Boar Island (Anna Pigeon Series #19)

by Nevada Barr

Overview

New York Times bestseller Nevada Barr brings National Park Ranger Anna Pigeon to the wild beauty of Acadia National Park in Boar Island.

Anna Pigeon, in her career as a National Park Service Ranger, has had to deal with all manner of crimes and misdemeanors, but cyber-bullying and stalking is a new one. The target is Elizabeth, the adopted teenage daughter of her friend Heath Jarrod. Elizabeth is driven to despair by the disgusting rumors spreading online and bullying texts. Until, one day, Heath finds her daughter Elizabeth in the midst of an unsuccessful suicide attempt. And then she calls in the cavalry—-her aunt Gwen and her friend Anna Pigeon.

While they try to deal with the fragile state of affairs—-and find the person behind the harassment—-the three adults decide the best thing to do is to remove Elizabeth from the situation. Since Anna is about to start her new post as Acting Chief Ranger at Acadia National Park in Maine, the three will join her and stay at a house on the cliff of a small island near the park, Boar Island.

But the move east doesn't solve the problem. The stalker has followed them east. And Heath (a paraplegic) and Elizabeth aren't alone on the otherwise deserted island. At the same time, Anna has barely arrived at Acadia before a brutal murder is committed by a killer uncomfortably close to her.

BOAR ISLAND is a brilliant intertwining of past and present, of victims and killers, in a compelling novel that only Nevada Barr could write.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250064707
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/30/2018
Series:	Anna Pigeon Series , #19
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 7.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Nevada Barr is the author of the series of New York Times bestselling novels featuring Anna Pigeon, a law enforcement park ranger. Her novels include Winter Study, Borderline and Burn. She won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel for Track of the Cat. Like her character, Barr worked for the National Park Service as a park ranger before resigning to write full time.  She had postings to  such parks as Guadalupe Mountains National  Park in Texas (where Anna Pigeon was created) and  Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi.  She lives in New Orleans.

Hometown:

Clinton, Mississippi

Date of Birth:

March 1, 1952

Place of Birth:

Yerington, Nevada

Education:

B.A., Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, 1974; M.A., University of California at Irvine, 1977

Website:

http://www.nevadabarr.com

Editorial Reviews

03/07/2016
In bestseller Barr’s fast-paced but sometimes predictable 19th Anna Pigeon novel (after 2014’s Destroyer Angel), the National Park Service ranger accepts a short-term assignment in Maine’s Acadia National Park. She’s joined by her friend Heath Jarrod, Heath’s spry Aunt Gwen Littleton, and 16-year-old Elizabeth, Heath’s adopted daughter and Anna’s goddaughter, who has been targeted by a vicious cyberstalker at home in Boulder, Colo. They soon realize that the stalker has followed Elizabeth to Maine, but because of jurisdictional issues and vague laws, the local police can do little. Meanwhile, Anna becomes involved in a murder investigation that pits her against a pathologically cunning, increasingly unstable adversary. Barr excels at conveying the often harsh realities faced by lobstermen and their families, though her depiction of the antagonist is less compelling and fails to achieve nuance or dimension. Still, readers looking for a lively escape in a rugged, brutal, but magnificent landscape should find plenty to enjoy. 150,000 first printing; author tour. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Barbara Rosenblat’s reading is outstanding as she fully captures the many emotions involved in this suspenseful novel." SoundCommentary.com

"[Barbara] Rosenblat sounds exactly as you'd expect the frustrated, depressed teenager to sound...Rosenblat is completely convincing. Add a murder investigation, an abusive husband, identical twins, a couple of kidnappings, the gorgeous Maine landscape, and Rosenblat's expertise—and you have the makings of first-rate listening." -AudioFile

From the Publisher

Barr creates possibly her most riveting story yet.

Charlotte Observer on Burn

A fast-moving, unforgettable tale.

Times-Picayune (New Orleans) on The Rope

Gripping . . . suspenseful . . . a tightly coiled story about trust and rebuilding a life, set against a stunning landscape.

Sun Sentinel on The Rope

A harrowing survival story, well imagined and forcefully told, about a brutal act that inspires a weak woman to become a strong one.

Marilyn Stasio

Barr writes with a cool steady hand about the violence of nature and the cruelty of man.

New York Times Book Review

Nevada Barr is one of the best.

The Boston Globe

12/01/2015
Taking over as acting chief ranger at Acadia National Park in Maine, Anna Pigeon brings along paraplegic friend Heath Jarrod and Heath's adopted daughter, Elizabeth, who's been the victim of cyberbullying. Alas, Elizabeth's stalker has followed her east. With a one-day laydown on May 17.

Library Journal

In the nineteenth Anna Pigeon novel, Barbara Rosenblat delivers her usual riveting performance as the National Park Service ranger. In Boulder, Colorado, Anna’s 16-year-old goddaughter, Elizabeth, is the victim of sexual harassment and cyberbullying. After Elizabeth attempts suicide, Anna convinces her best friend, Heath, Elizabeth’s adoptive mother, to leave Boulder and accompany her on special assignment to Acadia National Park in Maine. Rosenblat sounds exactly as you’d expect the frustrated, depressed teenager to sound, and as Heath attempts to cope with her daughter’s issues and adjust to her own recent disabilities, Rosenblat is completely convincing. Add a murder investigation, an abusive husband, identical twins, a couple of kidnappings, the gorgeous Maine landscape, and Rosenblat’s expertise—and you have the makings of first-rate listening. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

2016-03-03
Ranger Anna Pigeon, sent from the Rockies to Maine's Acadia National Park for a three-week stint, finds the brief interval more than long enough for another round of murder and assorted skulduggery. It seems like an especially good time to leave Boulder, where 16-year-old Elizabeth, the adopted daughter of Anna's friend Heath Jarrod, has turned withdrawn and suicidal after becoming the victim first of unwanted and wholly inappropriate sexual overtures and then of an unrelenting barrage of cyberstalking and cybershaming. So packing up Heath, Elizabeth, and their dog Wily, Anna heads east just in time to run smack into a bizarre murder plot. Nurse Paulette Duffy, newly reunited with Acadia ranger Denise Castle, the identical twin separated from her for most of their lifetimes, is so convinced that her abusive husband, lobsterman Kurt Duffy, is going to kill her that she decides to strike first, establishing an ironclad alibi while her newfound sister does the dirty work. Denise, whose inability to cover her tracks is magnified by an inherited disease she doesn't know about and a series of comically unlikely coincidences, arouses Anna's suspicions almost instantly and just as quickly decides that "the pigeon" has to go. Lest Elizabeth feel neglected, her tormenter follows her to Acadia and demands a meeting that can't possibly end well. By the time it's all over, Anna will have been kidnapped twice, the second time duct-taped to a babe in arms. After the razor-sharp focus of Destroyer Angel (2014), Barr's latest is a surprisingly hot mess, awash in scattered crimes whose perpetrators' behaviors defy belief. There's not even much about Acadia National Park.

Kirkus Reviews