Wed 24 May 2017
Reviewed by Barry Gardner: NEVADA BARR – A Superior Death.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[8] Comments
NEVADA BARR – A Superior Death. Anna Pigeon #2. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, hardcover, 1994. Berkley, paperback, 1995. Avon, paperback, 2002(?). Berkley, paperback, 2003.
I’ve heard a lot of good reports on Barr’s first novel, Track of the Cat, but for whatever reason have not read it. Barr, like her protagonist, is a Park Ranger, at the lovely Natchez Trace Park in Mississippi.
Ranger Anna Pigeon has been transferred from the Texas high desert to Isle Royale National Park, a remote island off the coast of Michigan in Lake Superior and known for deepwater dives to wrecked sailing vessels. One of the vessels contains five well-preserved bodies that make it a prime diving attraction. Before long there’s a fresher body to contend with — a recently married diver who conducted diving tours on the lake. In addition, the young wife of an old-salt Park Ranger hasn’t been seen lately, and a New Age-ish couple are hinting to Anna of cannibalism and murder.
Agh friend asked me when I was about two-thirds through the book how I liked it, and my answer was, “Pretty well, and if she doesn’t screw up the plot like so many of them do these days, I’ll like it a lot.”
She did, though, bigtime. The eventual key to the plot was one of the most contrived and unlikely I’ve come across in many moons, and it comes to Anna in a blinding flash. Too, there’s the all-too-common situation of the law (including the FBI, this time) idling off-stage while the smart people catch the crooks, and the heroine plunging breathlessly into foolish danger.
On the plus side, I think Barr writes very good prose, particularly when she’s dealing with nature and the environment, and manages to convey a strong ecological message without it getting in the way of the story. I liked Anna and thought that Barr did a good job with characterization overall. If you don’t share my distaste for reality shat upon, you might like this.
The Anna Pigeon series —
1. Track of the Cat (1993)
2. A Superior Death (1994)
3. Ill Wind (1995)
4. Firestorm (1996)
5. Endangered Species (1997)
6. Blind Descent (1998)
7. Liberty Falling (1999)
8. Deep South (2000)
9. Blood Lure (2001)
10. Hunting Season (2002)
11. Flashback (2003)
12. High Country (2004)
13. Hard Truth (2005)
14. Winter Study (2008)
15. Borderline (2009)
16. Burn (2010)
17. The Rope (2012)
18. Destroyer Angel (2014)
19. Boar Island (2016)
May 24th, 2017 at 2:05 am
I have to confess that I had no idea how many books in this series there are. The idea of a female park ranger who also solves murders has really caught a lot of people’s attention.
I stopped buying and reading them several years ago. Did Anna Pigeon continue to be transferred from one park to another, or was she eventually kept in one place for more than one book at a time?
May 24th, 2017 at 5:36 am
I tried the first one, TRACK OF THE CAT, but disliked it – and, so far as I can remember, her – and never went back. There are way too many books I want to read.
May 24th, 2017 at 11:45 am
I know I read this one, simply because the primary way to get to Isle Royale is from a town called Houghton at the base of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, which is also where Michigan Tech is, which is where I spent four years of my life as a mathematics major.
I also read one book in the series that I though so poorly done that I never read another. It may have been this one.
But did I ever get to Isle Royale, you may be wondering. No, not yet, and I don’t remember why I never got around to it.
May 24th, 2017 at 11:40 am
I bought and read through the sixth book. Since I was motivated to read the books as much for the settings as anything, and she does those well, I enjoyed the books until the level of angst between Pigeon and her daughter made me quit.
May 24th, 2017 at 1:05 pm
I don’t remember a daughter, Rick, or any angst, but this is the kind of thing that I’m sure attracts female readers more than it does male. But good for Nevada Barr, who’s kept the series going for so long.
May 25th, 2017 at 11:11 pm
At their best a strong series, but like many unusual tecs she sometimes herniates the plot having Anna doing most the detecting and in at a dangerous finale. More power to her though for getting it right as often as she does.
May 26th, 2017 at 12:35 pm
Perhaps the daughter and angst was another series, I just remembered some sort of interpersonal relationship distracting from my enjoyment of the books as the series went on.
May 26th, 2017 at 12:51 pm
The daughter may have come along after I stopped reading the books, or if she was there all along, I’ve forgotten her. Someone else will have to tell us.