Product Description

A raging forest fire in California's Lassen Volcanic National Park traps exhausted firefighters, including Ranger Anna Pigeon, in its midst. Afterward, Anna finds two from her group have been killed. One a victim of the flames. The other, stabbed through the heart. Now, as a rampaging winter storm descends, cutting the survivors off from civilization, Anna must uncover the murderer in their midst.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97634 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.com Review
A raging fire in a national park seems an unlikely setting for a murder, but that's exactly the circumstances that crime-fighting park ranger and medic Anna Pigeon confronts in this mystery thriller. A suspicious fire breaks loose in Northern California's Lassen Volcanic Park and Pigeon assists in battling the blaze and treating the wounds of other fire fighters. As if that's not enough, Pigeon finds herself without food and water trapped with a group of fire fighters, one of whom is a murderer. She tries to figure out who the culprit is before he, or the weather, strikes again.

From Publishers Weekly
As she's seen in her fourth spine-tingling adventure, it's hard to tell what impassions hard-nosed park ranger Anna Pigeon more?crime or grime. Fortunately, Barr (Ill Wind) has a flair for depicting both as she sets Anna to providing first aid for the crews fighting an especially nasty forest fire, probably caused by arson, in Northern California's Lassen Volcanic National Park. As if living intimately with strangers under stressful conditions weren't trouble enough, more problems flare when Anna and her EMTs must rescue a firefighter who has broken his leg. On their way back to camp, they are trapped in a firestorm?the most dangerous of all fire conditions. Anna is saved by her silver pup tent, or "shake 'n' bake," which she pulls over herself at the last minute as the fire dances on her back. One of the other medics isn't so lucky. Only it's not just bad luck. It's murder. The tension approaches unbearable when bad weather and destroyed roads trap Anna and the rest of her crew with the murderer in their midst. While Anna, with her compassion, toughness and abundant one-liners, calls Kinsey Milhone to mind, Barr's character is a true original. And for excitement, her line of work can't be beat. Mystery Guild selection; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA?Far from her base park of Mesa Verde, Anna Pigeon volunteers as a medic at a spike camp of firefighters battling the Jackknife blaze in Northern California. With the fire diminishing, the last crew is called back, but Anna, her co-medic, their litter-bound patient, and other firefighters are unexpectedly trapped in a firestorm. When the fire blazes past on its destructive trail, Anna discovers a dead firefighter in his shelter, killed by a knife. This gripping adventure is heightened by a strong sense of place. Trapped for several days in cold and fog and surviving on broiled woodchuck, Anna must determine the identity of the killer before the group is rescued. The surprising ending delivers a pretzel-shaped twist that will haunt readers.?Pam Spencer, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Fire everywhere -- no one is safe!
Anna Pigeon, Park Ranger, has been called to Northern California's Lassen Volcanic Park to fight a blaze of suspicious origin. Danger exists in the air she breathes and the exhaustion that takes a toll on all firefighters that have been brought in to save the park.

Nevada Barr convincingly shows why rangers are called from many locations and the need to work as one in the midst of a Firestorm. The problem in working as one is that there is a murderer who has no compunction about covering up the first death with more. The most intense scene is when the Firestorm is blasting down the trail and the only way to survive is as dangerous as the fire itself.

Ms. Barr is a great storyteller who writes what she knows. I have no doubt that she has experienced survival in various parks and on a myriad of projects. She brings with her the full power that a writer can when she has lived the events--perhaps not the murder itself, but survival in it rawest form.

Hot, Hot, Hot in Barr's best novel - a 'locked room mystery'
Nevada Barr has 2 books that are closed to "locked room" mysteries - that is, where the action and events are in a tightly controlled environment. Firestorm has it's events in the middle of a firestorm, on a mountain top where rescue is delayed. (Blind Descent is the other - inside a subterranean cave.)
Barr's description of the firestorm, and being trapped inside of a tiny fireproof tent are gripping! The murders are solved by Frederick and Anna. Frederick is working on the outside, and supplies info to Anna via hand radios. Anna uncovers facts and fights the growing tension between survivors who are trapped on the mountain together.
There are suspects galore - but I was totally surprized by the identity of the true murderer and Anna's judgement call in handling the murderer.
This is probably one of Barr's best novels - a "hot, hot" read!

Smokin'...
This is the second Anna Pigeon novel I have read, and my only consolation for being such a latecomer to Nevada Barr's writing is that I can occupy myself with her backlist while waiting for new books. So many mysteries are either not very mysterious, or clunkily written, or feature annoying characters, that I was delighted beyond belief when I finally found Anna Pigeon and realized she is a real person, and Nevada Barr is a real, skillful, writer. Not everyone can make you giggle, hold your breath, and mutter a sympathetic "ew" in the space of a couple of pages. Barr's characters, marooned by a forest fire that practically rises to the level of a character itself, have to contend with injuries, filth, hunger, and the knowledge that one of them killed one of their colleagues in a most creative manner. From the "shake and bake" (which is really something) to the final solution, I was riveted.

This is an extraordinarily imaginative take on a classic locked room mystery. I didn't figure it out until the end, and I was gravely hampered because my list of those I didn't want to have done it had gotten so long. You can really get to know people when you're stranded with them in the mountains, and that's what happens here. Even if Barr wasn't so ingenious at devising murder plots, I'd read her work. She's amazingly good at creating hard-headed, soft-hearted characters who try to do the right thing -- most notably, Anna herself.