Bean Books

Dark Paradise by Tami Hoag is the same old story of the city girl who goes out west and meets the cowboy who is basically a pain in the tush, but she falls for him anyway. What makes it all new is that most of the people in the story have gone out west seeking a simpler way of life and while some of them just want to live, others are there to hide.
In today's world people often wonder how many amenities they would give up in order to dump the mass of complexities they live with. This gives the setting a contemporary tone, it's not about yesterday, it's about today. The cowboy feels his way of life slipping away and resents those newcomers who threaten his lifestyle and the land while accepting those who want only to live a simple life. Mixed in with all the rest is the savage unconquered land that attracts conquerors and savages. It is by exploring these conflicts that the writer breathes fresh life into an old plot.
What starts as a boy meets girl evolves into a complex mix of motives and murders. The story keeps you guessing till the very end as each little mystery gets solved and bigger mysteries are exposed. There is no let up in the action and the book is hard to put down.

This book was definitely worth the time. The pace was unerringly well-timed and the author should get an award for this piece!

I have really enjoyed every Tami Hoag novel I have read and I've read quite a few. Well, I've enjoyed every one of them up to this one. This was just goofy. I could not even enjoy a plot with possibilities because the characters were so absolutely ridiculous. Instead of a love affair, Marilee should have had grounds for a lawsuit. I only hoped that maybe the hero would turn out to be a psycho killer so he could be eliminated. This, I guess, is one of Tami Hoag's earlier works when she was in transition mode from romance writer to mystery/thriller writer. I am glad she progressed from this trash. I could not recommend this even to fans of Tami Hoag. And now, I am about to begin reading Guilty as Sin, the sequel to Night Sins. I'm still a Tami Hoagfan.

This has to be the worst book that I have ever read. I can read a book in a day or 2, but with this one I spent 4 days on it, and then I was only half way through it. I finally skimmed the rest of the book because it was so boring.

I hated the character of J. D. Rafferty. If a man talked that bad to a woman in real life he would have a busted lip. Why in the world would Marilee Jennings want anything to do with his sort is beyond me.

I didn't even like the other charters of the book, they were boring and the story just seemed to go nowhere.

I have read all of Tami Hoag's books, this is the only one that was missing from my collection of her books. I am glad I got it at a yard sale for .50 cents. That is about all this book was worth.

Other people may like this book, but this is just my opinion.

This book would have been good had the author not inserted the raunchy sex. I would not recommend this book.

This was a great book, it kept me entertained and guessing right to the end.

This is the first book I have read of Julie Garwood. I enjoyed the book enough that I plan to try out some of JG's other books. The plot was interesting. One thing I did get tired of was the way the author portrayed Kate's feelings for Dylan. I was happy to see a somewhat suprising ending. I would recommend this book to my friends. Actually one of my friends read it and loved it.

Very enjoyable. Listening to a book allows me to enjoy the story when I'm unable to read it. If you enjoyed the book, the audio version allows you to enter the world the story creates.

This story was set in South Carolina, Savannah, and a bit in Boston. It is an action packed mystery with several possible culprits, and the suspense is held until the end. There is also a romance between the main character and her best friend's boyfriend, who also happens to be investigating in the mystery. I enjoyed the sisters, and especially the settings. I am left with a few very minor questions, but those lose ends didn't have anything to do with the main plot, just the side relationships of the characters. The characters in this book were positive and cared about doing what was right.

This is the first story I have read/listened to by Julie Garwood, and it seemed very possible that there were other books before this one that used these characters because they made many references to past experiences with each other. I would read a story by her again definately.

I have listened to a book narrated by Joyce Bean before, and again, I like her style. She differentiates the characters pretty well and uses special affects for phone conversations and things.

Kate MacKenna has worked extremely hard to make a success of her business that she had started purely by accident when she made candles to give away as gifts. Her friends convinced her that they were marketable and her company grew from there. Just when it seems that everything should be going great, inexplicable events start happening.

Dylan Buchanan is the brother of Kate's best friend, Jordan. He also happens to be a detective in Boston. Dylan was injured in the line of duty and is currently on leave from the department. Dylan's had a crush on Kate for many years. He's never acted on it though, until now.

Unbeknownst to Kate or her sisters, a wealthy relation whom they'd never met changed his will, leaving each a very wealthy woman , but which puts them at great risk from the various money hungry relatives who are desperate to get their hands on the fortune. In Kate's world, everything is going wonderfully, her company is expanding, her sister's are both happy and well adjusted. The only exception is her sister, Kiera's attempts at `sexing Kate up' which includes wearing a Wonderbra. Little did Kate know that uncomfortable contraption would save her life! She'd worn the Wonderbra to an art showing that was being put on by a friend of hers'. When it became too uncomfortable, Kate was forced to go outside to remove it because the bathrooms were out of order. An explosion occurred and Kate was knocked unconscious. Once she is released from the hospital, Kate learns that her mother had put all her assets up as collateral before her death, one of the assets was Kate's company. When Kate had returned to college, she made her mother a partner so that she'd be able to make deposits and sign checks. The balloon payment is due within thirty days or Kate loses the company. Without her company how would she pay for her sisters' college tuition? Kate is soon given yet another reason to panic when she receives a phone call from Jordan. She'd discovered a lump in her breast and surgery was scheduled in a few days. Amidst all her worries about her sisters' tuition, her company, and their home, Kate flies to Boston from Charleston, South Carolina, to be with her friend. She'd never expected to see Dylan while she was in town, or have the one night stand she wouldn't be able to forget.

Julie Garwood has been one of my favorite authors for many years. Her books are smart, sassy, brilliantly humorous, and they always have an awesome plot that will keep you on the edge of your seat. SLOW BURN had me hooked right from the first chapter. You can easily envision the elderly relative's disdain for his self-indulgent relatives as he has someone videotape his explanation of his last will and testament to them all. It's a brilliant scene, and I absolutely loved it. The main characters are all down to earth, just the kind of people you'd want to have as friends. I was fascinated by Kate's ability to come through each crisis relatively unscathed, and was thrilled with Dylan's involvement in her life, especially after she practically ran out on him after a one night stand. Just when I thought I knew who was out to kill Kate and why, I reached the end of the book only to have to go back and reread it just because it stunned me the way it turned out. I have recently been told that Julie Garwood is the "Queen of Suspense" and I have to agree. Wonderfully done Ms. Garwood.

Chrissy Dionne (courtesy of Romance Junkies)

I have come to believe that there are no perfect families and no one family runs smoothly. All families are dysfunctional in some way. And so it is with this family created by Elizabeth Berg. I could not help stopping mid-read to reflect on my own family members, friends and self trying to get a better understanding of those I know. This is the second EB book I have read and once again it feels so real and her writing is sooo beautiful.

There are times in the book I do not like the main Character. She was mean as a little girl and while there are many out there and always have been, I hated feeling as if she represented most little girls. This was somehting I was sensitive to but by no means a flaw in the book.

This is a fast read. A well told story.

I was really loving this book from the moment I started reading it. The writing was perfect - interesting enough to tell a story without the annoying overly dramatized language that some other authors use. I found myself very engrossed in the characters (except for the kids - what teenager do you know would describe family, when asked to define what it means, as "slippery?" But I digress...) The author set up the ending so well, and I couldn't wait to see what panned out with Caroline and her mother, and just when I was about to find out -- Berg ended it. I mean, you find out what happens, but I felt there was a lot of build up (pretty much the whole novel!) for not much of anything. I think Berg could have done so much more with their relationship after their meeting, rather than just end the book. Even so, I am very glad I discovered Berg, who obviously is a highly gifted author, and I would still recommend this book to others. I am looking forward to reading her other books.

50-something quilt artist Laura Bartone is forced to confront the secrets that have long haunted her family during their yearly family reunion.
Laura is not so thrilled to attend but she has never missed a reunion and she is also looking forward to seeing her siblings and her parents and enjoy quality time with her hubby and her two kids at the fair.
After their long drive to their parents' place in Minnesota, Laura's sister Caroline comes clean with Laura and their brother Steve, telling them that she has been abused physically by their mother throughout her childhood.
Laura and Steve are shocked, they cannot believe this has happened under their noses with them not noticing a single thing.... They don't believe Caroline at the beginning but as memories come forward they will learn to make their peace with these disturbing confessions from their sister.
To add to the family's tension, Laura's Dad dies and the trip is cut short. Laura stays with her mother and begins to untangle the riddle of conflicting childhood memories.
An entertaining story about family secrets and labyrinths.

And I say Wow because I never saw the end coming, and it did not!

Let me start by saying I am a huge Elizabeth Berg fan, having devoured most of her works, and when I friend lent me her copy of this book, I was eager to begin. However, the more I read, the more I found that I did not like any one of the characters, unusual for an Elizabeth Berg book. I found Laura to be very juvenile and selfish and had to keep reminiding myself that this was a 50- something year old woman, and not a 20 year old one as she was portrayed. The dialogue was unrealistic, especially the conversations between she and her husband--long, drawn out paragraphs of their views on life. And I can also tell you from experience (a friend's not mine, who is a quiltmaker) that one cannot make a living designing quilts, never mind making more than her hardware store owning husband. How the heck much does she charge for these things, and who, in North Dakota would have the dough to cough up for one? Maybe on the East or West Coast, but North Dakota? And then there's Caroline, who I felt sympathy for because she was the most realistic of them all. Just when I thought a heated confrontation was about to take place, where all secrets would be revealed, I was astonished when I turned the page and found the reader's guide! Where's the end? The confrontation to end all confrontations? The book had great potential, however, I got the feeling that deadline needed to be met and was wrapped up in a most sort of warped way. A pity. I gave it so many stars (3) because I must admit, it did keep me going because I was waiting for a revelation that did not come.

Elizabeth Berg is one of the best writers of our time. I didn't discover her until recently but she's become a real favorite and I'm buying all her past novels that I can find.

Having read a good many books in this series I found High Country suffered from a couple of sequences that lost some of their sharpness due to their protracted length - perhaps some more agressive editing was called for - but that is a hard thing for some editors to do, giving the author's pervious successes. In addition the drug plane idea has been used by others so lacked the drama that might otherwise accompany the "find".

What raises this book above the average in my opinion, is the growth that the protagonist, Ranger Anna Pigeon undergoes in this story. One thing that bothered me about this very human and likable character was that I shared book after book with her and yet she wasn't really changing, not inside, no character developement, even while her life and career continued to evolve. How ironic that in this book where she is undercover, without a real identiy, that she actually does some subtle and seriously profound thinking about who she really is. Or perhaps this is not so ironic. When robbed of all she is and all she has ever been, when set adrift in humanity on the thin veneer of lies, when no one knows who you are, when every act is completely married with falsehood, then it is that Anna finds what she misses most, is herself.

Her experience waiting tables in college lands park ranger Anna Pigeon in an undercover assignment in food services at Yosemite National Park. Four of the park's employees have gone missing, and the rangers in the park aren't finding any leads. Anna is rooming with a couple of fluffhead girls while posing as a middle-aged waitress, but even her proximity to the other employees can't make her fit in. When one of her roommates collapses after getting high on something, Anna becomes concerned. Some odd men claiming to be friends of one of the missing employees have taken over his cabin, and their presence, along with mountains of gear, coupled with a snippet of overheard conversation and a single-line note from a missing woman to her brother, send Anna on a wilderness hike that very nearly ends her life when she stumbles across a big secret.

Though I wouldn't be so ungenerous as to say the book fell flat, it was definitely missing a vital ingredient usually present in these adventures. Anna spent an inordinate amount of time being hunted by killers in the wilderness and not enough putting things together. The villains were also perhaps a tad too sadistic, and they roughed Anna up a little more than necessary. In all, though it wasn't my favorite Anna Pigeon mystery, it was still a decent chapter in her saga.

I got this unabridged Nevada Barr CD/novel for an avid Anna Pigeon Mystery fan...and it "fit the bill" as a satisfying gift to give. The Giftee was mighty pleased.

I was hooked on Anna Pidgeon's Track of the Cat, and have devotedly purchased and read everything that Nevada Barr has written, especially the Anna Pidgeon books. But ever since Flashback, Nevada's books have been lacking in the excitement that has made the Anna Pidgeon books so addicting. I know, since reading Seeking Enlightenment...Hat by Hat, that Nevada has had a change in faith, and I wonder if it has not been reflected in her writing, since Anna has seemed to have this same kind of change come over her.

I have worked with many rangers as a docent for the parks system, and even in aging, none has seemed to carry aging to such a dark, dismal place as Nevada has written for Anna. Nevada needs to remember that age is not chronological, but spirtual, and if she wants people to keep reading her Anna Pidgeon books, she needs to stop aging Anna.

The draw of Nevada's books for me have been her travelogue of the national parks as much as the mystery of the novel. I have been given such a clear and perfect picture of each of the parks, that when I visit them, it seems as though I have already been there. This was not true for Yosemite. I grew up visiting Yosemite, and this book was so inaccurate, I would have thought I was visiting another place. First of all, walking in the wintertime from the Ahwanhee to Camp Curry or Yosemite Lodge would have caused hypothermia.

Nevada seemed hurried in writing this novel, and she seemed unable to decide on whether to develop the plot, or develop the park description, so she did neither. I would love to give her a redo on this, because based on the other reviews, I know she can do better.

Anna, far from home and undercover brings back the classic Nevada Barr we've missed in previous titles. The famous Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park is the location of Anna's new position, slinging hash. Barr reminds us of the aching feet, sore muscles, and endurance one must execute to keep a smile on your face under those eatery conditions.
The vivid contrast between undercover conditions and hike into the splendor of the mountains is vintage Barr as so many readers have used her stories as tour guides to our national treasures.
After all the danger, evil, suspense and injuries, this one gives the reader a fine ending.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

Beautifully written, great character descriptions and moving. I really loved this book -- it's a true GEM. I will look to buy Mona Simplson's other books.

I thought this was a very entertaining book. It kept my interest, but it wasn't all the fantasy/la-la land good-feeling typical book. Nothing happens that you expect. It's not a story that you would have thought up, it just has to be someone writing about their life (or so it seems.)

I did just finish watching the movie, and I do have to say I was a little disappointed. I thought it was a cute movie, but the book is soooooooo much better. Ms. Simpson touches on so many more aspects to the character's lives than the movie. It doesn't even come close to getting behind the characters.

I would recommend this book for anyone that is tired of the sappy love/feel good/happy ending books.

Like many other adolescents, Ann August is torn between loving and hating her mother. For Adele August refuses to be ordinary...the thing that her young daughter longs for most.

The two embark on a road trip to California, where Ann is to become famous. Really, she is just a pawn for her mother's fantasies.

The story flashes back and forth between present-day and the past, interspersing Ann's perspective with that of her mother, grandmother and aunt.

This is truly Simpson's finest work.

Seems like most of the other posters ought to stick to romance novels. Mona Simpson's first book is packed with rich imagery, irresistible storytelling, and vivid characterizations. In particular, Adele is certainly one of the most appalling mother characters in contemporary fiction. Grandiose, manipulative, and narcissistic, she is a monster for the ages. (Despite what the Amazon blurb says, I think it's easy not to fall in love with her.) Simpson has said in interviews that the book isn't autobiographical, but I can't help but wonder. That's how vivid it is.

To me, this was a very disjointed, sad picture of an extremely dysfunctional relationship between a mother who is an emotionally manipulative child, and a daughter who is forced to be an adult because of her mother's shortcomings. The Amazon review talks about how compelling and magnetic the mother's character, Adele, is, but I didn't find her to be that at all. Her character was pathetic, repellent and disturbing - a classic portrayal of a woman who never should have been a parent. I saw shades of my own relationship with my mother in the relationship between Adele and Ann, but thankfully my own mother was responsible and stable and understood who the adult was in our relationship. Adele comes across as a shallow manipulator, nothing more, and I fail to see how anyone could find her character magnetic and charming. I just saw her as petulant, childish and unstable.

Other reviewers have mentioned the other problems with the book - Ann, as a lead character, is very dull and seems to have very little emotional reaction to living what she clearly knows is a very abnormal life. The flashbacks with the aunt's and grandmother's lives didn't seem to have much of a point, and the way the story jumped back and forth through time was confusing and made the book seem to lack cohesion. There is also not any plot to this, it's just a series of recountings of events in the lives of these women. Through the course of the book Ann grows up and leaves Adele so she can go to college, and she only rarely sees Adele again. Other than that, there's not much of a story arc.

I really can't recommend this book. Maybe if someone had a dysfunctional childhood with a parent like Adele they would relate to it, but I didn't find much to like or anything that was all that compelling.

I personally thought that this was one of Nevada Barr's very best books.It is informative and intertaining at the same time; with some amusing content.I highly recommend this one to any Barr reader, you cant go wrong.

After promising to look up other work by Nevada Barr in my review of `Women On The Case', I picked up `Blood Lure'. The premise sounded interesting: Anna Pigeon on loan to Glacier Nat'l Park to do a study on grizzly bears runs into murder most foul on the camp trail.

Barr's description of the natural beauty and the natural world are full-colored and vibrant. She makes grizzly bear DNA research downright interesting.

Her plotting is crafty indeed, her story trail strewn with misleads and false starts, and thirty pages from the end you're still not exactly sure who the murderer is.

Most of her characters are well-developed and fully-fleshed. Others are less so, but that's the art of the lure---how much do we know about these characters and should we bother or not?

Although I'm not entirely happy with the ending, the tale is well-told and is an enjoyable read.

But I wouldn't advise bringing it on a camping vacation.

I'd probably rank this three stars for plot and five stars for the Anna Pigeon character--always five stars for Anna. It's the integrity of her character, how she thinks and reacts. She is consistent, smart and terribly human. In Blood Lure, the work is an excellent combination of field work and office work. I enjoyed the long passage where Anna hikes alone way up into the wilderness, above timberline. Barr is not afraid to let the trip take time and the descriptions of the mountains and terrain are vivid, fresh and sharp. The puzzle pieces are few. In a way, this is a drawing room mystery splashed across the wide open landscape of Glacier National Park. By the middle of the book, the solution is going to be found down one path or the other and Anna keeps going back and forth between the two, trying to wrestle the facts to the ground in a way that makes senese. And it's that wrestling process that makes her so fascinating, the way in which every new piece of information is viewed, reviewed, considered and kicked around. That said, I found the ending also a bit over-the-top, as others have noted. But I give Barr credit for attempting an unusual situation; I just think the plausiblity factor was stretched to the max.

Nevada Barr's National Park-set mysteries are shelved in my mind with Tony Hillerman's books. Both authors present the landscape they are set in as a major character. The events in their books are shaped by the setting and couldn't happen anywhere else. Having a ranger in the Natural Park Service is a very clever device as it gives Barr the opportunity to move her character from park to park, and have recurring characters and new characters in each book.

In Blood Lure, Anna Pigeon, the park ranger heroine, is shadowing a grizzly bear researcher who is doing a population census of the bears by luring them to leave their hair on scratching posts. First Anna and the researcher are terrorized by a huge rogue bear, and then a body is found.

Blood Lure is one of Barr's more disappointing efforts. Although Glacier National Park is a jewel of the National Park System, it doesn't really come to life the way the Natchez Trace or the Guadalupe Mountains do. The resolution of the murders the park ranger heroine Anna Pigeon uncovers is also unsatisfactory. The situation seems contrived and well, unrealistic. I've read about five in the Anna Pigeon series and they were all more enjoyable. I look forward to sampling others and being able to lose myself in a national park once more.

BLOOD LURE brings Anna Pigeon out of the steamy south to Glacier National Park for a stark contrast in environment. Who killer the step-mother? The famed Grizzly or a more deadly creature? Anna searches for answers while playing the role of a student of DNA research on our largest bear.
Nevada Barr's skills of environmental description are in full swing, but the mystery is lackluster. If this is your first read of the exceptionally fine series, I recommend the first TRACK OF THE CAT or my favorite, FIRESTORM. Then pickup others an excellent series with lots of facts and information that spices the mix.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

I've read all of the Nevada Barr mysteries and this by far is the worst. Jumping back and forth between the two stories was tiring and boring. I only made it halfway through, and I had to struggle to get that far. The rest of the books in the series are good, but I don't recommend this one for a first time reader of the series.

I enjoyed the book. My husband likes to listen to audio books on our way cross-country.

Flashback (Nevada Barr): Our favorite national park ranger, Anna Pigeon, is temporarily filling in for the boss at Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys, after the park's head ranger lost his girlfriend, along with his grip on sanity. It is very hot, and not horribly exciting in the park until Anna receives a box of old letters from her sister, who had unearthed them because they were written by their great, great aunt Raffia when her husband was an army captain at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. Anna spends her days dealing with sunburned tourists, and her nights getting caught up in the history of the last days of the Civil War.

Two stories then unfold; one in the present involving Anna and the staff at the park, and Raffia's story from the time when Fort Jefferson was an active military station and jail for the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination plot. The time periods start to merge in Anna's mind, however, when she sees and hears people from the past late at night while she wanders through the fort. Anna thinks she may be losing her grip on sanity, which makes her suspicious, since the last person to hold her job was institutionalized for the same thing. When one of her rangers is injured when an explosion sinks his boat, Anna starts to tie all the strange clues together to uncover a nefarious plot. Meanwhile, she's reading about a nefarious plot of old in her Aunt Raffia's letters, involving a sadistic sergeant, a rebel soldier, and Raffia's 16-year-old sister Tilly.

Anna is a solitary person and spends much of her time in introspection. Because of her circumstances at the fort, Raffia is also fairly solitary, but it was obvious that the two main characters in this novel were living very different lives. Raffia's welfare is largely dependent on the men around her, whereas Anna completely takes care of herself, even refusing her boyfriend's offer to fly down to keep her company when things are at their worst. Both stories, though different in nature, had similarities, and it was fun to read about two bits of intrigue happening in the same place at different times, and for different reasons. Nevada Barr is always worth reading, and this book is no exception.

The technique of telling two stories in alternate chapters did not work.Neither story ever got off the ground and the endings were dull!We are Nevada Barr fans,but finishing this book was a chore rather than a pleasure.Sorry!

Paul Davidson, former priest and sheriff in Natchez has proposed marriage and Anna Pigeon isn't sure this is what she wants. To put a little space between her and a long-term relationship she accepts a temporary assignment at Dry Tortugas National Park. An island, anything but conducive to contemplation as she finds herself involved in three different mysteries.
To keep the plot elements separate and moving Nevada Barr executes a splendid juggling act. Molly, Anna's sister send her a packet of letters written by a great-great-aunt who had lived at the fort during it's days as a prison. Rich in historical detail, a clever blend of the past and present, plus Anna's dilemma will insure fans follow the trail to a surprising conclusion. Maybe it is the complexity or diverse elements, but somewhere something is lacking, FLASHBACK isn't up to par for a Barr.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

Hunting Season is the second novel I read featuring Anna Pigeon (the first was Track of the Cat). This series, by Nevada Barr, probably has 10 or so books in it now. I was curious whether 1) Barr is still successful with the Anna Pigeon model, and 2) whether you had to have read the previous 9 (or so) novels to enjoy this one.

In Hunting Season, Law Enforcement Ranger Anna Pigeon is in Mississippi, protecting a sliver of National Park Service Land, the Natchez Trace Parkway (never heard of it). She discovers a murder... or is it? As in Track of the Cat, Anna does her normal job while tracking down the human and forensic clues in this case. And as in Track of the Cat, she works with some interesting folk, is still getting over the loss of her husband, and doesn't mind getting dirty. It looks like she has stopped drinking, at least as much as she used to.

I had figured out the cause of death of Doyce about mid-way through the book. But I really missed the boat when it came to "whodunit."

I'll tell you, the pace, action, and employment focus of this series just keeps reminding me of Dick Francis and his mysteries relating to horse racing. Not bad company to be in!

I look forward to my next Anna Pigeon novel.

This was the MOST frustrating Anna Pigeon book I've ever read.

Anna was so incompetent I could have screamed at her over and over, had she been in my living room.
To let Randy Thigpen (among very many others) get away with such insubordination and ineptitude, did not a great boss make!!

And let's not even talk about the deer meat in the trunk!

This book was a DRUDGE to work through...

Like "Deep South," "Hunting Season" is set in Natchez Trace National Parkway. This is one of those units of the National Park system that nobody ever thinks of, but it takes up a 450-mile stretch from southwestern border of Mississippi through the northeastern border and up to Nashville. Because it's a strip of parkway, it is far more a part of the community than many other national parks.

Though she has been there a while now, and is deep in a relationship with a local pastor-sheriff, Anna remains an outsider to this community. She is a Yankee law enforcement officer who finds herself in a world Yankee stereotypes: good old boys, racists, pickup trucks and football. The facts that Nevada Barr loves the region and that Anna is falling in love with a sympathetic local smoothen the rough edges of this relationship between character and place.

As a supervisor, Anna continues to have to deal with some difficult employees. One of her two rangers is a real nightmare, a lazy, sexist, hostile, lawsuit-prone loser. His forms of resistance are so well drawn that they must be based on some people in Nevada Barr's own past as a ranger.

What about the mystery? It's less compelling than most others in the series. In addition, the book has an unfortunate title - - as you may find yourself halfway through the book wondering why it has this name. If you think too hard about this, you'll be in the rare situation of a mystery reader knowing more than the detective knows.

If you're new to the Anna Pigeon series, I'd read a different book first. If you're committed to the series, don't skip this one because there are personal developments that remain important for subsequent books.

I think you either like Anna or you don't. I can't say the plots are air tight. I can't say she's the most intuitive of detectives. I can say she's wonderful to spend time with -- and her insights and descriptions of very real people are, to use a well-worn word, palpable. She's focused, flawed, and fabulous (as a result). This plot is solid, the setting is well used, and the resolution is right there. Maybe not my favorite Nevada Barr, but still an enjoyable ride.

Anna Pigeon has parked her vehicle for a second time on the dark, gloomy Natchez Trace, which allows Nevada Barr time to strengthen characters and develop the atmosphere of setting. HUNTING SEASON treats readers to a return engagement of characters from DEEP SOUTH and allows you to sink deeper into the quagmire of place, local politics and "old friends."
HUNTING SEASON has all of the Barr standards, fast paced, extensive knowledge of park rangers, their problems and duties, great plotting and rapid pace.
You don't become bored with a Nevada Barr, Anna Pigeon novel, no matter where the location.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

i thought it started out very slow. Then it got really good, then the end..it just seemed rushed. The ending to me, didn't really have anything to do with the story. As one person wrote, you don't know how Eve's and Cole's relationship ended up, besides them getting back together. It just seemed Jackson wanted to hurry and start her new book which apparently is the sequel to this one.

One word can describe this book. Trite. This book is so very bad, from the cliched conversations to the overuse of quotation marks. Who talks like this? I have been trying to read this book for 3 1/2 months and can't stop mentally rolling my eyes enough to get very far. I can do without what she thinks is romance and stick to the suspense, but even that is far from satisfying. I love the true crime and suspense genre. The Hannibal Series by Thomas Harris is one of my favorites. But this...this is neither suspenseful nor intriguing. I think that perhaps I'll try to finish it and read it to the obvious conclusion that the characters somehow can't seem to figure out. But I can guarantee that this is the last Lisa Jackson book that I will ever read.

Absolute Fear was very similar to Shiver. There is a lack of variety among the characters and the plot. Many of the characters seem to be carbon copies of each other.

I LOVED THIS BOOK, NOW I HAVE TO BUY THE NEXT ONE, LOST SOULS, CANT WAIT TO GET IT.

By the end of this book, it seemed that everyone in it was related to everyone else and about the only person who wasn't a blood relative to the killer(s) and/or victims was the reader, and the family tree was so convoluted I began to question my own lineage. And wasn't it convenient that all the people involved in the cover up or frame up or who were unwitting victims all had names that were palindromes? What about the tatoos? Honest, I knew what the tattoo meant the first time it was mentioned and the second time and the third time. I wanted to scream at the detectives in this one: Wake up, idiots! And these were detectives I liked in previous works by Lisa Jackson. This book was kind of interesting for the excitement end of it, but the mystery was no mystery (except when the ultimate bad guy turned out to be someone we hardly even meet in the book) and the romance between Cole and Eve was simply ridiculous. He was so abnoxious, I can't believe Eve was so shallow as to have any interest in him at all. On the other hand, why would this intelligent rising star of a lawyer be wasting his time with such a self-destructive airhead as Eve Renner? Maybe it was because he managed to lose his apparently substantial amount of accumulated wealth in about a month. He lost his house, his car...Everything and for what? Because he was a suspect? Cole definately needed a better financial planner. Okay, he had a great body and she was willing to do the deed with him whenever oppurtunity knocked. I wonder how their relationship will be in twenty years when he isn't the great hunk anymore and she's still hopping into bed with any stud who has a little animal magnetism. I don't know what to make of the explanation of the 'phantom' sperm. That was just way too convenient for the bad guy. Then there was Kristi, who found out late in the book how she was related. Kristi quit her day job on the off chance that she might be successful as a writer of true crime stories. Did she ever stop to think she might have to live for maybe a couple weeks before she started receiving royalty checks? How about an advance check if she had even started to write something? I don't know how that works, but can an unpublished, unknown and even unstarted writing writer earn a living? Anyway, I continue to count myself a Lisa Jackson fan, but this one was close to puting me over the edge and saying no more. I look forward to her next novel, but ABSOLUTE FEAR was not up to her usual standards. Bring on LOST SOULS! Maybe I'll re-read SHIVER or THE MORNING AFTER. Those are Lisa Jackson at her best.

The blurb I had read on this book touted it as a romantic mystery. I didn't find it to be particularly romantic or a very good mystery at all. That said, it was a pleasant enough story. The prose is terribly simple, but overall there are worst ways to spend one's days. Definitely not the author's best work, but a lot better than some of the things that are out there.

Who's next? Lillian Harte, professional matchmaker, and successful CEO Gabe Madison. Gabe's a wonderful character - strong and determined, with a will of iron. He's pulled the family business out of the black chasm it fell into after the Harte-Madison split, pretty much at the expense of any social life. Now he wants to marry and have kids (especially since his brother Rafe is happily married), but has no idea where to find a wife. He insists on becoming a client with matchmaker Lillian, and she insists on trying to fob him off. 5 out of his 6 planned dates are utterly disastrous. No #6 for him, oh no, not when Lillian considers Gabe somehow sabotages each and every date. She's retiring, she declares, to his irate disbelief. He follows her back to Eclipse Bay, intent on dogging her heels to make her fulfil her business obligation to him. To his horror she closes her office and takes up painting, for goodness sake. Watching this controlled, modern-day warrior lose his cool with sweet, feminine Lillian is breathtaking. The suspense sub-plot, the ongoing Harte-Madison feud and the entire cast of Eclipse Bay will continue to enchant.

I think I liked this one as much as I did the first stoyr. This is the story of Gabe and Lillian. As usual a Harte and a Madison don't usually mix well. But, in this case Lillian has been hired by Gabe due to her dating service. But, after more than the guaranteed dates and reupping Gabe still has not found his match. He has one data left and he is going to insist Lillian fufill her contract, much to her dismay as she has decided to close her business. They both wind up back in Eclipse Bay and the showdown starts. There are alot of the characters you have come to enjoy in this one such as Virgil and AZ...

I am having bad luck with audio books; in particular romance mysteries. The women just cant do a man's voice convincingly enough for me. This time she made Lillian sound like such a priss. Finally, got the book from the library, forgot the audio and had a great time with it. The first chapter is a howl. Gabe & Lillian are a tough couple to rate, so I just went along with the book. The premise was weak but, it's summer and I have decided to just read and enjoy. Not much time is invested and it is a nice addition to the trilogy. I would recommend the 'Naked in Death" unabridged audio; now there's a woman who can do all voices and make it work!

I have never laughed so hard in my life. At one point I actually had tears rolling... some of the stuff with AZ killed me but the wholehearted tears came from the camera shot... I will not ruin it for those who have not read but the whole red undies thing was hysterical. The sex was a bit weak... a lot of assumptions, which is fine but I think more then one sceen would have made the "clicking" of the characters a bit stronger. All in all though a good book I throughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading Summer at Eclipse Bay next! I would recommend this book agian