Customer Reviews

Hard Truth

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I love Nevada Barr novels. Having said that I found this one very difficult to get through. I am a middle school science teacher during the school year and a National Park law enforcement ranger in the summer. I have worked in two of the parks Ms. Barr has written about. I love Ms. Barrs writing style and the novels have done a great job in educating or introducing people to National Parks and the National Park scene. Although I found the location of this story beautiful, the subject was extremely dark. Normally I love getting lost in her novels for hours at a time but this time I couldn't wait to get back to reality. When brutality of the nature in this book happens to adults (even in fiction) it is bad, but when it happens to children it is horrific. If there was an educational bent to this story or some moral to be used to improve society maybe I would understand it better. I didn't see one in this book.
I'm not writing this to try to influence Nevada Barrs next novels content. I want more people to read her books. The more people caring about their national parks the better. I'm writing this because I don't want people to be turned off if this is their first book of hers they are going to read. If you haven't read any of her books I recomend starting with Track of the Cat and following the growth of Anna Pigeon through her successive stories,

Park ranger Anna Pigeon has taken an assignment in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, unfortunately many states away from her new husband Paul back in Mississippi. This is Anna Pigeon's darkest encounter yet, with the danger buried not in Mother Nature, but in the embodiment of some truly sinister human beings. Her near partner-against-crime is an unlikely woman in a wheelchair. Heath Jarrod is a former rock climber who is now paralyzed after falling from a cliff. The two are both such strong women that they don't immediately hit it off. But both are making every effort to right the numerous wrongs in the situations they find themselves in. The issues here are disturbing but far too real: kidnapping, child abuse, religious cults, serial killings. Serious stuff.

Anna realizes who the perpetrator is with one third of the book to go. She spends the rest of that time in an attempt not to catch the person, but making every effort to get away and get safe. And it's a long struggle in the remote wilds of Rocky Mountain National Park.

I was captivated by the turn of events and the characters and read the last half of the book with both curiosity and dread. I like to be mystified, but I don't like to be scared. I don't watch horror movies and I don't usually read dark and sinister stuff. That being said, I think HARD TRUTH may be the last Anna Pigeon book for me. I've read each book in the series and have enjoyed them overall, especially as they are set in such wonderful surroundings. But the darkness and the violence is getting too much for naive, little me. I wish Ms. Barr and Anna well, and maybe our paths will cross again someday.

HARD TRUTH is an intriguing, suspenseful, well-crafted story that could all too easily be true. Be afraid, be very afraid!

I have been a huge fan of the Anna Pigeon mysteries. The hard truth about Hard Truth is skip it. It is a very unpleasant experience.

The graphic representation of child abuse and cruelty in this book still makes me ill.

What I've loved about the Anna Pigeon series is that I felt like I got a good sense of the national park where the story took place with an appreciation for the natural beauty of the area. I doubt Anna spent more than a night in Rocky Mountain National Park. Not only does she completely miss the unique character of the park but the park has no necessary link to the story. The whole thing could have taken place in urban Chicago.

I have been picking up Nevada Barr books as fast as I could find them. This book, however, was truely repulsive. I'll be much more cautious about investing a part of my life in her next book.

My daughter was a seasonal (park ranger) in several national parks during and after college; she enjoys the Anna Pigeon mysteries written by Nevada Barr, as do many of her friends who have served in the National Park Service. Since being introduced to the series, I have found the books interesting but not compelling; thus, I have not read the earliest books in the series and so will not attempt to present a detailed comparison of HARD TRUTH to the author's previous novels. I was anxious to read this book based both on the fact that my wife became involved enough in the story to read it almost non-stop and also because the area in which the story occurs, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK and the surrounding locale, has been the subject of several trips by us to visit our daughter, who lived for a while in Estes Park and whose ex-husband still is a ranger in the National Park. Thus, while the map of the area that is thoughtfully provided by the publishers inside the cover of the book will allow a reader unfamiliar with the Park to visualize the relative adjacencies of the locations described; the fact that we had actually driven several of the roads, hiked the trails, and visited the lakes where the action occurred certainly leant a connection and provided a sense of the terrain which furnished an additional sense of intimacy with the main characters in the story.

The story opens with Heath Jarrod (a paraplegic forty-one year old who has obviously not yet come to terms with the result of the ice climbing injury which fractured her third lumbar vertebra several months ago and left her dependent on a wheelchair for her mobility) setting up camp with her aunt Gwen and dog Wiley (real name Prince Theo III) with their RV in Rocky Mountain National Park. Heath resents her aunt's attempt to encourage her to escape from her self-pity and unwillingness to come to terms with her injury and find new activities which would challenge her and could replace rock climbing as the center of her life. She is ashamed of her self-pity and resignation, but nevertheless has essentially become mentally paralyzed and unable to attempt any positive changes even while recognizing that she has rejected the depression which might lead to suicide. Wiley (nicknamed for the carton coyote), supposedly her companion and highly trained helper dog but in reality her only close friend, always appears bedraggled and borders on the ugly but fortunately for Heath is incredibly smart and obedient. He is the silver lining in her cloud, "the one thin flicker in the great dark firmament, like low summer lightning beneath a midwestern tornado sky". Heath suffers an accident as she heads up a trail out of the campground after dark, and suddenly realizes her vulnerability and is ovecome with fear when she hears a noise in the brush next to the trail and fantasizes that it is a bear from which she cannot escape. However, her fear turns to astonishment when her flashlight reveals two terrified young girls, obviously traumatized, so thin their bones stick out, scratched and bruised, and most disturbingly clad only in their underwear.

In juxtapostion with this scene we are transported to the cabin of Anna Pigeon, newly arrived at the Park just two days ago as the first woman ever to be a district ranger in Rocky Mountain. We learn that since the end of the last novel she has married Paul Davidson, recently reelected sheriff of Claiborne County, Mississippi; then, in order to take advantage of the totally fortuitous chain of events which had unexpectedly allowed Anna to get "the position of a lifetime" she unfortunately is spending her "honeymoon" alone thirteen hundred miles away. Anna had hurriedly been summoned to replace the District Ranger who had just retired following an unsuccesful month long search for three missing young girls. All the rangers are on edge given the unfinished business that remained, and her immediate task is to attempt to restore some semblance of normalcy. Suddenly, she is notified of an emergency call for an ambulance, and arrives at a scene of chaos and tension where she meets Heath, Gwen and the two traumatized girls. Immediately she recognizes that they are two of the missing girls, but they claim complete amnesia regarding the events of the past four weeks; despite Anna's skepticism their story remains unchanged. The situation is further complicated by the desire of their families to have the children immediately released from custody and returned to their isolated Mormon enclave after minimal medical attention.

The story is narrated alternately by Anna and Heath as their interrelated experiences speed toward the conclusion and an eventual collision; the events are interwoven cleverly and in a manner which maximizes the tension. While Anna is attempting to find the third girl and reconstruct events, a dark force settles over the park as small animals are found tortured and killed and the pieces of the puzzle which she is attempting to solve do not seem to fit together. Meanwhile, the girls have bonded with Heath Jarrod, and gradually provide her with a sense of purpose which helps her escape from the cocoon which has enclosed her. However, soon the evil which seeems to lurk just beneath the surface of the case attacks Heath and simultaneously further disrupts the girls' lives. It is becomes increasingly clear that this is a story that involves a sociopath who undoubtedly will stop at nothing, including murder, to cover his/her tracks; the tension builds dramatically as the story proceeds and it becomes clear that it is unlikely that further psychological damage to the girls can be avoided and murders are likely to occur before the mystery is resolved. It is not only a dark and unsettling story, as other reviewers have indicated; in addition to the psychological violence the reader endures several gruesome scenes, there is quite a bit of depravity, and obviously a considerable amount of outright violence ensues.

The characteristics which I have just used to summarize this novel were the reason that I reduced my rating from a full five stars and they would normally have caused me to round it down to four stars; I debated extensively before I finally decided to award it five stars instead. I did so because the HARD TRUTH is that the author here truly excels at the things which she usually does well. First, she evokes an aura of authenticity, both in the wonderful sense of place which she creates and also in her description of the benefits and drawbacks of a Park Ranger work. Second, her characters are very well drawn; while this story involves a lot of very intense activity, it is still primarily a psychological drama in which human emotions are the dominant element. Third, as usual, the plot is very well constructed and results in a compelling story. Fourth, the continued character development of Anna Pigeon is intriguing; I enjoy book series where the reader can develop a familiarity with the central character over time without becoming bored. Fifth, given the intensity and depressing nature of the story, the ending was relatively hopeful if not actually upbeat for at least some of the central characters. Last, the lack of closure and residual curiosity regarding the outcome for the majority of the characters who had uniformly suffered severe emotional and physical damage (Heath Jarrod, the lost girls, the women of the Mormon enclave) was effectively handled by Anna's closing reflection on the immediacy of her job as a law enforcement officer and the fact that the aftermath had to be handled by others. My biggest regret was that Wiley's role, while central at certain key points, was nevertheless so minimal. I always enjoy the addition of dogs to a narrative when appropriate, and Wiley's character certainly called out for greater inclusion.

Caution: If you are a reader who internalizes the stories which you read and are a Mormon, the portrayal of the fringe sect of that religion in this story may upset you. It is in fact an integral element of the story; without providing spoilers I can only say that it is extremely unflattering to the practioners of that religion who still believe in polygamy and/or the infallibilty of its earthly leaders.

Tucker Andersen

This time Heath has the esteem issues rather than Anna; having read all the prior books, I'm glad Anna is maturing and growing in confidence. Nevada's musings on life were fresher and wittier, the whodunit part wasn't as belabored, the showdown at the end was excitingly written but went on a long time. Of course, justice is done but in a very contrived way. If you've read the other books, you'll recognize the usual pattern of Anna sorting out too late who's involved in the big crime vs the littler crime. As usual, Anna avoids ordinary law enforcement practices such as taking written statements, having suspects account specifically for their whereabouts, conducting formal interviews or collaborating with fellow officers. She's again strong in hunches and impressions and weak in self-protection (and woe-fully lacking in basic backcountry safety such as telling someone reliable where you're going). Again, the characters Anna meets all seem to be liberal arts majors or stereotypes. But then these are the elements that define the series and to which we've grown fond.

There's no such thing as a bad Anna Pigeon mystery. But after the triumph of "High Country," this one's a bit of a disappointment.

The basic premise is simple. Anna is now in Rocky Mountain Park, where three middle-school-aged girls have gone missing. In the opening chapter, two of them walk out of the backcountry barefoot, terrorized and stripped to their underwear. Clearly, what we're looking at here is the worst of clichés: a sexual psychopath. But the girls' parents are members of a paranoid religious sect and the girls are quickly whisked to the commune before they reveal anything but vague hints.

Parts of this book owe a lot to Jon Krakauer 's "Under the Banner of Heaven," which is a nonfictional account of ultra-conservative, polygamous Mormon sects. But Barr is primarily interested in what can only be called spiritual evil, which Anna and a new friend named Heath face in several possible forms.

In "High Country," Barr was also primarily interested in evil, although that time it was the capacity for evil that arises when self-interest is deeply enough challenged. Here she's looking at something else, and the book is considerably less successful. The flaws are several:

1. Although Anna discovers a lot of evil or potential evil, nothing comes of any of these discoveries other than the ones directly related to unmasking the villain. From a pure "mystery" point of view, that makes sense-they were red herrings-but if Barr wants to write the type of thematically ambitious book she seems to be attempting, she needs to quit dropping plot threads.

2. Anna's new husband Paul (a sheriff/Episcopalian priest from whom her job has separated her a mere 3 days after their wedding) would make an excellent foil for Anna's examination of these issues, but Barr structures the plot so that the two of them never have an on-camera interaction.

3. Anna's sister, Molly, would also make a perfect foil for the discussion of psychopaths and evil, but Anna never calls her.

4. Part of the book is told through the eyes of Heath, an embittered paraplegic. Heath is an interesting character, but keeps referring to one of the girls as "the limpet" (because the girl initially clings to her) even when she knows the girl's name. I don't buy that for a moment. Worse, Heath should be used to provide us with an outsider's view of Anna. That occurs initially (and, entertainingly, Heath reacts negatively to Anna) but Barr lets them make peace much too soon. It would have been be better to made the most of the opportunity to see Anna, with all of her strengths and flaws.

Finally, the deepest disappointment is the finish, which is basically your classic psychopath story. There's an extra (and very nasty) twist (involving yet another kind of spiritual evil) but ultimately, it's just another psychopath story because Barr never lets Anna link the various forms of evil into a coherent image. Maybe that's the whole point: there is no link. But if so, it's poorly presented.

Still, there's no such thing as a bad Anna Pigeon mystery. But you might want to wait for the paperback on this one.

Take a step back from your revulsion (a healthy human reaction, so I do hope you were revolted...) to the detailed ritualistic torture of animals and children found in Hard Truth, and analyze the character development and plot development of the last 3 or 4 Anna Pigeon books.

Anna Pigeon as a person is fast becoming a 1-dimensional charicature of the person we met in the first few books; at the same time the author is digging a Natchez Trace of a rut in plot progression - repackaging over again the crazed killer whose insanity is able to drive him through repeated injury to keep after Anna page after page after page. It's as if an editor has said "the stylized nightmare is hot in the industry these days, so rewrite most of the story to be the 'bogeyman' chasing the heroine who just runs and runs and runs." I can only hope it's an editor saying that, and not a personal problem of the author's.

If one separated the pages of character development from the pages of "insanity-driven bogeyman keeps coming toward Anna" in any recent Nevada Barr book, would there be much more than a short story?

Nevada Barr's Firestorm is my second favorite mystery, ever. I hate to witness the decline of quality in the Anna Pigeon series. Her last two books have felt hurried and feel way off kilter compared to her earlier efforts. Before, we knew why Anna chose her life. Now, every other chapter serves as another torture room.

I dislike this. I also hate it that Anna found and married Paul, only to immediately cut away - if you're going to add a character, especially one central to the protagonist, keep him.

I have read and purchased and enjoyed all the Nevada Barr books...until now. I loved all of her other mysteries and will probably try at least one more, but if the next one is anything like this one that'll be all for me. I have kept her previous books in order to enjoy them again. I gave "Hard Truth" away to someone who likes horror stories and stories with child abuse. Please Ms. Barr, come back to the light.

Nevada Barr has a way with words -- no doubt about that. But I'm not so sure that mysteries are her strength. The storyline in this book was compelling, but the number of plot holes and the confusion generated by the teeter-totter between points of views undercut the strength of the book. I lost the thread several times, and was constantly questioning Anna Pigeon's decisions (particularly the idea that once she captures the killer, she wouldn't just shoot him in the leg or lock him up instead of marching him out of the forest).

The characters' actions served the author's needs, not the other way around.