LIBERTY FALLING. [Paperback]

Nevada. Barr (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: PUTNAM. NY 1999; Uncorrected proof. edition (1999)
• ASIN: B000GLQ5YI
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)

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

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great mystery!, May 8, 2001

By 

Patricia O'Tuama "rissa" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Liberty Falling (Anna Pigeon Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have liked and admired Anna Pigeon since I read Nevada Barr's first book in this series but this is the first time that I really -liked- Anna as a person. Maybe it's because she's not officially on duty or maybe it's because she's in New York, but the Anna in "Liberty Falling" is much more approachable and human than she has been in the previous books.

The story itself is first-rate with expert plotting and character development. One of the best things about the last two Anna Pigeon mysteries is that you really have to pay attention to what's going on -- Barr interweaves very subtle clues throughout the story. The only thing I didn't like about this book was the endless descriptions of the rides back and forth between the city and the monument but that's a small thing. This book is most definitely worth reading.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A cerebral mystery, September 15, 2000

By 

Old Fisherman "Jim" (Orange, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liberty Falling (Anna Pigeon Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Anna Pigeon is staying with a ranger friend on Liberty Island while she visits her sick sister Molly who's in the hospital with a life-threatening kidney ailment. While living in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, Anna gets involved in the death of a supposed suicide. A teen-age girl leaps to her death from the top of Liberty's pedestal. If that's not enough, a few days later the security guard who tried to stop the girl from jumping dies the same way in almost the same spot. Before she knows it, Anna is caught up in a mystery involving a sleazy doctor and Castro look-alike.

Like all Anna Pigeon novels, this moves slowly. It does take quite a while for the bones of the mystery to appear but Anna Pigeon is such a likeable heroine and Barr such a good writer that the book never seems to drag. At times, Barr's stream-of-conciousness style of writing can be hard to follow but overall the novel is a fun read.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Atmospheric and moving, February 18, 2000

By 

Helen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liberty Falling (Hardcover)

This writer can really evoke a sense of place. Her descriptions of Ellis and Liberty Islands, and the people that populated and cared for them, were done with liveliness and affection. It will be interesting to see how the Molly/Anna/Frederick triangle will develop. A thoroughly exiting "chase" scene at the end was one of the best written of the genre.