Blood Lure (Anna Pigeon)

by Nevada Barr

Paperback, 2002

Status

Available

Publication

Berkley (2002), 352 pages

Description

Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:In this mystery in Nevada Barrâ??s New York Times bestselling series, District Park Ranger Anna Pigeon is betrayed by nature itself, as a most unnatural evil stalks its prey in the pristine Westâ?¦Straddling the border between Montana and Canada lies the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Parkâ??Annaâ??s home away from home when she is sent on a cross-training assignment to study grizzly bears. Along with bear researcher Joan Rand and a volatile, unpredictable teenage boy, Anna hikes the back country, seeking signs of bear. But the tables are turned on their second night out, when one of the beasts comes looking for them. Daybreak finds the boy missing, a camper mutilated, and Anna caught in a grip of fear, painfully aware that her lifelong bond with nature has inexplicabl… (more)

Rating

½ (252 ratings; 3.7)

User reviews

LibraryThing member siubhank
Park ranger Anna Pigeon, the fortyish heroine of Barr's popular series, is back, tracking grizzlies through the unforgiving landscape of Glacier National Park as part of a scientific investigation. However,the project, obtaining DNA, tagging and counting the bears is just the back story in this
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newest Pigeon adventure. Anna and the biologist, Joan, who is heading up the project, amazingly survive a grizzly bear attack on their tents unscathed, only to find that Rory, their young inexperienced volunteer, 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 .
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LibraryThing member Bookmarque
As interesting and well paced as this was, the solution was obvious from the beginning. The experienced bear researcher Joan remarked how uncharacteristic the attack on their camp actually was. And the strange Bear Incident Management reports that had come in of a 1200-pound blonde Grizzly who
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could juggle and dance. And then all the signs of human digging in bear feeding grounds. And the abandoned truck with attached horse trailer that was gutted and smelled funny. And the fact that the woman was killed by a blow powerful enough to snap her neck but soft enough not to break bone or tear flesh. And the weird clacking sounds heard when the bear attacked. All of it pointed to someone bringing a bear into the park. A trained bear. It took Anna forever to figure it out.

And that’s what it was. But why was it there? Because the new owner was going to ship it to a park where it would be hunted and killed. The boy who loved the bear and felt almost as a brother to the bear decided to let him go in this protected park. The new owner and step-brother of the boy came after him. The bear hated the older brother and because the woman was wearing his coat when she came across the boy and the bear, he charged and accidentally killed her. He scratched her face and the boy had to take the rest of the flesh off to hide the fact that it was bear claws. Much larger than the Grizzly bears native to that part of the world. It would be a dead-giveaway and Balthazar would the destroyed.

In the end he’s not destroyed but given to a man who trains wild animals for movies. And the orphaned boy is taken on as an apprentice as well. The older brother goes to jail for kidnapping and attempted murder.

The writing was pretty good. Just enough scientific detail to help readers understand the plot and characters but not too much. Same with the environmentalist pitch, it wasn’t over done and preachy. Anna was an interesting character. She was a lot like me – not terribly appreciative of most of humanity and also childfree. One of the best lines in the book was something like. “Another reason not to have children list – it’s so disturbing when wild animals eat them.” Hilarious!!
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LibraryThing member Squeex
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
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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.....
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LibraryThing member jepeters333
In Blood Lure, Anna returns to the West, where she is sent on a training assignment to study the grizzly bears in Waterton/Glacier National Peace Park, straddling the border between Montana and Canada. But back in her beloved mountains, where the air is pure and cool, Anna fails to find the
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spiritual renewal she expected. Instead, nature seems to have become twisted, carrying a malevolence almost human in it focus. Along with bear researcher Joan Rand and a volatile and unpredictable teenaged boy, Anna hikes the backcountry, seeking signs of the bears.
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LibraryThing member tututhefirst
In this story, Anna is learning about a program the park rangers are helping with to track and tag grizzly bears in Glacier National Park. These descriptive prose in these is so powerful that even if you have never visited a particular park, you never have any trouble picturing the scenery, feeling
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yourself up on a ledge, or walking down the side of a mountain. While out checking on the bear monitors, the rangers are called upon to investigate a murder. At one point Anna thinks "she doesn't know whether she has too much information and too many suspects, or not enough of either." This one had a good plot, and interesting suspects. I'm looking forward to getting to know Anna even more in this series.
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LibraryThing member sumariotter
a solid mystery. Grisly, definitely! But this one has some sweetness too. It kept me on the edge of my seat. Every time I turned the page, I had to quickly scan the two page spread to make sure nothing really scary was coming up.
LibraryThing member mahallett
my bathroom audio book. it takes me so long to finish it. this one seemed to go forever wandering in the woods with no murder and then some kid turned up and there was a murder. i can't remember the why of the murder!
LibraryThing member Julie_Brock
Again, as with my other fave mystery author, I'll spare you the list of the whole series. If you want to read her, start with the first book in the series - "Track of the Cat." The author is a former park ranger. The sleuth in her mysteries, Anna Pigeon, is also a female park ranger. She's very
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independent and a bit sarcastic - fun to read - lots of internal dialogue. Each novel takes place in a different national park, and the descriptions of them are thorough and enjoyable (scenery, flora, fauna, weather patterns, etc.) I liked the first several books in the series. The quality of last few has been slightly off...but, still, four stars ain't bad.
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LibraryThing member pussreboots
Blood Lure by Nevada Barr is the 9th Anna Pigeon mystery but all the books stand by themselves as each one is set in a different location.

In this installment Anna is stationed at Glacier National Park where she is helping with a grizzly bear DNA project. On their first night out their camp is
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attacked by a grizzly and their youngest member, Rory Van Slyke. The next morning Rory's stepmother is found dead on a trail. Was it a bear or was it murder?

Actually it was a little bit of both and it takes Anna many false starts to get to the heart of the matter. She wants to clear Rory whom she is sure wasn't involved even though it appears he had plenty of motive. Given how poorly Rory treats Anna, I'm surprised she was so driven to do the right thing.

For the astute reader, all the clues are there. They're early on in the book. If you pay attention you can solve the mystery well before Anna does. I got close, although I didn't have the why of Mrs. Van Slyke's death sorted out.
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LibraryThing member ecw0647
Anna Pigeon, our intrepid park ranger is on a trek through Waterton/Glacier National Park engaged in setting some bear traps to collect hair and scat samples from assorted bears. Technically, she’s off duty and so out-of-uniform when they meet a young man hiking who reeks of malfeasance and in
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other circumstances, Anna would have had him up against a car demanding his driver’s license and other ID.

That night, in a scene that raised my skepticism (having read too many mysteries, I suppose) she and her tent mate are attacked by a huge bear who doesn’t act in the way most bears would (according to the bear expert along on the trip.) Rory, the other volunteer in his own tent hightailed it out of there and is discovered some miles away in rather sad shape, but only after Anna and Joanna report his disappearance does a search reveal the body of a murdered woman who happens to be Rory’s stepmother. Without giving away the plot, I will say only that numerous connections and suspects provide the elements to a puzzle that keeps the rangers, struggling with other responsibilities which include bear scat analysis, bedeviled. Unlike some lesser mysteries the answer does not fall from the sky, but is compiled through careful analysis of evidence.

Several reviewers have complained about what they considered to be excessive detail with regard to bear DNA, the bear lure, etc., but for me it’s those kinds of details that I find tantalizing but that’s perhaps since I so enjoy collecting information from what I read as well as entertainment.

My suspicion of anthropomorphism that worried me in the beginning was not borne out in the end. Satisfactory.
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LibraryThing member EmpressReece
It's been a long time since I read this book but I have read the entire series, up until the most current book and I really like it. I love how the series is set outdoors in the different parks. If you like C.J. Box, then you'll like Barr too.
LibraryThing member danhammang
For lovers of a sense of place in their mysteries there is much to savor here. Barr loves the world about her. The descriptions, metaphors and musings are finely wrought and deeply respectful of that world. Which is not to say the plot wasn't terrific. It is fresh. I knew she was planting plenty of
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clues but she kept me guessing the whole way. A very enjoyable read. If you haven't tried the Anna Pigeon series you might want to give it a shot.
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LibraryThing member SmithfieldJones
Anna Pigeon is at Glacier/Waterton National Peace Park in Montana in Blood Lure (2001)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2001-02

Physical description

6.73 inches

ISBN

0425183750 / 9780425183755
Page: 1.3279 seconds