High Country (An Anna Pigeon Novel) | Nevada Barr

High Country (An Anna Pigeon Novel) | Nevada Barr | Highs and Lows

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High Country (An A...

	High Country (An Anna Pigeon Novel) Nevada Barr Berkley, 2005 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 66 reviews view larger image
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It's fall in the Sierra Mountains, and Anna Pigeon is slinging hash in Yosemite National Park's historic Ahwahnee Hotel. Four young people, all seasonal park employees, have disappeared, and two weeks of work by crack search-and-rescue teams have failed to turn up a single clue; investigators are unsure as to whether the four went AWOL for reasons of their own-or died in the park. Needing an out-of-park ranger to work undercover, Anna is detailed to dining-room duty; but after a week of waiting tables, she knows the missing employees are only the first indications of a sickness threatening the park.

Her twenty-something roommates give up their party-girl ways and panic; her new restaurant colleagues regard her with suspicion and fear. But when Anna's life is threatened and her temporary supervisor turns a deaf ear, she follows the scent of evil, taking a solo hike up a snowy trial to the high country, seeking answers. What waits for her is a nightmare of death and greed-and perhaps her final adventure.

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Great Gift!

I got this unabridged Nevada Barr CD/novel for an avid Anna Pigeon Mystery fan...and it "fit the bill" as a satisfying gift to give. The Giftee was mighty pleased.

Highs and Lows

Anna, far from home and undercover brings back the classic Nevada Barr we've missed in previous titles. The famous Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park is the location of Anna's new position, slinging hash. Barr reminds us of the aching feet, sore muscles, and endurance one must execute to keep a smile on your face under those eatery conditions.
The vivid contrast between undercover conditions and hike into the splendor of the mountains is vintage Barr as so many readers have used her stories as tour guides to our national treasures.
After all the danger, evil, suspense and injuries, this one gives the reader a fine ending.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

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A mystery coupled with some deep introspection, some really nasty bad guys, better hold on for quite a ride

Having read a good many books in this series I found High Country suffered from a couple of sequences that lost some of their sharpness due to their protracted length - perhaps some more agressive editing was called for - but that is a hard thing for some editors to do, giving the author's pervious successes. In addition the drug plane idea has been used by others so lacked the drama that might otherwise accompany the "find".

What raises this book above the average in my opinion, is the growth that the protagonist, Ranger Anna Pigeon undergoes in this story. One thing that bothered me about this very human and likable character was that I shared book after book with her and yet she wasn't really changing, not inside, no character developement, even while her life and career continued to evolve. How ironic that in this book where she is undercover, without a real identiy, that she actually does some subtle and seriously profound thinking about who she really is. Or perhaps this is not so ironic. When robbed of all she is and all she has ever been, when set adrift in humanity on the thin veneer of lies, when no one knows who you are, when every act is completely married with falsehood, then it is that Anna finds what she misses most, is herself.

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Anna in Yosemite

Her experience waiting tables in college lands park ranger Anna Pigeon in an undercover assignment in food services at Yosemite National Park. Four of the park's employees have gone missing, and the rangers in the park aren't finding any leads. Anna is rooming with a couple of fluffhead girls while posing as a middle-aged waitress, but even her proximity to the other employees can't make her fit in. When one of her roommates collapses after getting high on something, Anna becomes concerned. Some odd men claiming to be friends of one of the missing employees have taken over his cabin, and their presence, along with mountains of gear, coupled with a snippet of overheard conversation and a single-line note from a missing woman to her brother, send Anna on a wilderness hike that very nearly ends her life when she stumbles across a big secret.

Though I wouldn't be so ungenerous as to say the book fell flat, it was definitely missing a vital ingredient usually present in these adventures. Anna spent an inordinate amount of time being hunted by killers in the wilderness and not enough putting things together. The villains were also perhaps a tad too sadistic, and they roughed Anna up a little more than necessary. In all, though it wasn't my favorite Anna Pigeon mystery, it was still a decent chapter in her saga.

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