Product Description

Below the frigid waters of Lake Superior lies a sunken 1927 wreck-the final resting place of its five victims. But when divers surface with a tale of seeing a sixth body, Anna Pigeon must break the Great Lake's grip on its icy secrets...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16868 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-02
• Released on: 2003-09-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780425194713
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
In her second appearance, after Track of the Cat , National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon is posted to an island in Lake Superior, where her interest in wildlife is fully engaged by the local population of humans. Two scuba-diving tourists exploring an old, submerged wreck discover a recent addition: the body of Denny Castle, who ran a commercial diving concession in the park. This makes Anna uneasy about the mysterious disappearance of Donna Butkus, wife of fellow ranger Scotty Butkus. Hawk Bradshaw, who worked with Denny, suggests that there was a link between Denny and Donna, but Hawk is less revealing about the nature of the relationship he and his twin sister had with the dead man and the impact Denny's recent marriage (to yet another woman) had on it. The Bradshaws aren't the only reticent ones here; indeed, Barr's characters hide enough unsavory secrets to keep a soap opera humming for months. Despite the wealth of personal intrigue, FBI agent Frederic Stanton looks for a drug connection to the murder: "I'm all for drugs . . . Takes the guesswork out of law enforcement." The levelheaded Anna is again a treat as she and a couple of minor characters whose lives don't verge on melodrama keep the story from floundering on the rocks. Mystery Guild alternate; paperback rights to Avon.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA-Transferring to a ranger position at Isle Royale National Park in Michigan, Anna Pigeon misses the Texas sun and heat of her former park. She cringes at the damp, penetrating cold that accompanies the foggy, gray days on Lake Superior. She swaps her horse for a boat but continues to be surrounded by dead bodies in her second mystery. The strange corpse she encounters on her new job is that of a well-known diver. She finds it in the engine room of a ship that sank at the turn of the century with the five original crew still aboard. Those corpses have been preserved by the frigid lake waters and are a grim "tourist attraction" for scuba divers. As Anna seeks the identity of the killer, she is never far from the northern woods, characterized by their earthy scents, lingering midday chill, and multitude of flora and fauna. While detecting, she tries to sort out her feelings about life, her status as a widow, and her need for solitude interspersed with friendships. She is a captivating, daredevil detective whose adventures will delight mystery readers.
Pam Spencer, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Barr has written an intriguing if unusual story that successfully combines a refreshing enthusiasm for nature, an impassioned entreaty for environmental awareness, and an engrossing murder mystery. Leaving Texas to take a job in northern Michigan, park ranger Anna Pigeon soon becomes involved in a puzzling murder involving a drowned diver and a mysterious shipwreck. Her investigation puts her in touch with some odd characters, including Pizza Dave, who's as large as a small tractor, and Holly and Hawk, a brother and sister dive team whose love for the briny deep hides a dark secret. Between extracting fish hooks from the limbs of amateur fishermen, instructing naive tourists about the local wildlife, and corralling drunken boaters, Anna puts her considerable skills toward solving the puzzle of who killed the diver and why. Barr, a park ranger, provides plenty of authentic details about life in the great outdoors, and her deft plotting and appealingly quirky characters give her story plenty of punch. Anna Pigeon is tough-minded, strong, sensitive, vulnerable, and funny. Emily Melton

Customer Reviews

A Unique Page-Turner
When reading Nevada Barr, it's wise to remember that it's not the mystery, but the medium. In this second of the delightful Anna Pigeon series, our intrepid Park Ranger is stationed at Lake Superior, probably the most unforgiving and treacherous of all the Great Lakes.

Just like her first book in the series, "Track of the Cat," Barr draws the reader quickly and completely into the medium--in this case, the cold, eerie and wicked Lake Superior. In no time, I was suited up with Anna, ready to make a life-threatening dive down to a well-known shipwreck that houses five ghostly bodies--and one very new one.

Who killed fellow ranger Denny Castle, himself a skilled and "superior" diver? How did his body, dressed in macabre costume, become lodged in the engine room of the wreck? Anna and her fellow Rangers, an eclectic and motley crew if there ever was one, set out in their various ways to solve the mystery. They are aided, whether they like it or not, by a brash young FBI operative who is certain that the murder is drug-related.

The identity of the murderer and the motive behind the murder take a back seat to the truly unique and wonderful descriptions of the place, the people, and especially Anna, who is one tough cookie. Almost.

A great, quick, summer read. I recommend "A Superior Death" to anybody who enjoys a well-written, if not a psychologically challenging, mystery. Anna Pigeon, in my mind, is one of the great characters, and well worth this reader's time.

THE VERY BEST!!
Each of Ms. Barr's books I pick up is her best! I have read nearly all of her books now. I think I have one to go. It really is like finding an old friend. Anna Pigeon is a real person, with foibles and vulnerabilities, strengths, weaknesses, skills and awkwardness. In this story she is law enforcement ranger again in cold north (Lake Superior of the title) and scuba diving and boat handling. This is an excellent plot. Much like murder in the locked room. How WAS it done? You will be hooked on it. Then you will realize you have become rather fond of Ranger Anna Pigeon, and in the end you will be a fan of Nevada Barr. I know. I have been there. This book, and all her books, I highly recommend.

A superior book
Nevada Barr is a wonderful author. She has a dry, subtle sense of humor which gives a very nice background for the story. She also includes you in the story as a participant instead of just an observer. For example, when describing scuba dives to wrecks in Lake Superior, she doesn't give a lecture on scuba diving, but you feel as though you totally understand the experience nonetheless. The mystery is also carefully woven so that, when the culprit is identified, you are surprised but realize that all of the clues were there. This is another fine book by a very fine author.