BLOOD LURE - Nevada Barr #9 Anna Pigeon, narr Barbara Rosenblat

From the back of the BOCD: The Anna Pigeon mysteries are a New York Times best-selling series. Each addition is eagerly anticipated by fans of its award-winning author Nevada Barr, who uses her experience as a park ranger to create stunningly authentic details. BLOOD LURE takes Park Ranger Anna Pigeon high into Glacier Park and deep into a grisly murder case.

Anna has joined a bear research team in the vast park that spreads from Montana into Canada. They hope to gather enough information to form a picture of its Grizzly bear population. Instead, one terrifying night, a bear finds them. By morning, their camp in ruins, and the youngest member of the team is missing. A few hours later, the body of a camper is discovered: the neck broken and the face mutilated.

As Anna sets out to find what, or who, is responsible for the carnage, her search will stretch all her resources--physical, mental and moral--to new limits. Audie Award-winning narrator Barbara Rosenblat's voice is perfect for Anna, capturing all her courage and vulnerability.

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I was very glad to get back to the Anna Pigeon in the woods. She does a much a better story when she's in the Nation's parks wherever they (and she) are. Nevada Barr seems much more comfortable when Anna is hiking trails, fighting gators, or bears or critters of whatever nature and looking after the tourists who are visiting.

The mystery was a teensy bit convoluted, but that may have had something to do with the fact that I was trying to listen to the story at work and everyone around me was in a highly jovial mood and getting loud, so I might have missed some bits and pieces. I will take a break from the series now. I've had two in a short period of time and I rarely read or listen to books in a series back to back. I do like to mix it up.

Four there's bars in them thar woods beans.....

LIBERTY FALLING - Nevada Barr, narr Barbara Rosenblat

From the back of the BOCD: Award winning novelist Nevada Barr sends her remarkable sleuth, Ranger Anna Pigeon, to spectacular national parks to solve baffling crimes. In LIBERTY FALLING, Anna leaves the rugged countryside of Colorado to face the concrete wilds of New York City.

As soon as she hears her older sister is gravely ill, Anna rushes to the Big Apple to sit at her bedside. Between hospital visits, she relaxes at the park service quarters on Liberty Island and explores the crumbling ruins of Ellis Island where thousands of immigrants once were processed. Rest escapes her, however, when a teenage girl mysteriously plunges to her death from the Statue of Liberty--and Anna herself suffers a dangerous tumble.

The Park Service claims the falls could only be accidents, but Anna wonders if there is a common purpose behind them. Nevada Barr's vivid descriptions and narrator Barbara Rosenblat's dramatic performance transport you to New York City to share in all the danger and the excitement.

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I think I like Anna Pigeon better in the wilds of her other assignments. I also like when she's actually working in the wilds of her other assignments. Anna, in this one, is in New York to look after her sister who is in the ICU in an uptown hospital. When she's not visiting her sister, she's wandering around Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. There be murder, of course, but it felt a little forced and the story meandered a tad. I had a hard time keeping track of the story and the players at times. Barbara Rosenblat's voice kept me interested and brought me back to the tale each time I meandered off the track.

I loved the backstory on some of the employees and the eventual solving of the mystery was a good twist. I am glad this wasn't my first Anna Pigeon mystery, I might not have tried another. This is my 6th or 7th and I know the stories can be better, so will get more..in fact another arrived in the mailbox today from RecordedBooks. Yay!

Four New York City where's the wildlife beans.....

TWO BOOK FINISHIN' DAY!! WHOO-HOO!

SWEEET! I finished two books today! It happens that way sometimes. Finished BLIND DESCENT - Nevada Barr BOT on the way home from work. It was very good and easy to get into. Nevada Barr makes you feel like you are the one going through the experience and Barbara Rosenblatt is the perfect narrator. Anna Pigeon is the main character of the series and her murder solving is believable. It's not like when Jessica Fletcher shows up on you doorstep and you just want to run away screaming since murder follows her. No, Anna Pigeon goes for at least a year or two and different national parks before murder shows. I like that she is a flawed person and I love her sister Molly and the relationship the two of them have.

The other book finished today was THE MONKEY'S RAINCOAT - Robert Crais. I was going to read and finish while on the recumbent bike, but I thought better of it when I got home from work. I took advantage of the quiet house and changed into (theoretical) workout clothes and snuggled under the fleece blanket on the spare bed in the Candy Room and read for an hour and finished the book. It was another very good read and a good intro to Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. I have read other books in the series and really enjoyed them. Robert Crais' writing has developed wonderfully through the years, but this first one was a great read, if a little rough. I love the humor of Elvis and stoicism of Pike. More please!

So now I am listening to Jeff Lindsey - DEXTER IN THE DARK that has been waiting since November for me to get to it. And I will continue with DEAD GIRL'S DANCE: Morganville Vampires Vol 2 - Rachel Caine for my next purse book.