Nevada Books

Having read some of these Anna Pigeon mysteries, this was not my favorite. The people were all just too 'messed up'. Is no one normal in the Park System? Anna herself is quite a dame. A boozer with personal problems, she turns into Superwoman! Actually, she's pretty stupid. As quoted from the book, "Anna, you've painted yourself into a corner this time." Just like in a gothic novel or a cheap horror picure, the woman goes at it alone, walks into the most transparent danger, and then escapes with a few scratches. She should be dead! And of course, friends are always just around the corner as they come to the rescue in the nick of time - oh brother! Why didn't she use her head and the technology available - or the FBI? If someone is leaving an island, there are only so many ports they are going to. Radio ahead, Anna. My greatest gripe is the way this lover of Texas takes to the Great Lakes. She dives and handles all types of water craft like a pro. She faces the storms, docks, leaps from boat to boat, hangs off the gunwalls, and does a tie-on flawlessly. Tell me that's not fantasy. I have trouble imagining how her solo boating ventures could happen without mishap. Having spent time on Superior, I can tell you that it is BIG and DANGEROUS. The author makes that point, but the characters are a little disrespectful of that fact as they boat at night, cruise in the fog, etc. In real life, no one plays around with Lady Superior and wins - not even Anna.

"Superior Death" by Nevada Barr, ©1994

Ms. Barr always writes a good story, placed in various national parks. These are not the normal parks like Yellowstone or Yosemite, but little traveled ones that get their share of visitors, but not a lot of press. Usually she has a map included, this is the first that did not have one.
The story was sad, people got killed and abused, but really easy to read and interesting. Her stories are more on the lines of suspense/mystery, rather then just mystery, and emphasis on the suspense. This does get a bit expectable and, while exciting, you know she will get away and fight another day.
It is also another example of the sleuth who is not a detective. I have read one of a state game warden and a caterer, as well as this national park ranger.

Nevada Barr was recommended to me by Sara Paretsky and I agree - her stories are great. The characters are rich and the background interesting. The story is fast paced and intriguing with a nice twist at the end. Good read.

If you have a major fear of water, don't go near Nevada Barr's A SUPERIOR DEATH. The seconded of the Anna Pigeon takes you to the murky bottom of Lake Superior in a thriller guaranteed to rattle your bones. Anna has been transferred from the dry Texas hill county to a little known national park on the shores of our largest fresh water lake with murder following her.
The park people are sceptical of her and her innate curiosity that demands a personal exploration of a famous shipwreck. Mystery--suspense--thrills in unusual environments are becoming a trademark for Ms. Barr.
Don't miss a page of the excellent story.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

One of the many problems from which this book suffers is a lack of regional and cultural context. As someone who has lived in the Keweenaw Peninsula, I was looking for descriptions or insights the author might offer regarding the area and its people, but these were conspicuously lacking. Obviously, the author had spent some time in the park, but her portrayal was such that Isle Royale seemed to be surrounded by cardboard cut-out locales. Even though Houghton (the location of the park headquarters) is visited, referenced in numerous ways, and even made the location of a lesbian community of interest to sorting out the sexual preferences of various characters, it remains a cipher -- a nearby blank canvas upon which the author can paint some plot conveniences, but nothing else. Readers will learn more about New York City from this book than they will about western Upper Michigan. Likewise, the people and culture of the Keweenaw Peninsula are pretty much absent from the book, unless one counts the moment where a character -- written sympathetically at that point -- compliments the protagonist for having a capacity for introspection she finds absent in those from the Upper Peninsula.

A second major flaw is the over-use of convenient details and timing. So many coincidences just happen to occur during the short period of time covered by the book that the word "implausible" seems inadequate. I realize this is fiction, but even science fiction writers have recognized for decades that good writing demands reasonable limits upon what an author can do within a particular genre or universe. A novel consciously written and marketed as an action thriller, for example, may stretch credibility in order to move from one over-the-top sequence to another, but since that is the point of the exercise, a reader can buy the book expecting to accept the story on its own terms. This was not the case with "A Superior Death", which I purchased expecting to find a mystery novel set on Isle Royale, not a tale that incorporated so many conveniences as to depart the mystery genre entirely and gravitate into Matthew Reilly territory.

I will describe the following examples in fairly generic language, for the sake of those who still want to read the book. A) One of the most obvious cases of laughably far-fetched convenience is the coincidence by which the protagonist catches on to the killer. B) Two characters possessing a crucial teddy bear originally appeared to have been deliberately written as odd for the purpose of making them interesting, yet after a couple of ludicrous coincidences by which the protagonist is saved, it became obvious that their oddity was also the author's cover for not having to come up with a rational explanation for the series of events. C) A character accidentally chokes to death while engaged in an activity that was, for the character, fairly routine; furthermore, this death was not related to the flow of the story, but conveniently occurred at the end of the book in order to provide a warped kind of closure (since, as other characters make unsubtly clear, the reader was being manipulated into being satisfied with this person's death). D) A missing-person subplot is stretched across the entire length of the book -- long after the official disinterest in locating her was plausibly sustainable, particularly given that the murder victim's wife claimed she hadn't initially reported her husband's disappearance because she thought he had gone to be with the other woman in question.

The identity of the killer wasn't too hard to guess, simply because there was no other justification for the prominence of the person in the story, and the author's attempts to cause the reader to consider other suspects were so ham-handed, the discerning reader is unlikely to take the blind alleys seriously. One of those dead-ends involved two diving partners of the murder victim; the three of them refer to themselves as the Three Musketeers. The problem is that the murder victim was nicknamed after d'Artagnan, who was not one of the Three Musketeers. Yet the author uses this very identification to allow the protagonist to link a knife to the dead man due to the initials "d'A". Clearly, if the author had identified the victim with the actual name of one of the Three Musketeers (Athos, Porthos, and Aramis), any mark on the knife would probably have been either less distinctive or more obvious, depending on the number of letters used in the inscription. So, in order to artificially create a mystery-within-a-mystery, the author has to wrongly identify d'Artagnan as one of the Three Musketeers, and then have at least four characters (the dead man and his partners, as well as the protagonist) consistently follow the same mistake. That's as ludicrous as writing a mystery about a murdered sports buff in which one of the puzzles requires the deceased, his friends, and the detectives to brazenly and consistently identify a famous football player with the wrong team.

Finally, while the author offered some details regarding the underwater condition of the Kamloops shipwreck, it (like the Keweenaw) appears to exist merely as a blank canvas for the author's own purposes. The story of the sinking of the Kamloops, including the deaths of those who came ashore and the subsequent discovery of the bottle containing the note written by Alice Bettridge, would have added a lot of background and depth to the events of the novel, even if treated only briefly. Instead, "A Superior Death" seems analogous to a book in which characters deal with wreckage or artifacts from the Endurance, without any overview of the Shackleton expedition. I suspect the reason the author passed up such a golden opportunity is that the motive she creates for the murder requires her to designate the captain of the Kamloops as engaging in criminal activity during the fatal voyage. If there were historical evidence to support such a charge, then the events of "A Superior Death" could not have happened (because there would have been no secret), and it otherwise seems rather unseemly to impugn a historically-identifiable dead man in such a way. It seems reasonable to guess the author and her publisher felt they could not describe the real crew, their story, and their names, and then go on to claim that the lawbreaking dead captain mentioned in the story was a fictional construct bearing no resemblance to the real person, living or -- in this case -- dead. Regardless of the underlying decision-making process, the resulting work manages to ignore the fascinating human history behind the disaster, while appearing to taint the memory of one of its victims.

Those looking for books about Isle Royale should instead consider the excellent titles by Howard Sivertson (Once upon an Isle: The Story of Fishing Families on Isle Royale and Tales of the Old North Shore: Paintings and Companion Stories), Tom and Kendra Gale (Isle Royale: A Photographic History), Peter Oikarinen (Island Folk: The People of Isle Royale), Jim DuFresne (Isle Royale National Park: Foot Trails & Water Routes), and Daniel Lenihan (Shipwrecks of Isle Royale National Park: The Archeological Survey), among others. Everyone else merely searching for a good read should simply look elsewhere.

Very disappointed as the book is more like a movie script (i.e. "He enters the room, voice over") This makes it very dull and I couldn't get into the book altho I tried several times.

Book came in the time frame and in the condition specified.

It has been a long time since I fell on such a good book. Interesting characters intertwine in a decisive decade for Vegas. The story is based on the real life of Frank (Lefty) Rosenthal who left his mark in the gambling industry.

Money, power, greed, lust, and crime with flair intertwine in seventies' Sin City. Pileggi is a natural born story-teller who knows how to make it all work and keep you glued to the book with every turn of the page. The writing is style is spot on. It's so hard to find contemporary literature written with such a simple language, yet capable of conveying an intriguing story.

The fact that I had only seen bits and pieces of the movie, also helped. I could place the faces of De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Sharon Stone behind the characters while still enjoying the novelty of getting acquainted with the story for the real time.

I would recommend this to anybody who is interested in recent history, the mob, and the gambling industry overall.

This book is really great.Hate to tell that jackass who wrote the olsen casino review but its a non fiction story and it was written long before the movie came out. Anyone interested in the mob or vegas will love this book!

Perhaps a little more well known for "Wiseguys", the book that became the movie "Goodfellas", Nicholas Pileggi is as good as they get when it comes to writing about the Mafia, its people and the drama of living the life. It is unfortunate that he doesn't work very fast - more books would be welcome.
"Casino" is the true story of Vegas in its heyday prior to the mega resort/casinos we see today, like Excalibur, New York New York, The Luxor, etc. Before large corporations turned Las Vegas into a theme park with casinos, the Chicago mob pretty much controlled the then famous casinos of the day, like the Stardust, where the movie "Casino" disguises it with the fictional name of The Tangier. Skimming the profits was the mob's business. Perhaps the greatest handicapper of all time, Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, ran three major casinos and ran them well. Chicago sent out the legendary Tony Spilotro to keep an eye on "Lefty" and protect him and the moolah. Spilotro, however, had ideas of his own and soon became mired in a horrendous mess, dragging Rosenthal and eventually all the mob controlled casinos to their demise with him. Rosenthal still lives, and even has a web site, but Spilotro at books' end learns the hard way that being insubordinate to the mob and skimming their skim has dire consequences.
Pileggi is a master at showing a picture of the lives of these people, the shady deals, the threats from every corner, from the state, other criminals and the Mob, and how difficult life is for those who choose the gambling scene as a way of life.
It's morbid but fascinating reading. A must for fans of organized crime books.

I started following Anna Pigeon in Track of the Cat, a book I checked out of the library because it had the word "track" in it back when I was just learning to track. Since then I have read every book I could find by Nevada Barr, even those without the famous Anna Pigeon in them because when it is all said and done, this writer will be a classic. The Anna Pigeon in this latest book has lived through so many harrowing mysteries that she has gained skills and savvy that make her almost a different character. Who says a female protagonist needs to be a ditz? Not that Anna doesn't get hurt in this one, but she gives as good as she got. This is a read where you don't find yourself frustrated with the main character being stupid. Instead you are right with her unraveling the mystery as she does, only being spared the physical pains.

Where to start with this book? My first gripe - not a new one - is an irritating grammar issue. I almost quite reading after five words, because there it was: "Ann'd." For heavens sake, Nevada, cut that out. It's distracting, poor grammar and diction, found in speech but not in writing.

And that plot. Good grief. Was there an editor anywhere in the contiguous 48 states who could have helped? Characters wandered in an out and it was honestly hard to keep track of them, because some were fleshed out so little. And what a pack of weirdos. I think the wolves showed great restraint in not eating them all. Immediately.

Why oh why is Homeland Security always the bad guy? And could it have been more obvious? And if Bob What's his name is supposed to be Katherine's grad prof mentor, and he has so little knowledge of wolves, when she seems to be the expert, how does that work in real-life academia? Hint, it doesn't.

Why on earth does Anna Pigeon seem to hate men so much? It's almost embarrassing. Poor Paul.

And that climax. It went on so long I got bored. End a book, lady. Leave us wanting more, not less.

I could go on. This is enough. Never again.

I am an avid Nevada Barr fan and have read all her published books to date. After waiting patiently for its release, "Winter Study" is a real disappointment, especially when compared to "Flashback", "Deep South", or her particularly well written "Bittersweet".

I had the sense of being "trapped" by limitations of the subject matter and setting: a study of wolves on an isolated and ice-bound island with a small handful of suspicious characters sharing a bunkhouse. Anna's formula for getting into serious trouble twice during the story -- once in the middle and once at the end -- has become predictable. Missing are the insightful and amusing telephone conversations with her sister Mollie, which usually help to give the characters and story depth and allow us to relate better to them. The wolves themselves could have offered more interest. The premise is just too far-fetched and many of the predicaments, including the ending, are just too drawn out. I found it very difficult to connect to the story or the characters.

If the release of this book was delayed because of the effects of Katrina, then I suggest that New Orleans and the hurricane might have provided far better material for a more interesting and engaging story.

I had a tough time getting into this book and after about 50 pages I dropped it off at the library after waiting a very long time to get it. On page 44 when Anna could not stand to take a walk or be in a cabin with a fat person I found it offensive and no longer liked her.

This represented my first Nevada Barr novel and I found it fast-paced and enjoyable to read. The kids and my husband and I just got back from a trip along the Minnesota shore-line of Lake Superior, including taking a boat out to Isle Royale . (Does anyone else feel that Isle Royale obviously correctly ought to be part of Minnesota? It's far closer to Minnesota geographically, topographically, and distance-wise than it is to Michigan.) I got the book from the University library where I work thinking it would be an apt read for our trip. My husband read it first (he's more of a mystery/suspense buff than I) and then I read it. I really found that I could hardly put it down as it just moved along and drew me in, beautifully creating a creepy atmosphere and on-the-edge-of-your-seat suspense. Bravo for that!

On the con side however, there were some errors that were highly annoying. Early on, mention is made of the boatloads of visitors who arrive daily from Grand Marais, MN. Au contraire, the commercial Minnesota boat tours depart from Grand Portage, NOT Grand Marais. In the description of the unfortunate researcher who is brutally savaged and whose ankle is broken, Anna talks about a compound fracture of the femur. The femur is the large thigh bone, not a bone in the ankle. Near the end of the book Anna's shoulder is dislocated, but in the initial description of the event it is mentioned that she felt her ulna pull loose. The ulna is one of the two bones in the lower arm--I'm guessing Ms. Barr meant the humerus, the long bone that runs from shoulder to elbow. These are minor errors, but are more than mere typos. They distract from the novel and can make a reader lose respect for the writer. Doing your research means not making errors of this sort that feel hasty or lacking in smarts.

Also, as a few other reviewers have noted, the story didn't hold together as well as it might've as it drew to an end. I felt a little let down as some of the details (distance of hikes or ski excursions, recovery time from significant physical hardships) were unrealistic and the denouement was a bit of a stretch.

In all, though Winter Study wasn't a "great" novel, this was an enjoyable read and I looked forward each day to the evening when I could pick up the book and get engrossed in the spooky excitement.

The plot had potential, since it is usually hard to go wrong with a Western romance featuring a beautiful and gutsy gal and a tall, dark and handsome half-breed cowboy, but flowery writing and a redundant "I'm the wind" mantra weighed the story down. And does it really make you dreamer to want to find water for your poor skinny cows? It just was not one of Elizabeth Lowell's best books.

This has topped all books I have read as the best ever. The struggle the characters had to realize their dreams was gut-wrenching, any weaker person would have broken. Some of the reviewers couldn't understand why Rio was like he was, but I think the reasons for his inner workings was clearly explained. Like one of the other characters he befriended said Rio's life would have broke a weaker man. He not only had stronger beliefs than anyone ever, but he was a friend to so many in their time of need. The story couldn't have unfolded any other way in order for Hope to learn the far reaches of the kindness and unselfishness of the man Rio was.
Yes there should have been a sequel to show us more of what went into realizing the fruit of the dream of Hope for the Valley of the Sun.

Answer, WAAAAAYYYY too many!!!!!I would have really liked this story except for that one word wich she used over and over and over again.........The characters and setting was good, but enough of that word already!!!!!

(...)
I like western romance novels, and nothing comes close to Beautiful Dreamer. The plot line is refreshingly original, the characters are believable and have won a place in my heart. Elizabeth Lowell paints the west so vividly. I've read several other of Lowell's books, and this is undoubtably my favorite. I really wish there were more books like this. Thanks!

The hero (Rio) in this book is one of my favorites. Although he struggles with his past and his own pain, he his strong, sexy and givng. What I like about this book is that Rio and Hope don't waste thier time fighting all of the time. You can feel thier care and feelings for one another. Hope is strong and independant without being abrasive. The love scenes in this book are sensual without being filthy. I HIGHLY recommend this book!!!! You won't be sorry!!!!

I enjoyed the book, but the last chapter was kind of a dumping ground for everything. Somehow the author of the last chapter threw it all together to end the story --- but it was a mish mosh that I didn't follow very well. I read it because a couple of my favorite writers were in the "pack" --- Mary Jane Clark, particularly. The last chapter was too long and just a mess, in my opinion.

The Phonenix, contrary to the one located on Gay Street, is an upscale spa for the rich and famous. The scene of five murders, this time the characters are all interrelated, which is uncovered in the final chapter. It was all rather convoluted, being the artistic endeavors of thirteen prominent writers, each for one chapter. This is the result of a project to copy the serial novels of the Thirties in which Agatha Cristie was involved. In 'Agatha,' the movie, she was incognito "shadowing" her nemesis in a steam room in England about the same time she was writing such (living a dream). Our Phoenix building downtown has been renovated into high priced condos for strange folks who moved here and think it is novel to live on the main street of this town. No Spa there, however, you have to go to Powell to the Fitness Center to find the hot tub and steam room.

The Phoenix in this story in segments is a place of myster with drugs, adoptions, murders all involved until the Chapter 13 which explains all in detail to the survivors who are all family, interrelated in a weird way. "A family, rising phoenixlike from the ashes." Caroline thanked God for bringint this man into her life; Tennessee congressman Doug Blessing with some secrets of his own. She hadd not "forced her way to freedom" because of an anticipated "need for Doug's more delicate plumbing." This written by a mystery writer as opposed to a romance novelist who would be more explicit. Just a slightly different way of phrasing, which I always used in the book reviews I gave to the literary club -- it was fun to confuse those who weren't napping. The Phoenix had a mud room with its own secret stash.

Some of the gathering of strong personalities include the beautiful made model (Adonis), the kinky actress, the green-haired rock star who went through N.A., the detective Toscana who sometimes acted like God ("and Toscana saw that it was good."), Dante, t he masseur, and Geoff, the assitant pastry chef. The sociopathic personality responsible for the deaths had no conscience, and was evil with no sense of honor. Knowledge was her weapon. A person can only ask, to be granted a wish for anything.

Led by Nevada Barr based this confusing story showing how a character can be killed in a spa. I review another book wherin the pivotal chatacter was killed in the steam room of the notel spa shortly before his scheduled assignation with the main person. So, this premise is nothing new, nor the format. What is different is t he freedom of each of these authors to develop their own characters and circumstances leading to the next sequence of unusual, never-thought-of-before things a client could do at this exclusive Phoenix Spa. This serial format started in 1931 with 'The Floating Admiral' which was serialized in England. Marcia Talley, editor, discovers a link with that first collaboration and declares, "We have come full circle."

Two more recent such workings are 'Naked Came the Stranger ' (1969) by "Newsday" and 'Naked Came the Manatee' serialized in the "Miami Herald."

Nice idea, nice effort, but with a blah outcome. These writers, who are superstars in their own write, had to suppress too much of their natural talent to weave a seamless story. Don't buy, go to the library.

This is a readable tale for a rainy evening, but using thirteen authhors for the thirteen chapters resulted in some extreme changes of direction. It sounded like a cast of characters with multiple personality disorders. Some chapters are better than others. Caroline's raid on the kitchen is really funny. But other chapters don't seem to come across as well. A few situations are transparent, and others are a bit of a stretch. Perhaps it ended up with too many twists and turns.

First of all, to enjoy this sort of novel, you have to be able to appreciate what's going on behind the scenes: backstabbing; plot-twisting; character reinventions. And I'm not talking about the story itself. I'm talking about what the 13 authors are trying to do to each other!
The genre originated wonderfully with the august members of the British Detection Club way back in 1931, in a "serial" novel in which the various authors contrived ways to skullduggle not only the reader but each other and try to make it almost impossible for the final writer to wrap everything up neatly and tie it with a bowknot. That effort, "The Floating Admiral," is still the very best of its type. More recently, it's been done with sparkling wit by the Miami bunch including Carl Hiassen and Dave Barry in a delicious romp entitled "Naked Came the Manatee."
Now it's been tackled by a baker's dozen of America's female mystery writers. Yes, the plot is silly. Yes, the characters aren't all that fully developed. But who cares? The enjoyment of this book, as the others, is in seeing what each successive writer is doing to skewer what has already been written (without, however, contradicting it) and send the story reeling in a provocatively new direction. New openings are abruptly cut off at the knees. (Is she dead? Or is she only concussive?) Contrasting scenarios challenge what you think you've already assuredly figured out.
It doesn't really matter who winds up having done what to whom. If you're enjoying the wicked twists being perpetrated not by the characters but by their creators, then what you're looking for is how the final writer responds to the challenge of wrapping everything up with no loose ends and no plot spins left twisting in the wind--not even the yellow polkadot bikini! And in this regard, Laurie King shines splendidly.
As I closed the book, I was imagining the final dinner party those naughty thirteen were having after they all got to read King's inventive closure, and what a laugh they were enjoying. But the laughter is not at our expense. We share in it.

The book did not explain too much about Brookey herself. I wanted more on the withcraft, more on her Dad etc. Fast easy read, just not enough for me.

I was really quite surprised to find such a strange and deceitful person.a real woman could do such horrifying things to her own family. I never thought that true life could be worse than a fiction murder mystery.

Really good book - I got it from some Amazon.com reader's 10 best true crime novels and if this one was any indication of the rest of them - he/she right on the money!! Very graphic - pictures are definitely NOT for the faint of heart. I still can't get them out of my head

All I read is true crime and this is a good book.
I thought the author did a great job of researching the characters for this book and really brought them to life.
It is unbelievable how much this women got away with!

I'm a self-confessed true-crime junkie. I picked this up because I remember seeing part of the coverage on TRU TV back when Brookey was on trial. This book is wonderfully researched and presented. The photos are gruesome; even for a true-crime novel. You usually see grainy shots of uninteresting aspects of the crime. Here, it's right there in all it's horror. In addition, there are many side stories presented by the author, detailing some of Las Vegas' more notorious crimes. Unsettling and disturbing, "Witch" is a must add to your true-crime library. I hope to see more from this author!

I wonder from the other reviews whether they either read the same book or didn't finish it. Reviewers point out that the main character Sarah is a little weak willed without the proper will needed to survive the frontier. I think that is the lens of modern feminist sensibilities.

Either way, this book is about true love's transformation of Sarah from a weak, wishy-washy girl to a strong, determined woman. Beginning with her willingness to accept an arranged marriage to a brutal oaf who cared not for her own needs, Sarah becomes a woman who could take care of herself. The tale is about Sarah and Imogene's love and how it transformed the younger woman into the gracious, strong woman that she would become. It's about the grief, heartache and utter joy that occurred in between those two extremes. Bittersweet chronicles what they do to keep that love alive and what it costs them.

I would not recommend the book for anyone who is depressed because it is extremely sad and rife with death. But the blossoming of love between the two characters is sweet and you will definitely root for them. If you need a good cry over what you have or what you lost, this is the book to read. It's beautifully written. Thank you, Nevada.

I loved this book. I have even given it to a number of friends of mine. I liked the book as it is. I also think if Barr wanted she could meake a second book about the lover that has become strong over the years, and where it could lead to a new life with all she has learned. I have a friend who has a family rance in NV and to go from one house to another is 28 miles on dirt roads, dusty, windy,and craggy. I could just picture the coundtry Barr discribed. This is a wonderful book for women's studies.

This is NOT a mystery, this is NOT one of the Anna Pidgeon series. It's a lesbian love story, set in the Old West. The people are real, their world is real. Again, very well-written. I didn't want it to end.

I realized late that this was Nevada Barr's FIRST novel, not her LATEST. Thank goodness she has learned better plot development since Bittersweet, which she wrote in 1984.

The trite title gives it all away. While the characters are well thought-out, consistent and potentially interesting, the plot is graceless and overly contrived. While I wouldn't expect a story about two women becoming lovers in the nineteenth century to be full of rainbows and butterflies, the story focuses primarily on their challenges and tragedies.

Unfortunately the two primary characters are also unlikeable. One is a perpetual victim and weakling, and the other is a sexual predator and a liar. Instead of being moved by their struggle and pathos, I just wanted to smack them.

I bought Bittersweet because I love Barr's style of writing, and I was waiting for the next mystery. I was wondering how I would like Ms. Barr's writing a different style than her Anna Pigeon mysteries.

Once again, Nevada Barr writes a compelling story! This one takes place in the old west and is basically a beautiful love story between two people, and the trials and tribulations they go through to be able to be together. As usual, Barr weaves the main characters intimately to the environment they find themselves in, as well as with characters that come and go in their lives.

This book is definitely for those souls, of any gender, who appreciate a wonderful love story that, like real life, may smell like roses along the way, but in the end, is truly bittersweet.

Shatter the California Environmental Myth! Then kick it in, step on it and if there is still anything left, shoot if for good measure. In "Nature Noir," Jordan Fisher Smith tells it like it is. He's the ranger for a piece of state parkland in the high Sierras, a neglected piece of land slated to become a dam site and inundated reservoir capturing the floodwaters of the American River; this to prevent downstream flooding in Sacramento.

Smith elects to work in this park instead of trying to compete for a much more coveted, high-status ranger role in the National Park Service. While he would love to work in one of California's great national parks, he's settled for rangering in this off-the-path piece of public parkland. For those not aware, it's a tough time for a white guy to get one of those high-profile National Park ranger roles. Since women and minorities have historically been under-represented among park rangers, there's a major push to diversify. As a white guy, Smith finds himself at the back of the line.

His piece of California state parkland is on a shoe-string budget with an skeletal staff. Because the expectation is still for a dam and reservoir to be built, activities like dredging for gold are allowed. Intolerable and illegal elsewhere on public parkland, activities like this go on, spoiling the environment, making lots of noise, silting up streams, lowering water quality.

This is a rough place and rough things happen here. Smith is able to convey a strong sense of place. He knows his land. Rough people seem to be drawn to this place. A lot of people openly carry guns. Few Sierra Clubbers, Friends-of-the-Earth, Audubon Society birdwatchers and people with a sense of environmental stewardship frequent this place. The spirit of John Muir is at best a foggy ghost in the vision field of most of the patrons of this place. Smith is not a law-enforcement oriented type of ranger. However, this part of his ranger role is often all-consuming.

This is a tale told by a guy who knows well his piece of public land and the people who frequent it. His tale will strip down the high-minded environmental conscience of California ecology types and even ordinary folks, who want simply to go on a nature walk in the woods. This narrative will make you feel uncomfortable. You won't think about a piece of public land in the same way after reading this book. You won't think about the role of a ranger in the same way after reading this book.

A boldly written book, by an author who is not afraid to take chances, Jordan Fisher Smith, a park ranger whose career led him by chance, or perhaps by destiny, to the canyons of the American River in California. The area under his jurisdiction was condemned in his time, facing a future of being annhilitated; damned up and buried under thousands of tons of water.

"Nature Noir" is a fascinating peephole into the dark side of nature, the dark side of humanity, the dark side of the author himself. This gritty book holds nothing back. Not the carelessness of humankind, not the uncompromising thrust of the natural world, not even the relentless self-scrutiny of the author.

This unique book gives a personal perspective from the viewpoint of the ranger who hands out permits to people like us. It also indicates Smith's deep connection with the lands that he had sworn to protect.

Often terse, "Nature Noir" illustrates the author's ability to paint a highly evocative picture with a minimum of words. His spare descriptions illuminate the landscape in which he lived, and tell us everything we need to know to imagine the place, the people, and the era.

I was so intrigued by Jordan Smith's succinct prose that I felt compelled to
make a pilgrimage to the canyons of the American River myself. I found them as intriguing as the author's descriptions.

Nature Noir is not for the faint of heart. It is not for readers who anticipate a light-hearted tale, or an ordinary one.

Look for the ending, brutal in it's sudden simplicity.

This book is a great read.

A park ranger talks about law enforcement, dams, miners, and death in California's Auburn State Recreation Area.

This is the memoir of a ranger assigned to a dying state park whose lands were due to be flooded by a downstream dam. The park's fate helped make its visitors a relatively pathetic bunch, since California's park department clearly reduced spending on infrastructure and staff in anticipation of the park's coming demise. People who didn't need infrastructure, and who liked the low enforcement level, found it a congenial place to hang out - - mostly to drink, of course, but also to engage in other antisocial and/or illegal activities.

The experience gave Smith a lot of good stories, and he tells them pretty well. As a storyteller in the ranger-warden-cop genre, I'd put him about in the middle of the pack. The underlying quality of the stories is better than average.

The book stands out in its perspective, conveyed by the title. Some comparable memoirs present park rangers and game wardens as semi-heroic servants of the people, but this one has a more gritty feel of an urban cop assigned to a rural beat. If you're looking for Bambi stories about wildlife or wilderness, this is the wrong book for you - - the star animal eats a visitor, and a much more humble creature puts an end to our author's career. But if you're a true-crime fan looking for an unusual setting, this book might be just the ticket for you.

I don't really have much to say about Nature Noir. I read it on the plane out to Denver. It was recommended to me by a non-fiction writer and I heard part of an interview with the author on the radio. I confess that I have not read a great deal of non-fiction aside from personal essays. "Nature Noir" read much like a long personal essay, interspersed with the customary commentary on landscape necessary in all nature writing. Smith's narrative seeks to dispel the idyllic image of wilderness and the life of the Forest Ranger. And I imagine for many people, particularly people who do not spend much time in the Western backcountry, Smith's reports of meth-labs, poachers, suicides, and predator attacks contrast their image of wilderness. But it's something most people who spend time in the backcournty have know about for some time. Ultimately I found his tales and observations somewhat pedestrian. The reviewer on the inside cover compared the work to Edward Abbey, Gary Snyder, and Aldo Leopold. Such comparisons are far too generous for this particular work.

This book is primarily about the individuals that hunted down information about the secret Air Force base known as Dreamland, The Ranch, or Area 51. It focuses on the 1990's, when the base became part of popular culture. You will find a lot of information about the personalities of the people associated with the efforts to uncover the base. You won't find a lot of unsubstantiated "facts" about UFOs or secret projects that have been associated with the base. If nothing else, the book is worthwhile for putting in print the story of "Mo". Who is Mo? Read the book.

As an open-minded skeptic I'm game to all kinds of weirdness, if the evidence presents itself. In turn I was somewhat familiar with the folklore surrounding Area 51 in Nevada. On a recent cross-country vacation I drove through some of the areas described in this book (though not nearly so extensively), traversing a portion of Nevada 375, and making a personal contribution to the unauthorized bumper sticker tradition. I got this here book later in the trip in Roswell, New Mexico, another center of weirdness that has a much better sense of humor. Here Darlington is not focused on the top-secret military operations at the base known popularly as Area 51 (which would be mostly impossible), but with the folklore practiced by conspiracy buffs and UFO enthusiasts who frequent the area. Centered in the nowheresville of Rachel, this book is populated with all kinds of colorful characters with bizarre theories and backgrounds, with names like Agent X and Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II of Alpha Draconis. Darlington keeps a detached stance, merely reporting each figure's theories and trying not to pass judgment. While most of these folks claim to be activists trying to unveil military and government secrecy, just about all of them come across, through their own words, as the highest class of crackpots, publicity seekers, and connect-the-dots conspiracy theorists that could be debunked by a pre-schooler. Unfortunately, Darlington's detached method leads to a book that can be quite dry and tedious at times, as he tends to use extremely long interviews and speeches verbatim, which sometimes last for several pages in a row. Darlington doesn't bother to propose any universal conclusion about this whole phenomenon, which would be interesting from a cultural standpoint at least. This book is outdated also, with several predictions from the interviewees of momentous events at the turn of the millennium. These sure didn't happen, and I bet it's because the year 2000 is a number based on a human calendar, so why would aliens care? Duh. In the end, this book accomplishes little more than rehashing the weirdness you can get for free from any number of internet news groups.

This book is obviously written to fill pages between a cover that says "Area 51". The writing isn't very good, the information isn't very good, most of it is downright annoyingly off topic such as a chapter on the Luxor hotel's buffet and rides. There is no information about Area 51 you cannot get for free on the internet. The book is extremely vague about the Area 51 base and instead concentrates of various crackpots that consider themselves Area 51 experts. That might be useful if the subjects were revealed in an Area 51 context but they are not. Instead we are treated to tales of how they like to get drunk and eat tuna with their fingers. There is an abundance of pages on various planes and the people who follow such things but again it's about planes and not nessesarily what they might have at Area 51. Much of the book is so pointless and senseless that I can only draw the conclusion that the mandate was to fill pages with words so the publisher could have an "Area 51" book on the shelves. Content wasn't a priority. Don't waste your time or money.

Area 51, the highly classified military installation at Groom Lake in the Nevada desert about 90 miles north of Las Vegas, may be more a state of mind than a physical place. Certainly that is the way it is treated in this engagingly written, witty, and sometimes insightful report on the desert base as it is understood in the mid-1990s and the strange cast of characters seeking to learn its mysteries. This is never more true than in the general public's perception of the installation as depicted in such television programs as the "X-Files" and films like "Independence Day."

Area 51 begins with a discussion of the first trip the author, an investigative journalist and author of three earlier books, made in 1993 to the ramshackle town of Rachel, Nevada, on the north side of the Groom Lake facility and haven of Area 51 watchers. There he met the most rational of the lot, Glenn Campbell (not the country singer), who was on a one-man crusade to find out what the government was up to at this super-secret base. It ends in 1997 with the revelation that Campbell was leaving this crusade.

Between these two Campbellite bookends the author weaves a set of weird stories tied to the base. In the early 1950s Lockheed Skunkworks director Kelly Johnson needed a secure place to test the U-2 reconnaissance airplane. The Air Force's test facility at Muroc dry lake, site of the now famous Chuck Yeager X-1 flights of 1947, was too well known and had too many people watching it. Groom Lake's dry bed provided just as good a runway in much more desolate surroundings and thus Area 51 was born. It has been the site of numerous other equally secret Air Force test programs over the years; those acknowledged now include the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft and the F-117 stealth fighter. Other secret high-technology research projects, both real and imagined by the residents of Rachel, periodically make their way into this book.

But the really enticing thread running through the story of Area 51 is the belief held almost universally by the Rachel residents that the U.S. government is using the base to hide, reverse-engineer, and test alien technology that crashed on Earth. Thus, Area 51 has gained Mecca-like status for UFO hunters the world over. One would have to look for a long time to find as colorful a collection of characters to grace a non-fiction work. If those involved in America's space program look like stuffy establishment types who have taken the adventure out of spaceflight, this crew provides an extreme on the other end.

Bob Lazar serves as a centerpiece for Darlington's account. He says of him, "within the world of ufology, meeting Bob Lazar is tantamount to meeting Bob Dylan. Lazar is similarly a reclusive superstar and a legend in his own time; if not exactly the voice of a generation" (p. 61). Lazar claims to have worked at Area 51, tested alien spacecraft, and actually to have seen extraterrestrials involved in the reverse-engineering process. As such, if one accepts his story without verification, he provided much-needed confirmation and coherence to a range of diffuse anecdotes circulating about Area 51. Darlington does not accept Lazar's story at face-value. Neither did Glenn Campbell and a few others interested in Area 51. They found that many of the verifiable facts of Lazar's life did not pan out and that his wide-ranging statements about the base had serious inconsistencies. All these raised serious questions about his credibility.

But that does not much matter to many of the UFO hunters centered on Rachel. Most accepted his story, and some even added to it. Bill Uhouse, for instance, spun his own story of working as an engineer inside secret government facilities side by side with extraterrestrials who were doling out technological knowledge with an eyedropper to eager government officials. Then there was Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II of Alpha Draconis, who claimed to be an alien in human form sent to Earth to usher in a new order of contact with alien species. Joe and Pat Travis, proprietors of the Little A-Le-Inn in Rachel, have provided the safe haven for many of the UFO hunters in town, even sponsoring 1993's "Ultimate UFO Seminar" in which Lazar and others described their experiences. Finally, Agent X, as he likes to be called, stalks Area 51 to learn about the secret programs conducted there and claims to be a pacifistic hawk and purveyor of privileged national security information.

One over-arching observation springs from Darlington's narrative. There seems to be an unusual linkage between the more strident ufologists and the radical right wing of politics and anti-government militia groups. At numerous points in the book, anti-government rhetoric is voiced about attempts, intergalactic or not, to overthrow the U.S. Constitution and replace it with a "New World Order" in which Americans would become defacto slaves. Ambassador Merlyn Merlin II put an unusual spin on this. "I'm not a government conspiracy wacko," he told Darlington. "These people are radical right-wing conservative Christian fundamentalist militia supporters." Then he said: "I'm for the New World Order. When the United Federation of Planets is connected to the United Nations, that will be the New World Order--a permanent golden age" (p. 203). Slavery or salvation, Area 51 seems to serve as a beacon for each possibility in the minds of those who watch it.

None of this bears much relationship to the activities taking place at Area 51. And Darlington does not provide much serious investigation of them. That would have required research in tons of government records, probably using the "Freedom-of-Information Act" to gain access, and probing among those who live in Washington rather that in Rachel. What he does offer, however, is a fascinating account of what a fringe element of American society believe about what is taking place at Area 51. As such, it is a study of modern popular culture rather than a serious attempt to write history.

I am an Area 51 and US Military and Government Researcher, and I was looking for a book that would inform me not only on speculation as to what is going on in the world's most secretive base, but also honest and truthful facts. After reading David Darlington's best selling biography of the base, I can easily state on Amazon that the book did much more than that. The book is a five star documentary of Area 51, and will inspire the people who work there in to wondering what they are doing in that remote installation in Nevada. The book features how Area 51 came into existence: there was, supposedly, a crash landing of some craft in Roswell, NM, USA in the blistering hot summer of 1947. Who knows where those craft are? The only real piece of evidence to show that the craft are being back engineered to make such historic and monumental aircraft today is Area 51: its sheer size and isolation from the rest of the world is, actually, beyond imagination. The cold war comes and what do you see, but, twenty years after the crash landing and mass speculatory existence of the people of New Mexico, you see craft like the SR71, Have Blue and U-2A and also, later on, the B series. Darlington not only looks at evidence to prove that Area 51 exists, but actually, as a journalist, and a very talented grad. of Yale university, (though not from Skull and Bones!), he looks in a very perspective way at how people live in nevada and cope with what is easily a contradiction of most US regulations on environment and defense. David Darlington spends an increasing amount of time in Rachel, the closest concentration of American citizens to Area 51, otherwise known as Dreamland (hence the title of the book The Dreamland Chronicles), and spends time with just about every famous and widely heard of person in the village. He also spends time with Interceptors, he becomes one himself, looking for planes and travelling with officials to find out, constantly, new things relating to the base. He also uses his intelligence and common sense to seek out red herrings and disinformation, and he does that very well ina humourous and personal way. Area 51, a fantastic matter in modern philosophy, is intriguing, secretive, and always makes you think 'what if?'. But I have never read a book like the one Mr. Darlington wrote. It's good for skeptics, enthusiasts, and interceptors alike, and what I like is that he never gives up hope. Mr. Darlington, you've made me want to read more of the books, and as that phrase is coming from an Area 51 researcher and writer himself, I think I will. I'll award it five 'plus' stars. The book deserves them, don't you worry.

At first the introduction of the book was abstrackt and could make you believe the rest of the book would be boring too.In fact, the book describes you with very vivid detail two intriguing cases. The case Catherine,Warrick,Nick and Brass work onto is a case where everything you expect or predict turn out to be the exact opposite. When things seem clear they are not.In the second one, where Grissom,Sara and Constable Maher worko onto we can see the appliance of forensics on winter crime scenes. The description of the second case creates sometimes cozy atmosphere, fear , action all in some seconds.
I would highly recommend you this book

Another good, fast read in the CSI series of books.

Grissom and Sara Sidle are off to the wilds of outer New York to attend a forensic conference, but when a record snowstorm strands them, along with a Canadian forensic expert and the owners of the Mumford Mountain Hotel with a dead body and numerous suspects, things get a little dicey.

Back in Las Vegas, Catherine, Nick, and Warrick are dealing with a missing persons case that's turned into a homicide investigation with the discovery of the wealthy housewife's body.

Well worth the read!

This is my favorite book of the ones I read so far. I liked both story plots but mostly I liked the story plot with Grissom and Sara. I also liked the ending where Sara says to Nick and Cath: "We both cuddled and relaxed by the fire on Sunday reading a book" then left the room. I started laughing because I can see the reaction of Nick and Cath of what they were thinking when Sara said that. it also says, "Sara smiled to herself. Cath and Nick didn't know that Sara and Gil had seperate rooms with seperate fire places. They didn't need to know that"

*CSI: Cold Burn* was an easy reading that didn't dwell too much on forensic jargon and processes. There were processes but they were simplified so that readers can still feel connected to the stories.

Gil and Sara have flown to New York for a forensic conference. However, just as soon as they landed, a blizzard is just now starting. They make it to the hotel. Restless, Sara and Gil take a short walk around the hotel. However, their stroll is interrupted when they discovered a murdered and burnt body.

With the conference cancelled, due to the non-stop blizzard, Sara and Gil preserve evidence surrounding the burnt body with haste. They also have to improvise to make their own homemade forensic lab.

Meanwhile, back in Las Vegas, a woman has been found, dead, at a park near Lake Mead. Catherine and the gang have found the crime scene to be odd. Apparently, the woman had been frozen and then wetted down before being dumped. The forensic team discovered that this particular woman had been missing for a year.

Both were good stories. I think I liked the one with Gil and Sara. With the help of a Canadian forensic specialist, it felt like they were playing Clue. You know, so-and-so killed and burned this guy with this weapon in this room. Of course, everyone had a different theory.

Like I said, *CSI:Cold Burn* was an easy and enjoyable read.

I should start out by admitting that I've never seen an episode of CSI. I'm no a television person these days. On the other hand, I'm a forensics addict dating back to the grand old Glory days of Quincy. So I grabbed a couple of the Max Allan Collins series in the hope of even more grand autopsy scenes and sifting of the fine details. Cold Burn is the first of these I've read, and I find it something of a middling effort.

The story is actually two stories. Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle attend a forensic science convention in the wilds of upstate New York. On arrival they are greeted with a corpse and a record snowstorm and must battle the elements and the inconvenience of a nearly empty 5 star hotel to discover the sordid tale behind the killing.

And back at home in Las Vegas, Catherine Willows and the rest of the team are up to their ankles in defrosted bodies. A year after a young woman disappears, leaving behind a devastated husband. Her body turns up in a nature preserve. Remarkably well preserved, as she has apparently been kept frozen for all that time. Suspicion shifts from the husband, to friends, and wandering whackos, and another corpse makes an appearance. Somewhere out there a chilling mind is playing fatal games.

I didn't care much for the winter hotel story. Most of the plot was about guarding a frozen crime scene. Once the investigation actually starts it runs on auto-pilot to a very predictable conclusion. The Las Vegas story was better, but was marred by the distraction of the first story. The end result is a novel with a very flat affect.

Television has a great advantage over a novel. Good acting and direction can overcome a second rate plot. So a novelist has the disadvantage of having to bring life where none has been before. Cold Burn simply never clicks on its own. Perhaps those who have seen the TV series will find some spark that I don't, but I can only rate this story as 'OK,' but without big wows.