Rating: 
Summary: Exciting Confrontation Is Surrounded by a Plodding Plot
Review: Can you imagine Anna Pigeon as an undercover agent using a cover as a waitress at the swank Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite? Having stayed at and dined in the hotel's restaurant in the past, I was hooked. When I opened the book and saw a map of Yosemite, I thought, Wow! Is this going to be great or what?
Four young employees have turned up missing from their dwellings, and the park service has no clues. Anna is brought in chat up the other employees to find out what might have happened to them. Her entry isn't as smooth as it could have been. The chef and the head of the wait staff don't seem too enthralled with Anna getting such a plum job when she obviously isn't a very good waitress. She's bunking with some very young women who are young enough to be her daughters, which limits her interaction possibilities with them. But soon, bizarre people and events start to build up, and clearly the chase is on. The action builds to an exciting climax as Anna unravels the central element of the mystery. This section of the book is a definite five-star effort. But the book slows down from there and moseys on to a predictable ending.
The book has little character development in it to help you enjoy the story more. So the action elements are what drive the story's appeal. And there just aren't enough of those elements.
Parts of the plot are very implausible and almost reminded me of a satire of every gruesome Halloween movie you've ever seen. So take all of those as a sort of campy humor if you want to enjoy the book more.
Fans of Anna Pigeon novels should definitely read the book, but don't expect to find this one to be one of your favorites in this excellent series.
Take action!
Rating: 
Summary: My first Nevada Barr mystery.
Review: Decided to try a new author based on my love for Yosemite National Park. Although this story didn't do justice to the beauty and grandeur of Yosemite's glacier-carved peaks and valleys, it was an enjoyable read. Barr's writing style is fast-paced and keeps you turning the pages to find out what happens next. I liked the protagonist, undercover park ranger Anna Pigeon, and can't wait to read more of her adventures in other national parks.
Rating: 
Summary: This Ain't No Cozy
Review: Four young park workers have gone missing from Yosemite and after an extensive search by the search and rescue teams the Park Service asks Ranger Anna Pigeon to go undercover and see if she can find anything out. She goes into the park as a waitress at the Ahwahanee Hotel in the shadow of the Sierra Nevadas.Ever alert and a sophisticated eavesdropper, it doesn't take long for Anna to figure out that the missing employess are only the first sign that there is something very wrong going on in the Park. Her young twenty-something-year-old roommates seem to be afraid and suspisious, then an assisstant chef tries to scald her with boiling water. When she learns that the brother of one of the missing waitresses might know more about her disappearance than he's admitted, her life is threatened. Then an encounter with a group of city-slicker types leads Anna into the high country where she finds the remains of a small plane stuffed full of drugs. She gets shot, is hunted by a group of very bad guys and is pushed to her limit as she struggles to survive. As usual Nevada Barr has painted wonderful out door scencs and filled them with tension and suspense. If you haven't read an Anna Pigeon mystery yet, I think it's about time you did, and if you thought this was just a safe little cozy, well, you're wrong, this ain't no cozy, it's a full on action adventure mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Haley Lawford, S/V Cheerleader Too
Rating:
Summary: What an exciting, compelling story!!
Review: I always look forward to Nevada Barr's books, as much for the national park ambiance as the story itself. This book concerned the disappearance of 4 young people from a camp site in Yosemite National Park in California. Ranger Anna Pigeon is sent there as an undercover "spy" to see if she can find out what happened to them. Anna is certainly a gutsy lady, and she gets herself into many tight, dangerous situations. The pursuit of Anna by two villains through the wilderness was breathtaking. I couldn't read fast enough to see what happened next. This book was pure genius, and I recommend it to anyone with a taste for adventure.
Rating:
Summary: Longitudinally ...
Review: I am enjoying this book, but I was distracted by the
statement on p. 63 of the hardback edition. Ms. Barr
says:
"Longitudinally Yosemite National Park wasn't much
farther north than Mississippi, ..."
I think that the author means "Lattitudinally, ..."
As my daughter is wont to say, "Whatever..."
Kind regards,
Rating:
Summary: Anna Pigeon is back!
Review: I finished this book in one day -- very exciting and intriguing mystery set in Yosemite National Park. Nevada Barr is back to form after the somewhat confusing/boring Flashback. If you are an Anna Pigeon fan, you'll love this book! If you haven't read Nevada Barr before, I'd start with the first Anna Pigeon book and work your way up. There's a little bit of information in each of her books which makes more sense if you know Anna's history.
Rating: 
Summary: copycat
Review: I have read and enjoyed all of Nevada Barr/ Anna Pigeon's prevoius escapades. However, about two chapters into this novel it began to seem really familiar. As it turns out this story (the marijuana in the plane that crashes into the back country lake in Yosemite National Park, and is discovered by the climbers at Camp 4, among others)is--- a)true, and b) well treated in a novel from 1987, by Jeff Long, entitled "Angels of Light". I felt very disappointed while reading through the rest of Barr's novel, as nothing new or different happened. She has no forward note, historical note, epilogue or other mention that this work is based on a true event and has precedence in fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Overwritten, underedited
Review: I was so disappointed with High Country. I've liked Nevada Barr in the past, and I love Yosemite, so I was looking forward to a good read, but I couldn't get past about page 50. WAY too many serious errors early that the editors didn't catch (including a "whomever" for "whoever" on p. 22) as well as overwriting on Ms. Barr's part. I really expected more from this major writer, and from her major publisher.
Rating:
Summary: Angels of Light revisited
Review: Is she attempting to recreate an older book by a male author, entitled, "Angels of Light"? Recreating is a very nice word for something not very nice. Barr is getting tiresome: pot plane under the ice of a lake (now, where have I read that before?), baddies in Yosemite's paradise (REALLY?), endless descriptions in convoluted language of how hard it is to tramp in the woods and mountains...And don't forget the DNA's helix (which even I, a layman, know is a double helix)! And then the unbelievable adventures: undercover Park Service officer slinging hash in a 4-star restaurant, saving the life of a pot head, scratching the eye out of a would-be murderer, burning him severely, OH, PLEASE! Of course, AIDS must also be there, and homosexuality, and not having a one-night stand with a hunk. It would not be the new Barr if she would not blather on and on in her role as a NOW woman. I have never been so sadly disappointed by an author who, not all that long ago, was an interesting story teller. That is gone. Suggestion: DON'T BUY, read a few pages and you see I didn't lie. Terrible book, badly edited, and worse written.
Rating:
Summary: Solid but Predictable
Review: It's good to have Anna Pigeon back at any time, and Nevada Barr doesn't let us down with this latest in her series about the intrepid and way too independent forest ranger. But somehow, "High Country" never gets the reader's blood flowing the way earlier entries in the series have done. That is not to say that the book is not enjoyable, or even that it's a tough read. It simply does not, for this reader, anyway, have the spark that so many others have had. Perhaps it's because Anna is working undercover at a lodge in Yosemetie rather than in her park-ranger personna--and also because all through the book, she keeps harping on the fact that she is middle-aged now and has slowed way down. I kept expecting her to order a rocking chair! And her thoughts are belied by her eventual confrontation with the villain--no used-up woman could ever fight back the way Anna does. The plot concerns Anna's placement in the park to help investigate the mysterious disappearance of four young and able climbers, each of whom was more than able to fend for him/herself. Anna starts to nose around while trying to keep in the guise of a waitress--the temperamental chef hates her, the boss lady hates her, everybody seems to hate her. And they have reason to as Anna doggedly and determinedly uncovers a truly nefarious set of circumstances. This was a fun read despite its curious lack of life. I wouldn't read it as a first sample of the Anna Pigeon series, but for us diehard readers, it's a must.
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