Rating: 
Summary: Anna battles demons: inner, real and not so real
Review: I emerged from the first two Anna Pidgeon novels liking but hardly enthralled with Anna. Barr had done a masterful job with the park settings but the human element hadn't quite clicked. Things come together much better in this book, the third in the series.As always, Barr takes the reader on a wonderful insiders tour of life in the National Park Service - this time at Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado. (Hillerman fans will find a different perspective on the high desert but it works well.) The mystery is plenty solid. An unusually high number of medical emergencies are occuring in the park. Then a ranger is found dead in mysterious circumstances. At the same time, a domestic situation is plaguing Anna's days. Then there are reportings of appearances of mysterious night spirits. Are the Anazazi returning? It all comes together with a nice mix of Anna's brain power and puzzle pieces fitting together. Still, what elevates this book above the first two books is Anna's struggle with her inner demons. We learn much more about her marriage and widowhood as Anna tries to come to terms with her attraction to certain men in her life. As the deaths start to pile up, Anna's alcoholism begins to really complicate her life. In some books this would be too much but Barr makes it work - a good balance for the sometimes too smart and clever public face of Anna. Bottom-line: A good read for all. Fans of the southwest will really enjoy the co-star of the book, Mesa Verde. Reading of the first two books in the series is helpful but not necessary.
Rating:
Summary: Anna battles demons: inner, real and not so real
Review: I emerged from the first two Anna Pidgeon novels liking but hardly enthralled with Anna. Barr had done a masterful job with the park settings but the human element hadn't quite clicked. Things come together much better in this book, the third in the series. As always, Barr takes the reader on a wonderful insiders tour of life in the National Park Service - this time at Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado. (Hillerman fans will find a different perspective on the high desert but it works well.) The mystery is plenty solid. An unusually high number of medical emergencies are occuring in the park. Then a ranger is found dead in mysterious circumstances. At the same time, a domestic situation is plaguing Anna's days. Then there are reportings of appearances of mysterious night spirits. Are the Anazazi returning? It all comes together with a nice mix of Anna's brain power and puzzle pieces fitting together. Still, what elevates this book above the first two books is Anna's struggle with her inner demons. We learn much more about her marriage and widowhood as Anna tries to come to terms with her attraction to certain men in her life. As the deaths start to pile up, Anna's alcoholism begins to really complicate her life. In some books this would be too much but Barr makes it work - a good balance for the sometimes too smart and clever public face of Anna. Bottom-line: A good read for all. Fans of the southwest will really enjoy the co-star of the book, Mesa Verde. Reading of the first two books in the series is helpful but not necessary.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing particularly unique or special as mysteries go..
Review: I had heard so much hoopla about Nevada Barr's books I had to read one for myself. I bought ILL WIND and read it in a week. However, I found it pretty average as far as a good mystery story goes. There was nothing compelling about her characters, nothing special about her geographical descriptions, and nothing to write home about overall. I was not impressed.
Rating:
Summary: Three is a magic number...
Review: Ill Wind, the third book in Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mystery series, is enthralling and believable. Not only does this book have an amazing mystery (linking the murder with the Anasazi), its characters are very believable and lifelike. Not one character is perfect, and all have realistic backgrounds and original personalities. Ill Wind is different from all other mysteries I have read: it moves at a pace unique to itself, its characters are wonderfully and originally written, and the occurances are plausable and believable. I'd say more but I'd run out of room. Great book, great series!
Rating:
Summary: Three is a magic number...
Review: Ill Wind, the third book in Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mystery series, is enthralling and believable. Not only does this book have an amazing mystery (linking the murder with the Anasazi), its characters are very believable and lifelike. Not one character is perfect, and all have realistic backgrounds and original personalities. Ill Wind is different from all other mysteries I have read: it moves at a pace unique to itself, its characters are wonderfully and originally written, and the occurances are plausable and believable. I'd say more but I'd run out of room. Great book, great series!
Rating: 
Summary: Great setting, weak villain
Review: Mesa Verde is fun. Anna Pigeon is a fun character, even if she's a bit grumpy. Her FBI counterpart is even more fun-I liked him the moment he showed up in "A Superior Death," even if Anna then found him to be a bit of a buffoon. But somehow the pieces of this story don't come together as well as they do in the best Anna Pigeon mysteries, such as "Firestorm," "A Superior Death," "Blind Descent," and "Deep South." Maybe Barr was still learning her art when she wrote this one; the problem is that the villain isn't as well developed as the setting or the Anna Pigeon character (she had the same problem, in fact, in her first book, "Track of the Cat"). Anna, the park, the FBI guy, even her long-distance relationship with her sister Molly-all of these upstage the plot that's supposed to bind them together, producing the odd result of a book that's undercut by its greatest strengths. Still, there's no such thing as a bad Anna Pigeon book: just varying degrees of good. This one's at the lower end of the range.
Rating: 
Summary: An exciting adventure. I felt like I was there. Loved it!
Review: Nevada Barr has written another "can't put it down" Anna Pigeon story. Having been to Mesa Verde myself, I really felt like I was brought back there throughout "Ill Wind." I would recommend this book to any mystery lover. Park Ranger Anna Pigeon is an independent, strong woman who I thoroughly enjoy getting to know in Nevada Barr's novels.
Rating:
Summary: Another great book in the Anna Pigeon series.
Review: Nevada Barr has written another great entry in her Anna Pigeon series. I would recommend that you read this series in order, as the character really grows from book to book, as do the secondary charcters. Anna's FBI friend Fredrick Stanton is back to help her as she gets involved in yet another murder in the wilderness. Anna gets herself into more trouble and again gets hurt (this woman must have more scars than a heavyweight boxer!). The story is totally engrossing and one of those that you can't put down
Rating:
Summary: The Best So Far
Review: Nevada Barr really hit her stride in Ill Wind, the third in her wonderful Anna Pigeon series. In this tale, park ranger Anna is stationed at Colorado's Mesa Verde park, where the famous cliff dwellings draw tourists from all over the world. As in her other two books, Barr makes the reader experience the site. It is her great gift--reading about the kivas and mesas and the haunting spirits of the primitive Anasazi, who originally constructed the mesas, I felt I was there. I could feel the heat of the air, smell the surrounding vegetation, feel the sandstone. And, along with Anna, who is becoming more likeable with every book, I worried about seemingly nefarious activites in the park--of of which ends in the death of a fellow ranger. Anna knows the death is not accidental, but try as she might, she cannot put together the increasingly strange and seemingly unrelated clues. Along comes "Fred the Fed," whom we met the last book. He and Anna team up to solve the mystery, and the interplay between them is a true delight. I find this series a true delight as well; the concept of a park ranger as law-enforcement detective is so different, and so perfect, as are the descriptions of the incredible national parks. I am getting a real education, here! This is the perfect book to take to the beachl or the pool or the park--easy, fun, gently suspenseful, and perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Score one more for Nevada Barr & Anna Pigeon!
Review: Once again Anna Pigeon must try to face her demons, those of her own past and the ones among the Anasazi ruins. Set in Mesa Verde National Park, the death of a fellow ranger and friend sets Anna on a collision course with the rumored "Old Ones," the spirits of the Cliff Palace ruins.
An exciting story on the surface, on another level we see an older, wiser, and much more introspective Anna Pigeon than before. The events bring her closer than ever to confronting her own personal issues that always seem to boil just beneath the surface.
Move over Kinsey Milhone and Kay Scarpetta. Anna Pigeon is as strong and intelligent a female character as this decade has seen!
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