Review by Booklist Review
Park ranger Anna Pigeon leaves Mississippi's Natchez Trace National Park to visit Glacier National Park and learn how the analysis of grizzly-bear DNA can help her manage wildlife. What happens in Glacier's rugged backcountry, however, is less academic and much more personal. After being attacked by a grizzly, Anna must confront another side of the natural world she so loves. Soon there is also murder on her plate and the possibility that one of her colleagues could be the killer. This ninth Anna Pigeon novel is not as strong as the last few entries. There are still the carefully honed details of ranger and park life, but Barr takes too long to set up the action; her supporting characters aren't as well developed as we've come to expect; and, most surprising of all, the landscape is not as vividly described as usual. Series fans will forgive Barr's misstep, however, and will eagerly await a return to form. Deep South [BKL Ja 1 & 15 2000] and Liberty Falling [D 15 99] show Barr at her best. --John Rowen
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The latest entry in this excellent series featuring National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon is one of Barr's best. Anna has been assigned to work temporarily in Montana's Glacier National Park, where she seems more at home than in her recent forays to East Coast parks, and learns how to do DNA studies on wildlife by working with a biologist, Joan, on a study of grizzly bears. Anna, Joan and a young, inexperienced volunteer, Rory, are sent out into the park's wilderness areas to set lures for the grizzlies. They use a powerful and nasty-smelling concoction, mixed with cow's blood, that the grizzlies find irresistible. Once the bears rub up against the trees or barbed wire that have been coated with the lure, samples of their DNA can be collected from the hair and skin left behind. In their remote campsite one night, Anna and Joan amazingly survive a grizzly bear attack on their tents unscathed, only to find that Rory has gone missing. As park rangers and rescue teams hike the mountainous park looking for the missing teenager, they find instead the dead body of a woman whose face has been horribly mutilated. Rory is an obvious suspect, as is the bear who attacked the camp. Barr focuses on the wilderness park and its endangered population of grizzlies rather than on Anna's personal life and problems, and this makes for a tightly plotted, satisfying read. The author's masterful descriptions of the natural world immeasurably enhance an exciting, suspenseful story that is sure to flirt with bestseller lists. Mystery Guild main selection and Literary Guild alternate selection. (Feb. 5) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Having guided readers on behind-the-scenes tours of New York City's Ellis and Liberty Islands (Liberty Falling) and Mississippi's Natchez Trace Parkway (Deep South), Barr returns to the West in her ninth mystery. On a training assignment to study grizzly bears in the Waterton-Glacier National Peace Park, near the Montana-Canada border, park ranger Anna Pigeon hikes into the mountains with researcher Joan Rand and an Earthwatch volunteer, Rory Van Slyke. But Anna's joy at returning to the wilderness quickly turns to terror when their camp is ravaged in the middle of the night by a grizzly. Rory disappears, and in the morning the faceless corpse of a female camper is discovered. Was the woman the victim of the same bear, or was there a more sinister human element involved? While Barr's love of nature and the outdoors shines through, her plot is rather formulaic and dull, lacking the intensity and excitement of her better novels (Blind Descent, A Superior Death). Still, her fans will want to read. [Mystery Guild main selection and Literary Guild alternate selection; previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/1/00.]DWilda Williams, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Dispatched from her Mississippi home park (Deep South, 2000) to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park to participate in a bear census, rolling-stone ranger Anna Pigeon happily strains pots of stinky lure with her bare hands and clambers over rough territory to place the lure in the hope of attracting bears to help the Park Service establish population trends and travel patterns. Its an idyllic time, in fact, until the little camp shes sharing with Joan Rand, her trainer, and Earthwatch volunteer Rory Van Slyke is attacked in the middle of the night by a monstrous grizzly, and Anna, emerging shaken from the assault, finds Rory missing. By the time Rory turns up again, theres even worse news: His stepmother, predatory Seattle divorce lawyer Carolyn Van Slyke, has been killedat first by a bear, it seems, until Chief Ranger Harry Ruick notices the horrific facial wounds that have been made by an edged weapon. Was Carolyn killed by the stepson who conveniently vanished just around the time of her death, or by Rorys inoffensive father Lester Van Slyke? Why was the killer trying to frame one of the parks bears for the killing, and what dangers remain for Anna when she ventures again onto Glaciers now darkly spectacular mountain trails? Despite a fitful alternation between the exciting outdoor set pieces Barr ought to patent and the anticlimactic returns to Annas indoor basetogether with a solution thats logical enough but a little hard to swallowfans of this distinguished series wont be disappointed. Literary Guild alternate selection; Mystery Guild main selection; author tour
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
