Remember that Eurythmics and Aretha Franklin song “Sisters Are Doin’ it for Themselves”? Good if you do. Because I believe it's a suitable theme song for my recent book haul. A haul where I unintentionally visited three different bookstores in an afternoon, led mostly by divine inspiration. I know how "divine inspiration" sounds. But what else describes visiting one bookstore and–in passing–somehow three-point turn your way to stop by another? Just because it was there to catch your eye. In lunch hour traffic. Imagine. So while everyone else was lined up at Chick-Fil-A's drive-thru, some of us were chewing on organic brownie bars and throwing down at the local bookstores. It had to be done.
So I attribute the song to this collection of recent purchases–because they’re mysteries carried by women leads. You know, just about the only gender class in mysteries I raise up to read about. I mean, a time or two I’ll give the guys a chance. It’s just male characters in this genre seem so outmoded. Or, for the sake of sounding redundant, passé. In the future I may have to eat my words. Still, unless the male character is gay, I’m less likely to find genuine interest in his story. And, subsequently, the investigation. And true there are self-published Kindle books nowadays with a gay male solving crime. I just need to do a little more research to find good ones. You know, because the book still has to tell a great story at the end of the day. But on the general tip: I need a good, kick-ass female to pull me through a mystery.
So with the chatter bucket out of the way, I’m here to share four new crime novels centered on the female sleuth. As well as a lot of deserts in Arizona...
First there's Firestorm, book #4 in Nevada Barr's park ranger extraordinaire Anna Pigeon series. This is one of those books–after reading book three–I legworked used bookstores for months to find. Not until I went over the mountains to a Barnes & Noble did a copy surface (I finally found a used copy later the same day. The irony.).
Nevertheless, my experience with Anna Pigeon’s debut, Track of the Cat, was everything. Here was this flawed, borderline alcoholic who remade her life after losing her husband in a freak accident. So in a stretch of parallels, she took herself out of the concrete jungles of New York and into Texas back country as a park ranger. However, the Texas back country is only her first locale. In proceeding books, Anna's new career takes her to a variety of other National Parks. So her surroundings are always fresh to her and the reader. As well as the murders she finds herself wrapped up in. After the first book, Barr's blend of National Park studies and murder ticketed me for Anna's line of adventures without further convincing.
Unfortunately, the following two books, Superior Death and Ill Wind, sold me lukewarm feelings. I was still grinding on the Anna train; I just wasn’t there completely after those reads. Regardless, I knew I wanted to dedicate myself to this series, and have since kept an eye out for Firestorm.
In Firestorm, Anna's stationed at the California Lassen Volcanic National Park. Sounds pretty cool, right? Until a forest fire erupts, leaving Anna to confront it.
Within the blazing chaos, two men are found dead. One a victim of the fire. The other stabbed in the back. The kicker: a winter storm is descending on the park, leaving the remaining ten forest fire survivors stranded. That’s Anna, eight other people, and one killer in the mix. Anna’ll have his (or her) ass for sure. And I must say, I feel like Firestorm will breath another life into the series. One in which I have no intentions of giving up until I see Anna through to the end, anyway. Her story and adventures are too unique to pass up.