Lesa's Book Critiques: Winners and Give Me a B Giveaway

Lesa's Book Critiques: Winners and Give Me a B Giveaway

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Boar Island by Nevada Barr

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Boar Island by Nevada Barr: Reviewed by Kristin Ever since I began reading Nevada Barr’s mysteries set in U.S. national parks, I’ve been hoping that she wo...

Review: "Destroyer Angel: An Anna Pigeon Novel" by Nevada Barr

It was supposed to be a simple and relaxing float trip for National Park Service Ranger Anna Pigeon and friends. Heath Jarod and her daughter, Elizabeth, will be along as will Leah and her daughter, Katie. Both the girls are teens and have little in common. The Fox River in Northern Minnesota is the destination. The trip is to serves as a much needed break for Anna as well as a way to test various methods and equipment for paraplegics to access the wildness. For Heath the trip is another step in trying to get her life back after the fall that broke her back.

Too much group togetherness causes Anna to go off to the river by herself for a little personal time at the end of a very long day. That loner instinct may ultimately save all their lives when a group of four men arrive in camp. They are not here to enjoy the beauty of the north woods or the companionship of their fellow travelers. They are there on a kidnapping for ransom mission and have very specific targets in mind--- Leah and Katie. The men may be much more at home in the city, but they have a plan, weapons, and plenty of cruelty and find the women without weapons and with no cell service no way to reach the outside.

What follow is a sort of Die Hard type scenario as Anna uses the element of surprise to begin to turn the odds in the captives. As the stress for all ratchets up and the unforgiving environment takes a toll it becomes questionable who will survive this rolling north woods confrontation.

The 19^th book in the series that began with Track of the Cat is a good one. While there is plenty of action and mystery involved, human psychology is the primary component of the book. Delving into the mind of Anna as well as the other characters to showcase how things are being dealt with as various events occur occupy large sections of the book. Despite that happening, the overall pace the story remains constant steadily pulling readers along to the ultimate final violent confrontation. The book contains the briefest of mentions of earlier events making it possible to read as a stand-alone if you are new to the series.

Destroyer Angel: An Anna Pigeon Novel  

Nevada Barr

http://www.nevedabarr.com

Minotaur Books (St. Martin’s Publishing Group)

http://www.minotaurbooks.com

2014

ISBN# 978-0-312-61458-4

Hardback (also available as an e-book and audio)

350 Pages

$26.95

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Rope by Nevada Barr

 The reviewer here liked it. My take was quite the opposite and can be found here.

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Rope by Nevada Barr: Reviewed by Kristin Anna Pigeon is a national park ranger who Nevada Barr has been writing about since 1993, beginning with Track of...

Review: "The Rope: An Anna Pigeon Novel" by Nevada Barr

As Lee Child recently did with his latest in the “Reacher series” titled The Affair: A Jack Reacher Novel author Nevada Barr takes readers back in time in this prequel to her Anna Pigeon series. The year is 1995 as The Rope: An Anna Pigeon Novel opens and Anna is thirty-five and adrift in a sea of mourning regarding the recent death of her husband Zach. She is a specter in black amongst the living and has barely connected with any of her fellow workers at the Glen Canyon Recreational Area except for Jenny.

So it is not surprising to anyone when Anna and her things disappear from the small cabin she shared with Jenny. The assumption is the former stage manager went back to New York as the desert backcountry was clearly no place for Anna. Not even Jenny is surprised she left though she is terribly disappointed. Not only was Anna a big help in going out and removing human waste fouling the waters and beaches of the area, Anna was the object of Jenny’s unrequited lust.

The problem is Anna never really left. Somebody drugged her, stripped her naked, scarred her body with a knife, and dumped her down a “solution hole.” A solution hole is a vertical hole or shaft cut into the surrounding sandstone that goes nowhere and has no way out thanks to the walls being polished smooth over the eons of time. Anna awakens to find herself naked, badly injured, and with no way out. Whoever did it is apparently not just leaving her to die. Instead, she is at the mercy of someone who is clearly toying with her like a bug under a magnifying lens. Her only hope is to stay alive long enough to somehow escape.

Beyond the obvious fact that Anna must survive or there would not be a published series, there is little that can be said about this glacially slow moving book without creating spoilers. Despite an obvious red herring, the suspect list is small and rather reminiscent of an Agatha Christie novel. One expects Anna at the end to summon them all to the hole she was trapped in and then name off the culprit. It does not work out quite that way, but does come fairly close.

Obsession and the effects on mental health or lack of same is the dominant theme of the book. Jenny constantly battles her own lesbian obsession as she becomes fixated on Anna as an object of love and lust. That same obsession was previously directed towards another woman with grave consequences as readers gradually learn and seems destined to end badly again. Other characters are also obsessed with Anna for various reasons making this book primarily all about who gets to claim Anna body and soul. Then there is Anna’s own obsession with the tragic death of Zach that seems to come up over and over again in each chapter before finally being replaced at the end of the book by her new obsession.

Continuing the trend in her most recent novels of a turn towards the sadistic and dark that is far from the roots of the series, The Rope: An Anna Pigeon Novel is yet another very dark read. A dark read in terms of events and tone the book clashes strongly when compared to the original and excellent start of the series titled Track of the Cat. This new novel is a highly atmospheric one with long stretches of mental contemplation by the various characters occasionally broken by some small sections of action. Long stretches of time and pages are spent in the heads of each character where readers are told what to think and feel. Unfortunately, there is not a likeable character in the bunch and by the end of the book you want to slap everyone in sight to knock some sense into them.

If you are going to spend so much time in the course of a book inside a character’s head while he or she dithers about life and his or her sexuality, it would be better spent in a much better book.

The Rope: An Anna Pigeon Novel

Nevada Barr

http://www.nevadabarr.com

Minotaur Books (St. Martin’s Publishing Group)

http://minotaurbooks.com

January 2012

ISBN# 978-0-312-61457-7

Hardcover (also available as e-book, audio, and large print book)

357 Pages

$25.99

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2012

Mind Bleach

Normally I write a review, post the picture of the book, and move on to the new book. But, this is not a normal situation. I don't think I have ever been so thoroughly repulsed by a book as I have with this one.

This afternoon I finished Burn which is the latest from author Nevada Barr. One of the things that always made her books great was the fact that Anna Pigeon was a National Park Service Ranger and the tales were set in the parks. While Nevada Barr frequently paid fast and loose with where things were located in the park of the novel as opposed to real life (the preceding novel in the series set in Big Bend serving as the most recent example), it was always clear that she loved the parks and the outdoors.

This latest effort splits time between Seattle through another storyline featuring a mother searching for her children after a horrific incident, and New Orleans where Anna is hiding out with a friend and trying to get herself back together. Eventually the two storylines merge though it takes far too long to get everything together.

But, what is really horrible about this book is the theme of child abuse that permeates the thing from start to finish. I am not one to read book reviews before I read a book because I don't want those reviews to shape my thinking. In this case, I wish I had read at least one of the many very negative reviews out there on this book that expressed the darkness, the often borderline graphic sexual abuse aspects, and the unmitigated psychological dreck that readers are forced to wade through page after page.

I am not one to swear off an author after one book. In this case, I may make an exception. I need mind bleach to get the crap out of my head.

Do NOT read this book. It is not worth it.

Kevin