . . . . show less

Typical for this series. Anna is sent to yet another park and leaves Paul behind. At this point she hasn’t actually married the guy, but as I’ve read the book that comes after this one, even when she is married, no one can tie her down. This time instead of acting as a park ranger, Anna is undercover to investigate the disappearance and likely deaths of 4 park employees.

She uncovers a web of lies and deceit and of course lands in grave physical danger. As usual the description and the assaults themselves are unrelenting. I almost fast-forwarded through a bunch of it at the end. Oh yeah, I know Anna makes it out, but the sheer cruelty of her tormentors is a bit much sometimes.

Anna’s calculating manner and judgmental attitudes are show more intact and come to the fore a lot. Barr spends a great deal of time inside Anna’s head as she figures her angles and casts her lines. She’s deliberately manipulative and plays a lot of people; justifying it with the good of the cause. She’s also is highly emotional and when things spill over into tears she is ashamed and questions herself a great deal. She also questions her sanity over the fact that she apparently has quite the capacity to disconnect and kill those who threaten her. Not a bad thing altogether, but she discovers she has no remorse, guilt or twinges of sadness over the deaths she causes. When others seem to raise eyebrows she gets defensive and searches her emotional fabric for tears. In the end she finds she’s justified and ceases to be concerned.

The solution was surprising in some ways, typical in others. I could see Jim’s role from a mile away and his sacrifice was not part of the surprise nor was his posthumous revenge on his tormentor/manipulator. I thought that in her addled and beaten state, Anna might give in to that last temptation, but a last minute swerve saved her. show less

(review of the audiobook version) This is my kind of mystery. Not gimicky. Just a straightforward story with believable characters. Anna is a forest ranger who goes undercover as a waitress at a Yosemite National Forest resort to try and divine clues as to the disappearances of four young hikers in the park. As she uncovers information, she becomes embroiled in a mystery involving drugs, kidnapping and probable murder. She is surrounded by potential suspects and, potentially, further victims. The narrator did a decent job with the different character voices.

Anna Pigeon is a federal agent who works undercover, solving deaths and disappearances at National Parks and monuments.

In this book, Anna is inserted as a waitress at Yosemite National Park to investigate the mysterious disappearances of three young Park employees and a well known climber.

Her investigations soon lead her to a drug plane crashed within the Park. But that’s only the beginning of the twists and turns as she sorts out good guys, bad guys and innocent bystanders in the small town atmosphere of those working within Yosemite.

I read this mystery series for the locations. The mysteries are usually good-enough but these books almost always make me want to visit the scenes of the crime. I zip in and out of the Anna Pigeon series show more in no particular order. They seem to work fine as stand alones. show less

Anna Pigeon goes undercover as a waitress in Yosemite National Park to find what happened to three hikers. She must spend time getting to know the various persons in the park, and "being chummy" is not one of her strengths. She does manage to forge some trust, but most people think she's a company spy of sorts. Adding to the confusion, the chief ranger is called away during Anna's investigation, and she does not know who was named acting chief. This causes her to do some "lone wolf" adventures when she should have reported her intentions. This installment of the Anna Pigeon series works well as an audio book. The mounting threats and tension keeps one listening. I figured out part of the final solution, but the author created one twist show more I did not expect. I'm glad I decided to pick this series back up where I left off. show less

Anna is sent undercover into Yosemite National Park in California to discover what has happened to four missing young people, including employees of the concessions and trail crew.

Because she is posing as a waitress, Anna can’t use available law enforcement resources. She begins to piece together parts of the puzzle, but none of the pieces make sense. There are lots of unsavory elements who are bound and determined to keep Anna out of the picture, even if it means killing her.

This was a bit of a different type of Anna Pigeon story. There were several things that didn’t make sense to me. On her day off, Anna takes a hike and finds critical evidence quite easily, as well as the reason for the disappearance of the missing people. It show more was a common trail, so I'm not sure why no one else found it over the weeks the search was active. However, there's a great action sequence that made me forget about how easily she discovered it.

This wasn't my favorite of the series, but Nevada Barr always gives a great picture of the beauty in the National Parks with well developed characters and intriguing plot lines. show less

I enjoy this series set in National Parks featuring a mature female Ranger. Kudos for getting the setting mostly accurate. I especially like this one set in Yosemite National Park for incorporating the true event of the plane crash into Lower Merced Lake.