Track of the Cat

A fun cozy mystery. Anna Pigeon works for the National Parks Service. She discovers the corpse of a fellow park ranger, and is skeptical when a mountain lion is blamed for the death, so she investigates on her own.

[spoiler]This does use the Bury Your Gays trope. The murder victim is lesbian. I almost stopped reading when I learned that... but then it turns out that Anna gets a crush on a woman, and that the murder victim wasn't murdered for being gay, so it kind of redeems itself. I'll be interested to see how Anna's romantic interests evolve over the series.[/spoiler] ( )

Synopsis: 'Anna Pigeon has fled New York City after the accidental death of her husband, and she now works as a law enforcement ranger at Guadaloupe Mountains. Patrolling the remote West Texas backcountry, Anna’s first job as a national park ranger is marred by violence she thought she had left behind: the brutal death of a fellow ranger. When the cause of death is chalked up to a mountain lion attack, Anna’s rage knows no bounds. It’s up to her to save the protected cats from the politics and prejudices of the locals—and prove the kill was the work of a species far less rare…'
Review: The writing is excellent, as is the story line. The ending was a complete surprise that left me wondering about the background of the main character. ( )

Short, and good to the end.

This is the first in a series of murder mysteries set in National Parks, written by a former park ranger. Barr describes the Texas landscape and the life of the protagonist with the emotional charge and you-are-there quality of the best non-fiction. The immediacy and texture of the writing also make the (inevitably a bit far-fetched) murders and action scenes compelling, with a real sense of risk when the main character gets herself into trouble.

There's also an interesting hard-boiled quality to it. The author gives us a main character who seems to be lonely and vulnerable, but as we follow her through the story, we see other aspects to her. In 1993, when the book was written, it may have been ahead of its time, and it still feels fresh today. ( )

This is the first in a series of murder mysteries set in National Parks, written by a former park ranger. Barr describes the Texas landscape and the life of the protagonist with the emotional charge and you-are-there quality of the best non-fiction. The immediacy and texture of the writing also make the (inevitably rather far-fetched) murders and action scenes compelling, with a real sense of risk when the main character gets herself into trouble.

There's also an interesting, old-school hard-boiled quality to it. The author gives us a main character who seems to be lonely and vulnerable, but as we follow her through the story, we see other aspects to her. In 1993, when the book was written, it may have been ahead of its time, and it still feels fresh today. ( )

Best parts were her discussions with her sister. Seemed like someone trying to make her life more exciting. Her illegal ways of finding evidence bothered me, her not really caring about people’s feelings. Descriptions of Park, life in a desert region were excellent, the need for water really stressed. Ending with way different people view wildlife was so true. ( )