Blood Lure

January 1, 2001
The latest entry in this excellent series featuring National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon is one of Barr's best. Anna has been assigned to work temporarily in Montana's Glacier National Park, where she seems more at home than in her recent forays to East Coast parks, and learns how to do DNA studies on wildlife by working with a biologist, Joan, on a study of grizzly bears. Anna, Joan and a young, inexperienced volunteer, Rory, are sent out into the park's wilderness areas to set lures for the grizzlies. They use a powerful and nasty-smelling concoction, mixed with cow's blood, that the grizzlies find irresistible. Once the bears rub up against the trees or barbed wire that have been coated with the lure, samples of their DNA can be collected from the hair and skin left behind. In their remote campsite one night, Anna and Joan amazingly survive a grizzly bear attack on their tents unscathed, only to find that Rory has gone missing. As park rangers and rescue teams hike the mountainous park looking for the missing teenager, they find instead the dead body of a woman whose face has been horribly mutilated. Rory is an obvious suspect, as is the bear who attacked the camp. Barr focuses on the wilderness park and its endangered population of grizzlies rather than on Anna's personal life and problems, and this makes for a tightly plotted, satisfying read. The author's masterful descriptions of the natural world immeasurably enhance an exciting, suspenseful story that is sure to flirt with bestseller lists. Mystery Guild main selection and Literary Guild alternate selection.

What's more dangerous--human or grizzly bear? Park ranger Anna Pidgeon thinks she knows until she joins a team researching bears in Glacier National Park. Reader Joyce Bean's matter-of-fact narrative style is well suited to Pidgeon, who faces falling boulders, attacking grizzlies, and edgy suspects with cool-headed logic and dry wit. Unfortunately, long passages of exposition make for a monotonous start. More abridging might have helped. The drama does hold up, the pace quickens, and a satisfying resolution compensates for initial sluggishness. Side endings and introductions provide continuity and orientation. E.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

October 15, 2001
In Barr's latest mystery, Anna Pigeon, a park ranger, leaves her post at the Natchez Trace Parkway for a study trip to Glacier National Park. The majestic mountains are a welcome relief from swampy Mississippi and the resident alligators, although Anna is soon being harassed by a grizzly bear. Unfortunately, the plot is predictable, and most listeners will be well ahead of Anna as she puzzles over the clues. Barbara Rosenblat reads the story with energy and confidence. The cast of characters, which include a frightened teenage boy, an abused husband, a motherly bear researcher, and an honest and politically savvy park superintendent, are each given an individualized voice by Rosenblat, who employs accents, pitch, and pacing flawlessly. For most popular collections. Juleigh Muirhead Clark, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Lib., Williamsburg, VA

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.