Track of the Cat

If I wasn't already a fan of this series, this book would have hooked me for sure. The setting is the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in West Texas. Anna Pigeon is returning from 3 days in the back country looking for mountain lion sign when she sees vultures wheeling in the sky. Thinking it might be an injured deer she goes to investigate and finds her fellow ranger, Sheila Drury, dead. Anna didn't know Sheila very well but that doesn't stop her from questioning the verdict that Sheila was killed by a mountain lion. There are just too many anomalies for her to ignore. As she continues to work she tries to figure out who could have killed Ranger Drury and why. Several more "accidents" occur and Anna starts eliminating suspects. A chance remark causes her to figure out who the culprit is and she exacts her own form of justice.

Barr has a knack for describing the settings of the park so that you feel like you are there (although I'm not sure if a place that is bone dry, searing hot and has multitudes of snakes is someplace I would want to visit). Even the smallest of animals are described lovingly. To me, that's the charm of this series. ( )

This book introduces Anna Pigeon, a ranger in the U.S. Park Service. She's currently stationed in the mountains of the Guadalupe National Park in Texas. Hiking her way back to the station, she comes across the body of a fellow-ranger, Sheila Drury, who has apparently been killed by a mountain lion. When her superiors announce a plan to hunt and kill the lion, Anna is deeply concerned. She becomes even more upset when she notices an abnormality in the track of the cat left at the crime scene and realizes that the killer was most likely a human.

We learn that Anna used to live in New York City, and after the violent death of her husband, took a job with the ranger service to get away from the memories and change her life. She has a sister who is a psychologist and we get to know more of Anna's history in phone conversations between the two of them. It's a great way for the reader to learn more about the main character and it changes the setting between a big city and the desolation of the park.

The mystery was fast-paced and suspenseful. The characters were sharply drawn and the ending was very satisfying. I listened to the audio, narrated by Barbara Rosenblat, who is always spot on in her character narration. I thought this book an excellent start to a series that I’m looking forward to reading. I understand future books are set in other national parks so it's a great way to take a literary tour of America's national parks.
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I loved the concept of this book: a murder mystery set in the National Parks. This wasn't the most engaging book but I have heard that the books improve as the series goes on so I might keep on with it. ( )

First book in the Anna Pigeon series. She’s a Park Ranger/detective, fighting evil in the spectacular scenery of National Parks.

This is the first book in an award winning series featuring park ranger Anna Pigeon. Anna investigates the death of a fellow West Texas ranger that was believed to be caused by a mountain lion attack.

Really slow moving but lot of potential. I'll keep going for a while since I picked up much of series in a used book deal. ( )