Sunday, May 31, 2009

Winter Study

I just finished this book:

From Publishers WeeklyIn bestseller Barr's chilling 14th mystery thriller to feature National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon (after 2005's Hard Truth), Anna joins the team of Winter Study, a research project intended to study the wolves and moose of Michigan's Isle Royale National Park, the setting for 1994's A Superior Death. Complicating the study is Bob Menechinn, an untrustworthy Homeland Security officer assigned to shadow the research. Crowded into inhospitable lodgings and persecuted by unrelenting cold, Anna is far from her comfort zone as nature turns awry with a series of bizarre events. The team stumbles upon the tracks—and the mutilated victim—of a preternaturally large, unidentified beast, and local packs of wolves descend on human-populated areas, a behavior out of step with their species. The campfire legends of youth metastasize into adult fears as Anna must piece together a connection between these anomalies while guarding herself from the strangers around her. Barr's visceral descriptions of the winter cold nicely complement the paranoia that follows the appearance of the mythic monsters at play. Author tour. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

While this is the first book I've read by Nevada Barr, I had no idea that this was part of a series of any kind. I saw it at Costco, and being a wolf person, picked it up immediately.

It was easy reading, and I admit that there were several times I found myself holding my breath, literally! A couple of gruesome episodes, but all the way through it kept my interest.

I'm still kind of questioning the ending, but, hey, where else could you have gone with it in the last 10 pages???

I may try another of her books...

5 comments:

Gordon said...

Shabby, I enjoyed browsing your blog. If you would not mind divulging what state you are from, I would like to add it to my tracking map of members.

septembermom said...

Another interesting book. I'm so squeamish. I don't know if I can handle any really gruesome scenes.

shabby girl said...

Gordon, welcome. I'm in southeast Arizona. I love the Shoot Out idea!

Kelly, the gruesome part wasn't as bad as it could have been, because she did not let the character be too freaked out by it. I'm generally not a thriller type, but when I bought it I didn't know.

pam said...

I've read a couple of Nevada Barr books. I liked them at first, but then they all seemed alike.

Unknown said...

I will have to put that on my lists of author's to try out as I love to read. Thanks :)

Flora & Fauna

Books I have known & loved

  • Life of Pi
  • A Hundred Years of Solitude
  • Kite Runner
  • The Way the Crow Flies
  • Fall on Your Knees
  • Poisonwood Bible
  • East of Eden
  • Shantaram
  • I Know This Much is True

Illegal Immigration