From Amazon.com
When the body of Doyce Barnett turns up in unsavory circumstances in Mississippi's Natchez Trace National Park, district ranger Anna Pigeon finds her investigation stymied at every turn. The dead man's brother, an undertaker with a secret that's been kept by three generations of his family, will do anything to protect it, even if his cover-up puts Anna's life in danger. Her own deputy, jealous because she got the job he wanted, seems to be sabotaging her case in order to advance his political ambitions. A bunch of Mississippi good old boys who've been poaching on park territory are gunning for her, and something strange is going on in a slave cemetery that's also in her bailiwick.
In this, her 10th outing, the prickly, ever-likable Ranger Pigeon puts all the pieces together in a lively, well-paced mystery that evokes two dimensions of the Deep South: its lush beauty and its tangled racial history, dimensions that, as Anna herself puts it, are "both a balm. History because its sins had already been committed, nature because she was supremely indifferent to the petty hysterias of the human race." --Jane Adams
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From Publishers Weekly
After an interlude in Montana and Canada in Blood Lure (2001), Anna Pigeon returns to the Mississippi Natchez Trace Parkway of Deep South (2000) in Barr's 10th book to feature the peripatetic national park ranger, though with its haphazard plot and fitful action it's not one of the author's best. The feisty Anna, now district ranger of the Port Gibson District, is still adjusting to her supervisory position and dealing with her resentful male staff. Her quiescent love life has blossomed with Paul Davidson, an ordained Episcopal minister and the sheriff of neighboring Claiborne County. When the nude body of Doyce Barnette turns up at Mt. Locust, a historic plantation and inn in the Natchez Trace Parkway, the dead man appears to have been the victim of a ritual killing, but it doesn't fit with his prosaic lifestyle. Anna works with the local sheriff, Clintus Jones, on a slippery case with a few motiveless suspects and fewer clues. Although it's hunting season, there doesn't seem to be a connection; the body shows odd marks and the cause of death is vague. Barnette's brother, an undertaker with political ambitions, is helpful but curt, his mother belligerent and uninformative. After Anna receives a couple of threats, she and Clintus discover they're investigating two different cases, and Anna finds out she has an enemy within the park service. As usual, the writing is first-rate, with vivid characters and atmospheric background. Even when she's not at the top of her form, Barr outshines most other authors in the mystery genre. National author tour. (Feb. 18)Forecast: Some fans may be disappointed that Barr has stopped moving her heroine around the national park system, but Anna's ongoing romance with Paul should attract new readers and keep existing ones happy.
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--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
