Flashback

Rating:
Summary: Nevada strike again!
Review: I discovered Nevada Barr shortly after her first mystery novel, Track of the Cat, was released. I have anxiously awaited the release of each new novel since then. This is one of the best of a great series. I will be looking forward to the next installment...

Rating:
Summary: Drags slightly here and there but enjoyable overall.
Review: I enjoyed this book but not as much as I might have because of the way the two stories-in-one break up the smooth flow of both. Those letters of Raffia's read like chapters in a book not letters and that long windedness cause's the book to drag. Also almost as soon as Sargent Synap enter's the story you know what will happen and who will be responsible. I will say that the modern story suffers not from any of this but simply from being constantly interupted and also the fact that her characters get into situations that I found very hard to buy into. Anyone who would shove a 800 pound boat engine on someone is not likely to suffer a fit of remorse and pull it off because they did not want you to suffer. But Nevada pulled off enough surprises to keep me reading and in the end I was glad I did.

Rating:
Summary: Formerly a Nevada Barr / Anna Pigeon Fan
Review: I finished Flashback not 5 mintues ago. My face is still burning and my stomach is still roiling from enduring Barr's tirade of language in this novel.

I used to be a huge fan of this series. Now I don't believe I will ever pick up another one of her novels. ...Sadly, the story was interesting. Well-reflected setting, too, as all the National Park mysteries feature. Barr is a talented writer. It is a real shame that she feels she must resort to the foulest of language to make dialogue "believable," as some might call it.

In the story, Pigeon is temporarily assigned as a ranger at Fort Jefferson, in the Dry Tortugas. She "flashes back" to dive experiences 10 years earlier at Lake Superior ("A Superior Death") and to her trials in Lechuguilla Cave, Carlsbad Caverns ("Blind Descent"). The story is balanced with Pigeon reading lately-recovered letters of her ancestor, who once lived at the Fort just after the Civil War. The two perspectives intertwine in alternating chapters - a new approach in this series. For these reasons alone, I give it the one star. Without the offensive language, I would have rated it 5 stars.

I closed the book disgusted and glad to be through with it. I am a young, professional, college-educated woman, who happens to love and respect the Lord Ms. Barr spoke of so many times in vain.

Rating:
Summary: Flashback Boredom
Review: I have been a fan of Nevada Barr since Track of the Cat. However, her last two or three books, including this one, have become mundane and I hate to say it, boring. Where is the sharp tongued, opinionated Anna Pigeon of days gone by? I was happy to see that Barr had moved the venue out of Mississippi (which may have worked adequately for one book, but certainly not more than one), but was disappointed by the result - Flashback. While the Dry Tortugas is an interesting locale, and even the plot line has promise, the story just doesn't deliver. The dangerous situations Anna finds herself in seem contrived and just unbelievable. The character herself seems muted and uninteresting. I think that's what I feel most let down about - the character has changed and not for the better. Could it be Barr's own personal life changes are being reflected too much in her character and not for the better? I don't know, but for the first time in this series I must say I am unlikely to purchase future installments.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: I have read all of Nevada's books, and this was one of my favorites. I did not find the jump between present day and Civil War times to be disorienting at all, in fact, I believe the interplay added to both stories. I'm devoted to Anna Pigeon, with her flaws and imperfections - she is the perfect combination of kick-ass gal with self-doubting everywoman. The diving scenes and the culminating rain-soaked scene were excellently crafted and had me on the edge of my chair. I really loved this novel, and I hope Anna isn't getting to worn out on adventure. Even though I really like her fiance', I'm not sure I want her to stop getting into trouble all over the USA!

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: I have read all of Nevada's books, and this was one of my favorites. I did not find the jump between present day and Civil War times to be disorienting at all, in fact, I believe the interplay added to both stories. I'm devoted to Anna Pigeon, with her flaws and imperfections - she is the perfect combination of kick-ass gal with self-doubting everywoman. The diving scenes and the culminating rain-soaked scene were excellently crafted and had me on the edge of my chair. I really loved this novel, and I hope Anna isn't getting to worn out on adventure. Even though I really like her fiance', I'm not sure I want her to stop getting into trouble all over the USA!

Rating:
Summary: Her best . . . .
Review: I have read all of the Anna Pigeon books, and this is by far the best. Could be that I like stories on or in the water and stories about the Civil War--and this one had both. A previous reviewer did not like the way the book switched from chapter to chapter from the present to the flashback. That is a point I liked very much. Each chapter ended with you wanting to read more, and that is basic Writing 101 at its best! The clever ending tied the package up very neatly. This was Barr's best!

Rating:
Summary: Lost in the Flashbacks
Review: I love Anna Pigeon. It is probably because, like Anna, I am "middle-aged" and finding my way in a world that I didn't imagine I'd find. Added to that is a history that includes many of the places in which Barr sets her stories. The descriptions of sights, sounds, and events create flashbacks of my own. But this adventure was very different. This was not the mystery I had hoped to find. I kept getting lost in the tale and had to backtrack, several times in places, just to find my way. I think Barr would have done the two stories combined here better service if she had untangled them and told them separately.

I have read every Anna Pigeon book with anticipation, and expect to see more of her is future stories. However, I hope to see more of the Anna I have come to cheer for -- that smart, spunky, intrepid woman who refuses to compromise who she is, and what she wants.

Rating:
Summary: letters are great
Review: I love Nevada Barr & have all of her books. But this one was not her best. It starts out very slow. But poor Anna is almost killed again near the beginning of the book. But the best part of this book are the letters from her great-great Aunt. If fact they were so good that I read them to the end & then went back & read the story about Anna. This poor woman is almost killed at least 3 times in this story. The beginning is slow. It starts to pick up around the middle but the last of the book is so good you can't put it down. Even though it is not her best it is still a good book.

Rating:
Summary: A Reluctant Four Stars
Review: I recently began reading Nevada Barr's books featuring Ranger Anna Pigeon at the suggestion of my daughter, her husband (they have both been rangers in the National Park Service) and my wife, all of whom have enjoyed the series. I enjoyed HUNTING SEASON enough that I decided to read FLASHBACK, and as my review will make clear my reactions to the book were very ambivalent. The book involves Anna's decision to accept a temporary post at Dry Tortugas National Park located near Garden Key off the coast of Florida. We actually attended a talk and book signing for Nevada Barr recently; she revealed that the location for this story had been suggested to her by three different readers during a previous book tour. Thus, if you have any suggestions for her, I recommend that you locate the nearest stop on her current tour and feel confident that she will listen carefully to you.

Dry Tortugas Park consists primarily of Fort Wadsworth, a military fortress constructed prior to the civil war but utilized instead as a Union prison for reasons explained in the novel. In addition to Confederate Civil war prisoners, the Lincoln Conspirators were imprisoned there, and this fact is an integral part of the story. Anna is temporarily replacing the previous superintendent of the facility, who has been institutionalized after seeing apparitions and apparently suffering a nervous breakdown. Shortly after assuming her post, Anna begins to delve into the Fort's history through reading the letters of her great-great aunt Raffia, who lived at the Fort during the civil war while her husband was the military commandant of the prison. Two parallel mysteries unfold and need to be solved, one involving some mysterious events and disappearances described in the letters and one involving present day events. The unexplained explosion of a mysterious cigar boat in the waters near the Fort and accompanying loss of life lead to a series of incidents that endanger Anna and cause her to question her own sanity. Thus she is distracted from what she hoped would be a quiet assignment during which she could resolve her indecision about the proposal of marriage which she recently received from sheriff and ex-priest Paul Davidson. Additional complexities eventually develop, including the real motivations of Anna's coworkers; given the closed and isolated nature of the post she suspects that recent deaths, disappearances and apparently illegal activities must involve the complicity of someone stationed at the Fort.

This is a very well plotted mystery, and the conclusion is very satisfying (altough a little contrived) as Anna unravels the threads of both the present day events and also finds a soluion to the unexplained occurrences outlined in Raffia's letters. There are some really interesting characters, and their interaction with Anna is a joy at times. In addition, there are some observations that really ring true and are articulated quite enjoyably, for instance:

Anna mirrored my own frustration at times when she kept exchanging messages with a law enforcemant officer on the mainland and observed "it seemed with each new invention developed to make communication easier- call waiting, forwarding, voicemail, pagers, cell phones - the more dificult it became to get in touch with anyone"

or tourists at the Fort "made the place mundane,{robbing it} of mystery and romance".

And what a great personal insight, "of the various neuroses, the one she most lusted after was the one that she could never quite attain".

Finally what a wonderful reply by Paul to her indecision concerning his marriage proposal and her question about its duration. "It will stand forever. Maybe lean a little after eight hundred years like the Tower of Pisa, but it will still be standing."

So, why did I only reluctantly rate this book as high four stars, and not a glowing five stars? I found that the technique which the author used to weave the two stories together significantly inhibited my enjoyment. Anna's adventures are interspersed in alternate chapters with the letters of Raffia, which relate the events during the Civil War. Furthermore, many of the chapters end in the midst of very tense situations, while this seems somewhat natural in the case of the letters it seems totally contrived in Anna's situation. Thus, I found it very easy to put the book down since I knew the next chapter provided no continuity with what I had just read. This is just the opposite of what I expect from a good mystery, where I want to get so involved that I stay up late to keep reading. I was tempted to sometimes just skip ahead, but was never sure whether I would lose context by so doing. So I found the effort by the author interesting and credit her with the attempt to do something new, but in the end I found it unsatisfying and while it was intellectually interesting it detracted from my enjoyment of the story. And from both other reviews and the reaction of my wife and friends, I realize that my feelings are quite widely shared. So I recommend the book, but with the caveat that you should be prepared for this very unusual literary technique.