Flashback (An Anna Pigeon Novel) (edition 2004)

This is one of my favorites of the recent Anna Pigeon books (well, kind of recent anyway). The historical aspect -- with even a little bit of "woo-woo" thrown in -- and the unusual nature of Dry Tortugas fascinated me. With Anna Pigeon, I also get to experience things I would never do in real life -- since I can't swim, there's plenty of that sort of thing in this book. Highly recommended. ( )

Different from the other Anna Pigeon mysteries--in this one there is a parallel mystery that takes place right after the Civil War, told in letters. Pigeon's engagement with the letters plays into what's going on around the fort in the present day, and things get quite gothic at times. ( )

Anna Pigeon is now serving as a temporary Supervisory Ranger at Dry Tortugas National Park off the Florida Keys. Things appear to be calm until the night a boat blows up and one of her rangers goes missing. Anna then goes into her investigative mode. The story alternates with Anna reading old letters from a great Aunt who lived Fort Jefferson following the Civil War. The letters provide a history of the fort and its most famous resident, Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set John Wilkes Booth's leg following the assassination of President Lincoln.

As I am not a great fan of story within a story books, I was irritated by the alternating chapters. However, I did find the historical facts about the fort to be very interesting. ( )

I really enjoyed this book in which Anna Pigeon is acting Supervisory Ranger in Dry Tortugas National Park. The previous Supervisory Ranger is on sick leave having gone off the deep end after his girlfriend left him. Anna is enjoying being in a marine environment again (Dry Tortugas is in the Gulf of Mexico west of Key West, Florida) and spends much of her time off diving in the warm waters. She is also taking time to think about her boyfriend's proposal since he is left back in Mississippi.

If Anna was hoping for a quiet time that is about to be blown to pieces, literally. Her second in command comes upon a speed boat that is acting mysteriously. In their haste to take off the speed boat blows up and a piece of their boat makes a hole in the NPS boat the ranger is in. Although the ranger survives the two men on the boat died and Anna has to find out what they were up to.

One of her ancestors, an army wife, lived on Dry Tortugas during and after the Civil War. Anna's sister, Molly, sent Anna the letters she had written during her time at Fort Jefferson thinking they will help Anna pass the time. Instead they seem to drag Anna into the past to the point that Anna believes she sees her great-great-aunt's ghost.

What with the ghosts of the past and the mysterious happenings of the present, Anna has her hands full.

I really enjoyed this juxtaposition of stories. The historical details of life in a federal prison just after the Civil War when some of the inmates were the conspirators who worked with John Wilkes Booth when he assassinated President Lincoln were very interesting. And, as always, Anna's penchant for dangerous explorations creates a thrilling story. ( )

Another excellent Nevada Barr mystery...I'm starting to worry that I'm going to run out of her books soon and go back to the drawing board for new authors. ( )