Borderline (Anna Pigeon Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Nevada Barr (Author)

Book Description

Series: Anna Pigeon Mysteries | Publication Date: April 7, 2009

New York Times-bestselling author Nevada Barr delivers another extraordinary Anna Pigeon novel set in the wide open vistas of southwestern Texas.

The killings on Isle Royale have left Anna drained and haunted, her memories of her time with the wolf study group forever marred by the carnage on the island. Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, she is on administrative leave, per her superintendent's urging. Anna wonders if the leave might not be permanent, either by her own choice or that of the National Park Service. The one bright spot in Anna's life is Paul, her husband of less than a year. Hoping the warmth and the adventure of a raft trip in Big Bend National Park will lift her spirits, Paul takes Anna to southwest Texas, where the sun is hot and the Rio Grande is running high. The sheer beauty of the Chihuahuan Desert and the power of the river work their magic-until the raft is lost in the rapids and a young college student falls overboard, resulting in an even more grisly discovery. Caught in a strainer between two boulders and more dead than alive, is a pregnant woman, hair and arms tangled in the downed branches. Instead of the soul-soothing experience they'd longed for, Anna and Paul find themselves sucked into a labyrinth of intrigue that leads from the Mexican desert to the steps of the Governor's Mansion in Austin, Texas.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Barr skillfully blends sticky border issues, marital strife and politics in her exciting 15th novel to feature National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon. Anna, on leave because she's still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder suffered in 2008's Winter Study, takes a delayed honeymoon with her sheriff husband, a rafting trip in Texas's Big Bend National Park. The Rio Grande reveals a number of surprises, including a stranded cow and, more disturbingly, a dying pregnant woman caught in a strainer. Fortunately, the resourceful Anna is able to perform a C-section and save the baby's life if not the mother's. Things get really serious after a sniper kills first the couple's guide and then a fellow rafter. Meanwhile, at Big Bend's Chisos Mountain Lodge, Houston mayor Judith Pierson announces she's running for governor, and her security chief must worry about keeping Pierson's errant husband in line. The vivid Texas backdrop lends color. Author tour. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

Unable to shake the despondency and self-doubt that settled on her after her horrific experiences at Isle Royale (Winter Study, 2008), Anna is put on administrative leave. In a move designed to help her recover, her husband arranges to take her on a guided rafting trip in Big Bend National Park, which straddles the border between Texas and Mexico. Their companions are four college students. Within hours of their departure, the raft careens into rocks and is lost. The occupants have barely recovered from the shock when one of them makes a gruesome discovery: the body of a very pregnant woman caught among tangled branches. Though unable to save the woman, Anna saves the child, whose welfare becomes her mission. Unfortunately, some people have other plans for the tiny new life and the struggling rafters. A riveting series of gut-wrenching events heads the book, winding down about midway as the personalities on shore and the mystery surrounding the child come into focus. Barr is less successful than usual in masking her evildoers, but her extraordinary ability to create electrifying drama in the natural world is unequivocal, as is her compelling portrait of Anna—real enough to touch as she struggles to regain her confidence, her enthusiasm, and her sense of self. --Stephanie Zvirin

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons; First Edition edition (April 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399155694
• ISBN-13: 978-0399155697
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #426,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nevada was born in the small western town of Yerington, Nevada and raised on a mountain airport in the Sierras. Both her parents were pilots and mechanics and her sister, Molly, continued the tradition by becoming a pilot for USAir.
Pushed out of the nest, Nevada fell into the theatre, receiving her BA in speech and drama and her MFA in Acting before making the pilgrimage to New York City, then Minneapolis, MN. For eighteen years she worked on stage, in commercials, industrial training films and did voice-overs for radio. During this time she became interested in the environmental movement and began working in the National Parks during the summers -- Isle Royale in Michigan, Guadalupe Mountains in Texas, Mesa Verde in Colorado, and then on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi.
Woven throughout these seemingly disparate careers was the written word. Nevada wrote and presented campfire stories, taught storytelling and was a travel writer and restaurant critic. Her first novel, Bitterweet was published in 1983. The Anna Pigeon series, featuring a female park ranger as the protagonist, started when she married her love of writing with her love of the wilderness, the summer she worked in west Texas. The first book, Track of the Cat, was brought to light in 1993 and won both the Agatha and Anthony awards for best first mystery. The series was well received and A Superior Death, loosely based on Nevada's experiences as a boat patrol ranger on Isle Royale in Lake Superior, was published in 1994. In 1995 Ill Wind came out. It was set in Mesa Verde, Colorado where Nevada worked as a law enforcement ranger for two seasons.
The rest is, shall we say, HISTORY! Nevada's books and accomplishments have become numerous and the presses continue to roll, so in the interest of NOT having to update this page, books, awards, status on the New York Times Best Seller List -- and more -- will be enumerated with the relevant books else where on this website.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars (4.5) "Politics, love and ambition are draconian.", April 7, 2009

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Borderline (Anna Pigeon Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I have to say I am a fan after reading my first Anna Pigeon novel. On a forced vacation after a violent incident in her last case, park ranger Anna and her husband, Paul, have signed on to a river rafting excursion in southwest Texas' Big Bend National Park, where the Rio Grande skirts the Texas-Mexico border. The adventure begun simply enough with a few college students and a capable guide, Anna and Paul are enjoying a short hiatus from their usual responsibilities. When a series of misjudgments leaves the raft at the mercy of a flooding river, the rafters are cast ashore with few provisions, their outing become suddenly more perilous. But when a sniper starts shooting at the party, the trip is run-for-your-life dangerous.

Her professional instincts reawakened, Anna is challenged even more by the discovery of the body of a pregnant woman trapped in the debris of the Rio Grande. Horror-stricken, Anna delivers the woman's unborn baby, the tiny child awakening a maternal instinct in the pragmatic Anna that amazes her. But there is no time for personal indulgence, the child's life at risk as the stranded rafters desperately climb to safety in spite of the sniper. Nearly safe, Anna and Paul stumble upon another surprise, unsure if they face friend or foe. Clearly, in Barr's novels, expedience requires quick reactions. Anna must trust her survival instincts if she is to save herself, the infant and her companions.

Meanwhile, a political rally in the park serves as a venue for Huston mayor Judith Pierson to announce her run for the governorship of Texas. A feisty and savvy politician, Pierson is a conservative Ann Richards, border issues high on her list of priorities. By Judith's side is ex-secret service agent Darden White. A long personal relationship with the mayor alerts Daren to Judith's every mood. Currently he fears there is trouble in paradise, Judith and her husband having difficulty hiding the rancor between them. Watching all with a trained eye, Darden is unnerved by Judith's actions, his concern exacerbated by the announcement of the fatal shootings and the rescue on the Rio Grande.

Soon all are embroiled in a collision of political agendas and the safety of a newborn, a maze of personal agendas as opportunistic politics intrude on the environment's pristine beauty. Barr rises above petty political positions, creating nuanced characters and the grandeur of the Big Bend National Park, violence and revenge sharply contrasted against nature's stark indifference. The beauty of this untamed wilderness is all the more poignant for the trail of dead bodies in the wake of Anna's delivery of an innocent child. Anna Pigeon is a spunky protagonist, a woman who values herself and the world she inhabits. In this well-rounded character, a woman of her generation, Barr puts the human back in nature. Luan Gaines/2009.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars back on track, April 15, 2009

By 

mantis "kds" (alexandria, va) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Borderline (Anna Pigeon Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I found Borderline to be much more of a page-turner than the previous Anna Pigeon mystery, Winter Study. It was also less violent (a good thing). I have been a fan since the first book in the series and recommend reading them in order. Anna has indeed matured and grows more complex and interesting with each book. Nevada Barr is one of the few authors that I follow closely; I buy her books as soon as they come out and have never been disappointed.

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Half and Half, April 9, 2009

By 

COH (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Borderline (Anna Pigeon Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I am a big fan of the Anna Pigeon series but this one gets a mixed review. The first half, about Anna's rafting trip and her struggle with PTSD, is compelling and pushes the story along like a raft in whitewater. The second
plot, surrounding a politician's ambition and her relationship with one of her bodyguards, brings that raft up against a boulder and the raft starts to swamp. Fans of the series will enjoy it nonetheless, but first time readers should start with one of the other books in the series!