Seniors of Nevada

Blind Descent (An Anna Pigeon Novel)

Description

Park ranger Anna Pigeon is enjoying the open spaces of Colorado when she receives an urgent call. A young woman has been injured while exploring a cave in New Mexico's Carlsbad Cavern Park. Before she can be pulled to safety, she sends for her friend Anna. Only one problem: a crushing fear of confined spaces has kept Anna out in the open her whole life.

Feisty, resourceful forest ranger Anna Pigeon faced everything from raging fires to deep-water dives with cool aplomb in her first five adventures. Very early in Blind Descent her courage is put to an even greater test when she learns that a woman seriously injured while exploring a cave next door to New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns is a friend who has requested Pigeon's help in getting her out. "A chilling image filled Anna's mind: herself crouched and whimpering, fear pouring like poison through her limbs, shutting down her brain as the cave closed in around her." Pushing aside her fears, Pigeon takes the plunge, leading readers through a truly harrowing series of tight squeezes. Nevada Barr is so good at involving us in Anna's terror that when she finally resurfaces, we share her "unadulterated joy. Even the dirt smelled alive... When she saw her first stars, she croaked out her delight from tired lungs." Above ground, Anna quickly gets involved in two possibly linked murders and becomes a rifleman's target. As we share the progress of her investigation, a sneaky suspicion starts to grow of possible suspects within the small community of spelunkers and National Park Service bureaucrats. Barr couldn't possibly ask Anna to go back underground again, could she? When it happens, of course, it seems inevitable--and just as frightening as the first time.

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-07-22
Summary: "Thought I wouldn't like caving as a context..."

... but I did. I like Nevada Barr's protagonist, I like that I can count on her always surviving (although I don't know how that would be physically possible in reality - Anna Pigeon should be dead by now), I enjoy her insights into personalities and human nature, her insights and descriptions of Nature, and they're always just fun story lines.

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Rating: 1 / 5
Date: 2010-07-01
Summary: "Blind Descent"

I have enjoyed most of Nevada Barr's books but this one was too long in the tooth on the technicality of spelunking. Only someone who is a caver would be interested in this book and I am not. She goes into too much detail re the rigging and climbing techniques. How many people really cave who read her books? I find the rest of her jaunts through the Southwest and the MidWest and Lake Superior where I used to live enjoyable, but a cave? Not enough people who would be interested in all the explanation of it. I was very disappointed that I had spent the money on this book & wish I had gone to the library to get it to read. Was a waste of time and money. Only could recommend it to cavers, who I am sure, would be very interested and rate this 5 stars

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Rating: 1 / 5
Date: 2010-04-24
Summary: "Nevada Barr, Blind Descent"

I'm afraid to start another book by Nevada Barr. This was my test book for her and it was so tedious and boring, I had to skip lots of it to finish it. Sorry.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-01-11
Summary: "Best Barr BookEver!"

I deliberately skirted around reading Blind Descent because I wasn't keen on reading a Anna Pigeon novel set in a cave in the Carlsbad Caverns. It was definetly not the National Park setting I was looking for! What a surprise when I finally picked it up to read. The Lechuguilla cave is a terrifying setting and in my opinion Blind Descent is Barr's best novel. Don't miss reading this thriller!

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-04-18
Summary: "My favorite Nevada Barr offering to date!!!"

I'm relatively new to "Anna Pigeon," so I haven't read them all yet. Still, I have to say that "Blind Descent" is my favorite so far. I admit to a special interest in caving, having been spelunking once, decades ago. Even so, I found the relentless pacing impossible to put down since I always HAD to find out what happens next!

In case Nevada Barr is reading, I'm particularly fond of the books that take place in the more "exotic" parks--Liberty and Carlsbad, for example--and I can't wait to read more.