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High Country (Anna Pigeon Novels (Audio))

High Country (Anna Pigeon Novels (Audio))

List Price: $74.25
Your Price: $51.97
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Anna Pigeon (undercover) getting harder to believe
Review: We've read every entry in Barr's Anna Pigeon (National Park Ranger / Supervisor) series and have generally enjoyed them for two distinct traits. The first are the unusual settings and the illuminating descriptions thereof. Almost like travelogues, Barr takes us from one Park to another, often in highly different geographic areas around our country, acquainting us with places many of us have not experienced. The second is that Anna is a real-life woman -- NOT overly gorgeous, overly intellectual, overly brave -- just kind of a normal person like the rest of us. So her persona, coupled with her obvious outdoor living and law enforcement skills, tends to create stories we believe and care about. Add a dash of danger and suspense, and Barr usually delivers a gripping, enjoyable mystery.

Certainly in "High Country", we get another unusual setting -- California's (apparently) oft-gloomy Yosemite National Park. We find Anna on temporary assignment here looking into the mysterious (and likely, criminal) disappearance of four young Park employees. Her "cover" is working as a waitress at one of the Park hotel restaurants -- to our thinking, a regrettable choice as Anna's questioning and probing sessions with just about everybody label her not as a busybody, but some sort of spy. Thus all the events at the hotel were marred by what at best is a flawed premise. When Anna gets outdoors and goes hunting for either the missing persons or the probable suspects, things improve; but it seemed like it took an awful long hiking story (and a lot of pages) to get us closer to the real plot and story line of the novel. Several readers have complained the story ("drug plane crashes into lake") is based on a true-life event (without any hint from the author); it does have a ring of familiarity about it.

The last few Anna Pigeon tales have seemed to fall short of the entertaining earlier entries in the set. Maybe as Anna continues to age, perhaps somewhat ungracefully, so do her exploits. Perhaps letting her retire would be a wise step after the current contract expires. Hopefully Barr can land a couple more gems before that happens.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ANNA PIGEON??
Review: What has happened to the Anna Pigeon in Track of the Cat, Superior Death, Firestorm, Blind Descent, Ill Wind? That delightfully flawed character? Why has Ms. Barr been so fixated on teen angst, rednecks, drugs & their ilk? Where is the Ranger who found it sometimes "embarrassing to be human",(a line I still use from time to time). Where is all the politics between the NPS & the Forestry, before Anna was "Boss"?

In High Country we have Anna impersonating a waitress in Yosemite NP as part of an undercover assignment. Aside from a collection of the sleaziest, foulest-mouthed characters you'd never want to meet, we have four missing teens who may or may not be victims of foul play, two chefs & an assortment of fellow waitresses who may or may not be on the level-and do we really care?

Personally, as a former die-hard Anna Pigeon fan, I feel that this is Nevada's worst Anna Pigeon yet, & it hurts to say it. As others have mentioned, she doesn't paint a very desirable picture of Yosemite-I didn't get the feeling I had been there the way I did with her earlier books. In Firestorm, I almost felt ashes on my clothing & in Blind Descent, I had that claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in small spaces & so on. Maybe it is because it was set in winter-which I would think would be a spectacular time in any National Park-it paints the whole atmosphere with brooding strokes. Nevada Barr is obviously seeing a different place than Ansel Adams saw through his camera lens! Anna always did survive planned "mishaps" in superhero fashion, but we loved her & wanted her to survive. High Country almost goes beyond superwoman! The incident with the deer was completely uncalled for. I also felt that mentioning the real life murders was in bad taste & beside the point of the story (not that there was much point.)

This reader has gone from waiting with great anticipation for each new adventure, wondering where I'll be transported next, to ho hum; maybe I'll wait until I can get a good price on the paperback. I understand that her next book is set in Rocky Mountain NP, a park near & dear to my heart. It will be interesting to see if I recognize it. Nevada, please bring back the old Anna Pigeon-flaws & all.


Rating: 5 stars
Summary: HIGH DRAMA IN THE HIGH SIERRAS
Review: When Ranger Anna Pigeon goes undercover as a waittress to investigate the disappearance of four young hikers fate serves up a plate of trouble:four men illegally squatting in a missing hikers cabin, her two roommates apparently poisoned, and a hypodermic needle filled with blood hidden in her sleeve.Her first clue to the mystery is in a letter from one of the missing campers, Trish Spencer,that a gold mine, figuratively speaking,may have been discovered in the mountains.
Working through the recipient of the letter ,Dickie Cauliff,Anna discovers that Dickie may have supplied dope to Trish and Trish is a small time dealer ready to make a big score.But what of the men squatting illegally in missing campers Dixon Crofters cabin?Anna discovers that the men are after the cargo of a downed airplane. What is the cargo worth killing over?The men want Anna dead and set off in a spellbinding search for her over the beautiful but dangerous terrain of a Sierra winter.Piece by piece Anna is drawn into a deadly game of hide and seek involving murder , greed , treachery, and ultimately Annas own survival.Maybe the answer lies with Annas co_workers Scott, Jim and a tyrannical head waitress named Tiny.With danger lurking in every nook and cranny of the mountain range Anna pursues a solution.
Written with the pulse of the Sierras beating beneath the surface,High Country is a tale of danger and mystery gauranteed to keep the reader on the edge of a psychological cliff.Nevada Barr invites the reader to look into the abyss of good and evil lurking in the soul of all men and woman.High Country provides an adrenalin rush as powerful , surprising and thrilling as scaling a mountain peak. A must read for any true mystery lover.


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