Anna Camel

"Blood Lure" by Nevada Barr is the ninth book in her Anna Pigeon series. Anna is a park ranger with the United States National Park Service. Each book in the series takes place in a different National Park, where Anna is involved in solving a murder mystery.  

 

Park Ranger Anna Pigeon is at Glacier National Park assisting in a grizzly bear DNA project. She's hiking the backcountry with Joan Rand the biologist who is overseeing the groundbreaking project and Rory Van Slyke, a young man from Earthwatch, an independent environmental organization. They're collecting bear DNA caught in traps, dismantling the traps and setting them up in new locations. The new traps are covered with blood and fish guts and left for a few weeks for further collection.

 

After a grueling day they set up their tents and settle in for some shut eye but before long they're woken by roars, thumps and the sound of ripping fabric. When everything calms down the two women emerge to find the campsite ransacked and Rory missing. The search is on for a crazed bear and a young man but instead they find the body of a dead woman. And it appears she's been murdered by human hands. Hikers find Rory in the woods and call for help. He's disoriented and claims the bear frightened him off. It turns out that the dead woman is his stepmother. Did he kill her? The park is short handed and Anna is enlisted to help with the investigation.

 

Anna Pigeon is a great character who grows and changes in each book but the Park is the main focus in this story. I enjoyed the wonderful descriptions of scenery and nature but too many details about the Bear DNA project made the beginning drag. The pace picks up after the murdered woman is found. Although not as exciting as some of her other adventures the mystery has some twists and turns that kept me reading. Barr left plenty of clues and forensic evidence but I never saw the end coming.

 

Publisher: Berkley (February 5, 2002)

ISBN: 978-0425183755

Paperback Pages: 352

Price: $7.99