Customer Reviews

Track of the Cat

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I judge mysteries on how fast they hook me. And I was hooked on "Track of the Cat," the first in Barr's Anna Pigeon series, within one page.

The fascinating plot revolves around the intrigue and in-fighting among the park rangers on the border between Texas and New Mexico. Who knew? Even among diehard environmentalists such as Anna and her coworkers, political pettiness exists. That's why, when a fellow ranger is found supposedly murdered by one of the park's protected cougars, Anna goes from 1 to 10 on the rage meter. She doesn't believe it's a lion kill--and she knows that the intricate politics and age-old fighting between ranchers and rangers will result in a sanctified lion kill.

Racing against time, Anna sets out to solve a murder that only she believes is a murder. The more she finds out, the more sinister the seemingly beautiful and pristine canyons and mountains become. Two more rangers disappear...and are ultimately found dead. Just what is going on, and how can Anna stop it? The solution, which comes at the very end of the book, is completely unexpected, and quite satisfying.

Barr's talent does not stop with the mystery, however. Her unique ability to draw the reader completely into Pigeon's milieu is seemingly effortless. I could feel the intense heat of the Texas desert, feel the rocks under my feet, feel the need for water as Anna and I hiked miles and miles through wild and achingly beautiful country. I felt that I was there alongside her, sweating with the heat and the knowledge that a crazed murderer was stalking us.

Take this book with you to the beach, to the mountains, to the pool, or just sit under a tree and sip some iced tea. It's a quick, fun, and fascinating read for any mystery lover!

Nevada Barr is really the first mystery writer I've ever looked at, and "The Track of the Cat" is the first book I've read of hers. It's very good, and maybe a little old now since it was published in 1994. However, the time of publication does not matter in this case, for I loved the stark description of the national park where Anna Pigeon works. I enjoy her relationship with her psychologist sister who still lives in New York, and the unravelling mysteries surrounding the death of fellow ranger Sheila Drury and the disappearance of another male ranger. Unfortunately, the copy I had might have been missing some pages right near the end, so I don't know if I went through the entire story. Once again, read this and be enthralled with Nevada Barr's debut novel!

Anna Pigeon is a Park Ranger who has left NY to escape her own personal history for the open spaces and peace of nature. Peace, however, has a cost and in this case it means solving murder, intrigue and the losses of endangered and monitored species. When Anna is in danger, we learn about the rigors of climbing sheer stone walls only to discover yet another secret.

Nevada Barr has created a character that is unique and believable. In getting to know Anna the reader also learns about the real life of a park ranger from one who does the job.

The mystery is excellent; I recommended this book to both my mother and daughter who now are fans. Even my son-in-law who has a busy career has found the time and energy to be drawn into this mysterious, well defined world.

I am an avid mystery reader and a biologist, and so when I was stuck in the Portland airport for 12 hours, I picked up Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr. I have often found with mysteries that there are 2 basic kinds: a mystery with a compelling plot that is well constructed but has a one-dimensional protagonist, or a simple-minded mystery with a compelling protagonist. While not perfect, I found Anna Pidgeon and this story to be the best of both worlds. True, the plot was a bit translucent at times, but it was still based on a neat premise. Her descriptions of the park were beautiful without being distracting. And I loved Anna. Yes, she is flawed, but she is a REAL person. I know people like Anna. She's no Miss Marple (dont' get me wrong--I love Miss Marple and her twinkely blue eyes), but does she need to be? Anna is a decent, flawed, intelligent person. Like most of us. She's not the 'perfect omniscient detective' who figures out things in leaps of logic none of us can fathom (and are disappointing to read in a mystery, frankly). You can put yourself in her shoes, and any good novel does that for the reader. I look forward to watching Ms. Barr and Ms. Pidgeon grow in the subsequent novels. This was not a perfect novel, but showed a LOT of potential!

Anna Pigeon is independent, strong willed, determined, and a very good observer; all of these qualities are necessary for a good sleuth. She is a Park Ranger who follows clues to find the truth like she were filling in a crossword puzzle, which I'm addicted to. So, when a rogue mountain lion kills, she must find the animal... however, she finds a murderer who will kill anyone in the way of a clandestine enterprise. No matter where the clues of a mountain lion attack leads her, Anna follows her instinct and logic; it's quite a treat to "read her mind" as she does. After being lured into a death trap, she knows she is on the right track. There are many suspects and motives, and the details are rich as only one who has been there can describe. That's what makes Nevada Barr's books so good -- she is a park ranger.

This is one of my favorite Anna Pigeon novels. She is a ranger in Guadeloupe Mountains National Park and comes across the body of a ranger who has apparently been killed by a cougar (hence the name of the book). She is convinced that the lion has been wrongfully accused of murder, and this conviction grows stronger as more dead bodies appear. Since an autopsy of the ranger shows that she was killed by the cougar, you know from the start that Barr has come up with an good setup for a murder mystery, with a novel choice of weapon.

Ranger Anna Pigeon is an interesting character, with a backstory (she is a widow who escapes New York by becoming a ranger), a long-distance relationship with her psychiatrist sister (a plot device that serves well to reveal inner thoughts), and a vice (alcoholism). She's cynical and worldly, but that is balanced by her love of nature and the parks. She's also a bit of a superhero, especially at the end, and I don't find those parts too convincing.

The book conveys a great sense of the setting. Barr loves the desert parks, including the site of this novel, Guadeloupe Mountains (in West Texas). This is a relatively unknown park, which includes the high point of Texas. Ranger Pigeon spends a lot of time in the backcountry of the park and makes it sound inviting even though there are no water sources there.

The book has a well-constructed plot though the ending lacks a full resolution. As is generally true in this series, it's easier to make good guesses about whodunnit than it is to figure out the motive. Some motives are so oddball, "out of the box," that I don't see how you could figure it out from the information given, and that's a violation of the mystery writers' code. Barr *almost* commits that sin here.

Overall, this is a good introduction to the series. If you don't like this one, don't read any of the others.

After a friend steered me to the Nevada Barr series featuring Anna Pigeon, this book definitely got me hooked and I can't wait to read all the books in the series. I actually read Track of the Cat in paperback (it was a gift) and have a couple others in paperback and audible form (just got my Kindle a couple weeks ago, so will be reading the remainder of the series on it!)

Even though I tend to read a lot of light hearted fiction, Barr's mysteries draw me in and keep my attention, making it hard to put the book down. I like the descriptive passages that cover the physical environments of the national parks, and the pasages that cover the emotional and mental environments of the characters. Being a fan of national parks, the settings of Anna Pigeon's experiences are more than interesting to me. I have gotten my brother and his wife hooked on the series, too!

[...] - this is Nevada Barr's website and where I got the following list of her Anna Pigeon books. She has also written 3 other books (Bittersweet, 1984; Seeking Enlightenment . . .Hat by Hat, 2003; 13 1/2, 2009; and contributed to a 5th (Deadly Housewives, 2006) that is a collection of short stories by Nevada Barr and many other well known authors. The website is rather neat if you have time to check it out.

1) 1993: Track of the Cat (Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas)
2) 1994: A Superior Death (Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, Michigan)
3) 1995: Ill Wind (Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado)
4) 1996: Firestorm (Lassen Volcanic National Park)
5) 1997: Endangered Species (Cumberland Island National Seashore of the coast of Georgia)
6) 1998: Blind Descent (Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico)
7) 1999: Liberty Falling (Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National Monuments in New York City)
8) 2000: Deep South (Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi)
9) 2001: Blood Lure (Glacier/Waterton National Peace Park in Montana)
10) 2002: Hunting Season (Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi)
11) 2003: Flashback (Dry Tortugas National Park, a grouping of tiny islands 70 miles off Key West) Diana - paperback
12) 2004: High Country (Yosemite National Park in California)
13) 2005: Hard Truth (Rocky Mountain's National Park, Colorado) (14) 2008: Winter Study (Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, Michigan)
15) 2009: Borderline (Big Bend National Park in Texas)

This is the first of the Anna Pigeon mystery series, and it holds a great deal of promise.

Anna is a former New Yorker who was getting tired of life in the big city, and the sudden and accidental death of her husband was the last straw. She moved away from the Big Apple, joined the National Park Service, and became one of their rangers. Assigned to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in west Texas, however, she finds that she hasn't escaped violence after all - she finds the body of a fellow ranger out in the deepest reaches of the park. At first it appears that she was the victim of a cougar attack, but Anna slowly discovers that there are too many things that just don't fit with that assumption.

Anna is an extremely well developed, fleshed-out character, as are the other people in this mystery. And Barr's descriptions of the park and the surrounding area are absolutely beautiful. In some cases she describes the local flora and fauna down to the minutest detail.

The plotline and logic of the story is also well developed and well thought out. There is not a single misstep.

But - and this is an extremely big BUT - Barr does not follow through on the resolution of her story. She allows Anna to deal with the actual murderer, but though there is an implication of what will happen if she tries to follow through and take care of the murderer's accomplices, Barr doesn't allow Anna to at least make the attempt. I would have given this book four, or maybe even five, stars if she had let Anna try. Even if she had failed as predicted, at least there would have been more of a sense of closure. Instead I was left hanging.

As Barr continues this series, I hope that she corrects this flaw in her stories, and I hope that Piedmont (Anna's cat) and Molly (Anna's psychologist sister) are not the only characters that follow Anna from book to book. In particular I hope to see more of Christina Walters and her daughter Alison. They were as human and as fleshed-out as Anna and I'd like to see her friendship with them develop and continue.

I liked TRACK OF THE CAT, but I didn't love it. The idea that the lion is wrongly accused was one I found appealing, but the plot was, at times, predictable. The setting was well-drawn, but most of the characters were pretty one-dimensional. The clincher, though, is that I'm not sure yet just how captivating Anna Pigeon is as a main character. I believe that this is her first story, so I don't want to make a snap judgement, but Anna is nowhere near as quirkily entertaining as a Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple. That would be expecting a lot, I know, but frankly she isn't even as engaging as, say, Gideon Oliver or Sharon McCone or Brother Cadfael, and she lacks the depth and power of a Harry Bosch.

As I said, the jury is still out for me here. I liked TRACK OF THE CAT, but I wasn't wild about it. It's a solid first try, and I'll certainly read another Anna Pigeon or two before deciding whether or not to go for the whole series. I expect most readers will find this opening mystery enjoyable. I recommend it, but my recommendation is a mild one.

If you have run out of Tony Hillerman books to read, you are not out of wonderful Southwestern mysteries. It's easy to see why Nevada Barr won the Agatha Award for best first mystery. Her unlikely heroine allows the readers to feel like they are helping solve the crime at her side. In addition to being a very good book in its own right, this book sets the stage for a fine series of mysteries.