Rating: 
Summary: Hits the sweet spot.
Review: This is my first Anna Pigeon novel and am not surprised to read from her fans here that it is considered one of the best. Barr does a good job of combining the mystery genre elements with realistic characters and well-crafted writing. She delivers a book with rare entertainment value. I had trouble putting Deep South down to go to sleep.
One of the best things about Deep South is the way in which it delivers the comfort points of a cozy while still bringing home the realities of the death and pain involved. Too much of the time the victims in a mystery novel are nothing more than excuses to explore the world of the detective. Barr makes us feel the death of Danni Posey, and gives us the feeling that the (emotional and physical) stakes are truly high for Anna. I also like that Barr does not shrink from tackling some of the tough non-murder related elements of Anna and her new life in Mississippi.
Recommended for all mystery fans. I will be reading further in this series.
Rating:
Summary: Deep South
Review: This summer I discovered Anna Pigeon. In my opinion - and I only have one book of the series to read, this was the best. There was a pinch of a more human Anna - still staunchly independant - still the same antisocial, swearing, tough lady, but giving in to the fact that she needed help and let people care. A great one - and so much action!
Rating: 
Summary: Unlikely
Review: I've recently finished listening to the Recorded Books (unabridged) version of this work with narration by Barbara Rosenblat. She does a fine job transfering the dialect from the printed page to the human ear, not an easy task. I am not one very much attracted to works of fiction, largely because I find it difficult to imagine an individual really going through the experiences reported. This is what I felt in the story by Navada Barr. While she paints some interesting pictures of life in Mississippi, it seemed to me to be a bit unrealistic that Anna would get into so much trouble is such a short time frame. To have to deal with a murder, troublesome teens, a possible love affair and old civil war fans in the first week on the job seemed a bit much for me. As skilled as she may have been at her former post in Colorado, it is hard to imagine that the National Park Service would toss her into this new position without some kind of orientation to those things expected of her.
I am sure Barr has great ability in using descriptive language but perhaps should use that talent in travel books, not mystery novels.
Rating:
Summary: Better as a series than a single book
Review: I gather from the jacket and some of the text that this is part of an ongoing series of books dealing with the adventures of a female forest ranger/police officer. This one's adventure consists of a job transition from the Western United States to something about as far a different environment as possible. That is, modern day Mississippi. As a stand-alone book, it's pretty good. There are two major areas of narration, the transition to a new part of the country, and a nasty murder to solve practically out of the gate. As murder mysteries go, it's OK. We find a body, track down acquaintances, and then get to figure out suspects and motive. As a murder mystery is usually a murder mystery, I always try to add what I learn about the world surrounding it as part of making it interesting. In this case, it's the world of Civil War enactors. We get just a glimpse of their world, but it's covered in much more detail, and much more interestingly in Elmore Leonards' "Tishomingo Blues". The other area is the transition. I would have liked to have seen a longer novel where this area is explored. We do get some conflicts, especially because she's a woman. But they get into the murder right away, where and this part is left at the wayside. I would imagine that the topic will be explored in more depth in "the further adventures", which would get the SERIES a four-star rating. But as this detail is lacking in this particular book, I hold it to three stars.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Barr
Review: I loved this book. I never saw the ending coming. It kept me on the edge. I highly recommend this book.
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