A Superior Death

Ooof. This one was so well done that it was nearly impossible for me to read parts of it, averse as I am to the idea of being under water, or way out on open water. NPS Ranger Anna Pigeon has been transferred out of the desert to the Isle Royale park on upper Lake Superior. She's not real happy about it, missing the clean dry heat and fog-free environment of her previous assignment. But she's got the hang of small boats, is certified to dive, and finds many aspects of the job personally, if not financially, rewarding. Her co-workers, both permanent and seasonal, are a motley assortment of competence, quirkiness and stupidity. She suspects some of them are up to unethical, if not criminal pursuits. When the body of one of the best show more professional divers on the lake is found drowned without gear, and oddly dressed at that, on an old shipwreck, her suspicions are confirmed, but nothing, from the water down there, to the air above, and many actions taking place in between, is clear. Lots of good bits of business in this one, offbeat dark-ish humor, and some near-deadly underwater action (which I truly had to force myself to read without skimming). Can't wait to see where Anna finds herself next. show less

A Superior Death‘ (1995) is the second book about Park Ranger Anna Pigeon. She’s moved from the Texas desert where I met her in ‘Track Of The Cat‘ and is now working in the Isle Royale National Park where she spends most of her time on or in Lake Superior. She's had to master how to navigate using only radar and how to dive into the deep dark lightless water where the shipwrecks with protected status rest.

Nevada Barr's storytelling is confident and engaging. She makes the story accessible without being overly simple. She keeps Anna at the centre of the story, not as a plot device but as a person. Almost every scene is written to reveal as much about Anna Pigeon's character as about place she's in or the mystery she's trying to show more solve. Anna is the main reason I read these books. I like her slightly outside the norm way of thinking. It's also a nce change to read an introvert character who isn't describerd as shy.

'A Superior Death' started well, establishing Anna in her new environment and giving me a strong sense of what it would be like to be on the water all day and how scary it would be to have to dive so deep to reach a wreck that your thinking would be impaired at the same time when a single mistake might kill you.

Unfortunately, while the book was strong on place and peoplee, it was weak on plot. I felt the book lost energy in the middle because too many things were going on with too many suspects. The pace picked up in the last third of book, accelerating to a tense, action-packed and surprising ending.

So, although 'A Superior Death' didn't quite live up to 'Track Of The Cat', I still want to know what Anna does next. In January, I'll be reading ‘Ill Wind‘, the fourth book in the series. It's set in Mesa Verde, a National Park that I have fond memories of. show less

I haven't read an Anna Pigeon mystery in years. I had forgotten how much I enjoy them. Anna, a park ranger, is stationed up on Lake Superior at the Isle Royale National Park. She is missing the deserts of Texas as well as her late husband. The park is known for its many shipwrecks which draw drivers from all over. Anna's residence is very remote and without amenities. A body is discovered on a deep 260 ft dive, by a pair of divers requesting diving permits. Anna's job is to help an FBI agent to find the killer/killers. Barr's descriptions of the park are beautiful. Her characters are well written. There is much dialogue but not overdone. Interesting side stories of secondary characters are woven into the main plot. I loved this book. I show more need to reread this whole series again. show less

The second Ranger Anna Pigeon mystery moves Anna from the desert Southwest to the Isle Royale in Lake Superior. She's changed desert heat to the cold depths of Superior. One of her tasks is issuing permits for divers who want to explore many of the wrecks on Superior's bottom. One of the deepest is the Kamloops. It is a challenging dive, and the ship contains the bodies of some of the men who went down with her.

Anna is surprised to learn from the divers that they counted six bodies. The only problem is that there are only supposed to be five. It is soon discovered that the new body belongs to Denny Castle who is a local diver who runs tours. Anna begins her investigations to determine who left Denny there and what he was doing there. show more

There are lots of quirky suspects running the gamut from Rangers to volunteer tour guides to the people who run the local concessions. And Denny's death isn't the only mystery. Two of the other people who are volunteering as guides are certain that one of the other Rangers has murdered and eaten his wife. Either that or it could be the Wendigo. Anna adds locating her to her to-do list too since she's pretty certain that she hasn't been eaten.

I enjoyed the setting of this mystery since I too live on Lake Superior. I liked Anna who is an intriguing character who is still dealing with her own grief at the loss of her husband. Written in 1994, this one has turned into a historical mystery. show less

As one of the ranger assigned to Michigan's Isle Royale park, out on Lake Superior, one of Anna's duties is to give permits to recreational divers who want to check out the sunken wrecks that dot the area,. This includes the one that entails the most dangerous dive, the Kamloops, which still contains the bodies of five crew members, preserved since their deaths in 1927 by the icy old water of the Great Lake. But when the divers show her some pictures they took down there and the pictures show six bodies, it soon looks like murder is the only way to explain that new inhabitant of the ship.

The sixth man turns out to be expert local diver Denny Castle, murdered shortly after his recent wedding and found in the ship, dressed, bizarrely, in show more the uniform of a 19th century ship's captain.
Who could have wanted him dead? Maybe the twin brother and sister who were his partners on a dive boat and look to now inherit the business. Or maybe his new wife, who never reported him missing and takes the news of her husband's death rather oddly. Or how about Anna's fellow ranger Scotty Butcus, whose own wife has appeared to have gone missing as well. And what of the rumors that she and the dead man, Denny, were involved.
Oh, there are any number of odd and quirky characters on the island who might be guilty of something, including one very strange murder.

I have read a number of books in the Anna Pigeon series and picking up one is always like returning to spend some time with an old friend. It's comfortable and you know that you are going to have a good time. Anna is a great character, funny and smart and far from perfect, sustained by regular chats with her NYC therapist sister, Molly and a glass or two ...or three or four of wine, something which at this point in the series appears to be a bit of an issue for Anna. But we will forgive her....she is only human. And we like her.

Anna's take on the tourists visiting the parks, her fellow rangers and the running of the parks themselves is always fun and one suspects spot on, since the author was herself a park ranger. I love visiting a different National Park in each book...OK, I think some parks may make more than one appearance ...and seeing them through Anna and Nevada Barr's eyes. Maybe someday I will get a chance to visit them in person, but in the meantime, visiting them with Anna and her friends, with a healthy dose of death and danger, is always a fun time and an entertaining read.

Ms. Barr, if by chance you might read this (ok, it may be unlikely, but I can try) I have only one suggestion for you, maybe for your next book.
In fact, just three words...Acadia National Park! show less

Anna Pigeon is a ranger with the National Park Service. In this second book in the series she is stationed at Isle Royale National Park on Michigan’s Lake Superior, a remote spot popular with diving enthusiasts. The central mystery is the death of a man found at the base of a 50-year-old shipwreck. Circumstances indicate this was more than just a dive gone wrong. The FBI is called in to investigate possible ties to the drug trade, but Anna isn’t buying that theory. She examines the means and motives of a variety of people, from the victim’s wife to National Park Service employees to locals. This held my interest for a while but eventually the whole thing became too convoluted, and Anna’s “aha moment” identifying the show more perpetrator was far-fetched. I like the unique setting of these books, but that’s not enough to hold my interest in the series. show less

Anna Pigeon returns for her second mystery. This time she has left the southwest and is now assigned to Isle Royale National Park, in Lake Superior, just north of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s remote and a very different environment from what she was used to, and she’s having some trouble adjusting. She continues to rely on frequent phone calls to her sister, Molly, in New York, and to the numbing effects of a bottle of wine. When a body is found floating within a wreck on the lake bottom, Anna has to confront some of her own fears to help recover the victim. But it seems this was not an accidental drowning – the man was murdered.

There are plenty of suspects, despite the remote location – an alcoholic has-been with marital show more problems was jealous of the him; the victim’s own wife didn’t report him missing; his boat and business were left to two twin siblings who are not relatives; a sleazy park employee who had to leave his previous post quickly has been seen sneaking around; and a hippie couple who are being blackmailed may have had enough.

Barr writes a decent suspense novel. The action moves fast and I was caught up in the mystery. There are enough clues to let the reader guess the perpetrator, but I was certain only a few pages before Anna herself had figured it out. I like that Anna is intelligent, strong and resourceful. In general, she takes matters into her own hands and acts with due caution. However … the book had several serious editing flaws. We’re told Anna is a vegetarian – several times – then she’s eating a tuna fish sandwich. The name of one of the twins is suddenly changed to that of Anna’s sister for 4 or 5 mentions on a single page before being correctly referenced for the balance of the book. A key piece of evidence is “stolen” by one of the suspects, and later the authorities are examining it.

What really made me lower the rating, however, is an issue with a senior administrator making a joke about having a child “escorted” by a known pedophile. That is just NOT funny, and such a comment would – I hope – get said manager fired. But no one even raises an eyebrow in the novel. Anna actually smiles! I know this was first published in 1994, but really, WHAT was Barr (and her editor and agent and publisher) thinking?! show less