Blood Lure (Anna Pigeon Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

The location for "Blood Lure" being Glacier National Park and concerned with the beautiful Grizzly bear, I really wanted to love this book. And most of it I did. The story was intriguing and the plotting was masterful, the ending was a little abrupt but almost completely satisfying. Anna Pigeon is a wonderfully three-dimensional character and Barr never makes a misstep with her - Anna never acts out of character even as (or especially as) that character develops over the time frame of all nine novels.

What I did NOT enjoy were the many errors throughout the book. Words were missing, punctuation was missing, punctuation was incorrect (the kind that makes it difficult to figure out what was meant), etc. It's like watching a film and being so engrossed in the story that you are "there" - and then you see the microphone hanging over the scene above the actors' heads. BANG! You're back in the theater again. On page 5 of "Blood Lure" Anna is introduced to Rory Van Slyke, a teenager with Earthwatchers volunteering to help with the Grizzly DNA project that has brought Anna to Glacier. Anna responds to the introduction by saying, "How you do?" There are four or five more instances like that throughout the book. Barr's words deserve better than this. These kind of sloppy editing errors snap one out of the story and ruin the flow of description and of dialogue.

I'm sure that there will be folks out there who will read through this review and correct my grammar and spelling... I believe that editors should stop relying on spell-check and do a better job of actual editing.

One last item: Having been to both Glacier and Waterton Parks (or Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park), the map in the front of the book and the geographical references within the book confused me. Consequently, I went to the Glacier Park website and downloaded the Park map. I guess maybe some of Waterton Park is in British Columbia (two campsites?), but the vast majority including the part shown on the map in the front of "Blood Lure" and the part around Flattop Mountain described in the book are directly south of Alberta, Canada, not British Columbia.

Sigh . . . color me a grouchy old woman, but I was very disappointed that a Penguin-Putnam book was this carelessly edited. However, if these kinds of errors don't bother you, by all means go ahead and read the book. The story is great if you can ignore the distractions.

Blood Lure by Nevada Barr is a very good mystery. It isn't her best Anna Pigeon novel, but still a worthy read. Anna, our ranger and sleuth, is on a training trip to Glacier National Park to learn about wildlife DNA studies and grizzly bears. She is working with Joan, the bear expert, and Rory, a moody teenager on an Earthwatch trip. Rory's stepmom plays the role of dead body. Suspects abound [both human and ursine], clues abound, and even though the end of the novel runs towards the preposterous, the ending is not out of keeping with the earlier novels AND it could happen in real life. Remember folks, Anna Pigeon is a fictional character and most likely gets away with things that would rip right out of the envelope of the permissible in real life. That said, the end brings my rating down low enough to give it 4 stars. This isn't the Anna Pigeon novel I would recommend a new reader start with. My advice is to start at the beginning of the series with Track Of The Cat or, if you must dip in partway through the series, I would advise you start with Ill Wind or Liberty Falling.

Park Ranger Anna Pigeon is a fascinating character, and the "hook" of this series--each book takes place at a different national park--is absolutely unique (that's saying something when I can name not one, but TWO mystery series featuring cleaning lady sleuths, of all things). Pigeon is a loner, a woman who has to remind herself to fake softness and sympathy when required. She is completely at home hiking and camping in the great outdoors.

This book finds her faith in nature shaken, however, when she is attacked by a grizzly bear while working with researchers to gather bear DNA information in Waterton/ Glacier National Peace Park. When one of her companions goes missing after the attack, and then a camper is found murdered off a nearby trail, Anna finds her darkest suspicions aroused.

Although I would recommend this series, and this book in particular, to anyone, it is a particular treat for anyone who enjoys camping or hiking. Barr's detailed description of life within the National Park system is engrossing. These people have chosen lives that are completely at odds from everyday existence as most of us experience it. And if you don't enjoy camping or hiking, you can still enter and enjoy this foreign world without having to experience the inconvenience of mosquitos directly, not to mention the terror of a grizzly attack.