Customer Reviews

Firestorm

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anna Pigeon, Park Ranger, has been called to Northern California's Lassen Volcanic Park to fight a blaze of suspicious origin. Danger exists in the air she breathes and the exhaustion that takes a toll on all firefighters that have been brought in to save the park.

Nevada Barr convincingly shows why rangers are called from many locations and the need to work as one in the midst of a Firestorm. The problem in working as one is that there is a murderer who has no compunction about covering up the first death with more. The most intense scene is when the Firestorm is blasting down the trail and the only way to survive is as dangerous as the fire itself.

Ms. Barr is a great storyteller who writes what she knows. I have no doubt that she has experienced survival in various parks and on a myriad of projects. She brings with her the full power that a writer can when she has lived the events--perhaps not the murder itself, but survival in it rawest form.

The breathless positive reviewers of this book puzzle me. Their experience was distinctly not my experience. I've read 3 of Barr's books now and this was definitely *not* the pick of the litter. At Barr's best, she's a 4. This one was somewhere between a 2 and 3...but since I can't award half stars, I'll give it a 2. This was definitely the worst of the three books by Barr I've read thus far.

Here's the plot in a nutshell.

A group of rangers including our heroine, Anna Pigeon, are brought together from various national parks and agencies to fight a fire in Lassen National Park in Northern California. When the fire unexpectedly flares, a group of 9 are caught off guard and with no path of retreat from the rapidly advancing flames. Their only hope for survival is to crawl inside their fire-proof emergency tents, burrow into the ground, and hope that the fire will literally flash over the top of them so quickly that they won't be baked to death...merely scorched.

When the inferno blasts over, it feels like hours but is just minutes. They are singed, some quite seriously, but alive. However, although 9 people crawled into tents, only 8 people emerge: one literally has a knife in his back. And, the fire has felled trees across the only road in to the area, nor will the weather allow rescue helicopters to reach them. The 8 survivors are trapped indefinitely without food as it begins to snow and temperatures begin to drop -- and one of them is a killer.

Sounds enticing enough. But the ensuing days as the 8 struggle to survive are gray, cold, eventless, and populated with miserable people struggling to maintain their sanity and civility.

Basically, that describes how I felt trying to perservere through the remainder of the book. Yeah, I made it. But it wasn't a pleasant experience.

Barr decides to make the victim in this book a man who is universally scrorned by all who know him. And in so doing, we don't care that he's dead, we don't care why he died, and we don't care who killed him. There is just no incentive for the reader here to really care about finding the killer. In fact, I just couldn't bring myself to care about *any* of the characters or details in this story, doubly sad since I live in that part of the country and many of the towns and landmarks Barr describes are my stomping grounds that would normally have been very interesting to me. Oh, and Barr -- for reasons known only to herself -- felt obliged to once again introduce a homosexual lover subplot into the story. Why she feels compelled to insert this into every story is beyond me. I think it must be some type of politically correct statement. Whatever. But I'm beginning to find it tiresome. It feels contrived and forced because it is...contrived and forced.

Anna Pigeon is a likeable enough protagonist who behaves and talks like a real person. I have no gripe with Barr's writing abilities or dialog. But the people in this story get confusing. It is hard to keep the 8 folks in this "lifeboat" type story straight. It is harder still to care about them or care about finding a resolution.

It just felt like 4 long days in the snow surrounded by blackened timbers and a bunch of people you don't like.

Nevada Barr has 2 books that are closed to "locked room" mysteries - that is, where the action and events are in a tightly controlled environment. Firestorm has it's events in the middle of a firestorm, on a mountain top where rescue is delayed. (Blind Descent is the other - inside a subterranean cave.)
Barr's description of the firestorm, and being trapped inside of a tiny fireproof tent are gripping! The murders are solved by Frederick and Anna. Frederick is working on the outside, and supplies info to Anna via hand radios. Anna uncovers facts and fights the growing tension between survivors who are trapped on the mountain together.
There are suspects galore - but I was totally surprized by the identity of the true murderer and Anna's judgement call in handling the murderer.
This is probably one of Barr's best novels - a "hot, hot" read!

This is the second Anna Pigeon novel I have read, and my only consolation for being such a latecomer to Nevada Barr's writing is that I can occupy myself with her backlist while waiting for new books. So many mysteries are either not very mysterious, or clunkily written, or feature annoying characters, that I was delighted beyond belief when I finally found Anna Pigeon and realized she is a real person, and Nevada Barr is a real, skillful, writer. Not everyone can make you giggle, hold your breath, and mutter a sympathetic "ew" in the space of a couple of pages. Barr's characters, marooned by a forest fire that practically rises to the level of a character itself, have to contend with injuries, filth, hunger, and the knowledge that one of them killed one of their colleagues in a most creative manner. From the "shake and bake" (which is really something) to the final solution, I was riveted.

This is an extraordinarily imaginative take on a classic locked room mystery. I didn't figure it out until the end, and I was gravely hampered because my list of those I didn't want to have done it had gotten so long. You can really get to know people when you're stranded with them in the mountains, and that's what happens here. Even if Barr wasn't so ingenious at devising murder plots, I'd read her work. She's amazingly good at creating hard-headed, soft-hearted characters who try to do the right thing -- most notably, Anna herself.

I don't understand why this book isn't at the top of the bestseller list. Anna Pigeon is a ranger with the National Park Service. She is currently serving as security and EMT at a fairly routine fire in the Lassen Volcanic National Park when things suddenly go to hell in a hand basket. The firestorm scenes are absolutely riveting. The characters are all very well developed. Some are easy to love and some are easy to hate. There is plenty of sophisticated, witty humor sprinkled throughout. Some of it made me laugh out loud. The landscape descriptions were the next best thing to being there. And tying it all together is a whopping good murder mystery. I probably shouldn't make comparisons but I will. Nevada Barr has Sue Grafton beat by a mile

Anna Pigeon is a jack of all trades. Not only is she a park ranger with law enforcement training, but she's also an emergency medical technician and a trained firefighter. One wonders a bit how much time it took her to obtain all that training, and whether that's the norm for National Park employees, but quibbles aside, this is a superb book. Barr uses the drama of a fire to isolate her cast of characters in classic locked-room mystery fashion, then cuts them off from the outside world while Anna races against time to figure out who she can trust before she becomes the next victim. If there's a flaw it lies in the fact that a vital clue is a bit too obvious. I can't say more without giving away too much, but people who've read lots of mysteries will probably figure out part of what's going on simply from the way the story is constructed. Firestorm, however, is really a story of fire, firefighters, and the southern Cascades in the vicinity of Mt. Lassen National Park, and minor imperfections in the mystery barely detract from it at all. Highly recommended.

I've read all of Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mysteries (*Liberty Falling* the latest), and though I always enjoy them, this remains my favorite stand-alone. The descriptions of the firecamp are fascinating (I loved the "shake-n-bakes") and I thought the characters more convincing than usual in her works. I particularly enjoyed the unusual ending.

Barr's fourth Anna Pigeon mystery is her most exciting yet. Park Ranger Pigeon, acting as medic and security officer on a wildfire detail in California's Lassen Volcanic National Park, is evacuating an injured firefighter when suddenly a violent thunderstorm sparks a firestorm.

Barr's description of the exploding flames, forcing the squad to abandon their patient and seek cover under their silver fire protectors or "shake 'n' bakes," is breathtaking. As the battered firefighters slowly emerge, they discover one of their number has been murdered. Impossibly, the murder had to take place during the firestorm itself.

Complicating matters further is the weather - snow, high winds and downed trees close the only road to rescue and the group is isolated with only their emergency packs. Pigeon, knowing one among them is a murderer, carefully sifts through clues and motives, her investigation supplemented by radio reports from her old friend FBI agent Frederick Stanton.

The snail-paced romance between the two loners, Pigeon and Stanton, heats up over the neutral distance of the radio, and Stanton's background checks supply valuable clues and red herrings.

Barr's well-plotted story sizzles with danger - human and elemental. The firefighting and wilderness details are fascinating, atmospheric and integral to plot and character. A thoroughly enjoyable tale.

Nevada Barr's Firestorm was the first Anna Pigeon novel I read, back when it first came out. Her writing style moves me to purchase each new book as it comes out. This is an exceptional story of murder and sleuthing. I would suggest it to anyone. Also, her other novels are quite exciing. Making a park ranger into a detective is brilliant writing.

With each book, Anna grows more familiar, yet continues to surprise me. I almost broke out in blisters huddled under the fire tent with the heat of the firestorm raging. The descriptions of events and people are outstanding and the reader feels he has visited the places Anna goes and knows the people she encounters. Anna's personality continues to enrich with each book and this lady grows more and more interesting. More Anna, please.