WINTER STUDY
Nevada Barr
Putnam Adult
Mystery
ISBN: 9780399154584

Anna Pigeon fans, rejoice! The National Park Ranger/sleuth returns to bookstores after a three-year hiatus by her creator, Nevada Barr. Barr moved to New Orleans just before Hurricane Katrina and took time off from fictional danger and suspense to be a real-life observer of Mother Nature and to clean up and repair her damaged home. She’s back with what may be the best Anna Pigeon adventure in her long string of successes.

The setting for WINTER STUDY is not New Orleans, however. The adventurous Anna returns to Isle Royale on the north shoreline of Lake Superior in the dead of winter, with mixed emotions. Very early in her career she spent a summer at the remote island National Park and very nearly lost her life beneath the chilly waters in a diving incident.

The reintroduction of gray wolves to the park’s animal population at her current posting in Rocky Mountain National Park prompts her superiors to send her on a six-week fact-finding tour to observe a 50-year study of predator/prey interaction between wolves and moose. She’s prepared for the bone-chilling sub-zero cold and hip-deep snows, but she’s not ready for the spine-chilling challenge awaiting her in the cramped cabin she shares with the research scientists.

Homeland Security, concerned about guarding the Canadian border, is pushing to open the park year round. Normally closed during the frigid winters in order to control possible illegal aliens from entering the United States across an unguarded frontier, this action would bring to a halt a valuable 50-year study. Washington has sent a Homeland Security official to observe the study and is among her cabin mates.

Anna encounters savagery in nature that seems to put a lie to facts that wolves do not attack humans when one of the researchers is found dead, apparently the victim of an attack by one of the three wolf packs on the island. Doubting the evidence of the attack, Anna begins to suspect that humans may be involved as she finds herself being stalked by an unknown, savage predator.

In her long and adventurous career as a National Park Ranger, Anna has encountered natural and human threats --- from raging forest fires, serial killers and child molesters to dangerous wildlife and nature’s own vengeance --- but never has she lived in such close proximity to madness as in WINTER STUDY.

Nevada Barr never fails to serve up a suspense-filled outdoor adventure, filled with psychologically fascinating villains and heroes, action and true-to-life natural settings in America’s national parks. The authenticity of her settings and crime fighting is based on her personal experience. She has worked as a ranger at several National Parks, including Isle Royale, and always visits each featured park.

Among her biggest fans are countless numbers of forest rangers and National Park workers who can testify to the authenticity not only of the settings but nod knowingly at some of the behind-the-scenes rivalries and insider humor of the realities of the low pay, rugged living conditions and camaraderie between park service employees. The parks themselves become characters in her page-turning thrillers.

WINTER STUDY heralds a welcome return of a favorite suspense character. We look forward to another adventure with our favorite park ranger. Will Hurricane Katrina be a featured character in another thrilling episode in the life of Anna Pigeon?

    --- Reviewed by Roz Shea

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