Public Library Used Bookstore Hustle

While reading may be a little slow this week (spending over a week with a book that’s good, but can’t quite intercede the distractions that make up life), I’ve decided to stop over-browsing my public library’s used bookstore and actually buy something.  These two books (and many more left abandoned) have been in my hands throughout each of my visits there.  And both for good reason.

Sisters Doing It For Themselves | The Female Mystery Lead Haul

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...

Firestorm by Nevada Barr (Anna Pigeon #4)

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.

Goodreads Challenge, Challenge | Final Thoughts on Anna Pigeon 1&2

This may be a rambling post, but I just feel like talking on the blog today.  Well, I’ll try to fit something about books into it.

So I feel behind.  In an attempt to resuscitate my slacking Goodreads challenge this past summer, I’ve started reading books faster than pumping out my final thoughts on them.  Or maybe it’s the other way around?  You know I tend to confuse myself when there’s static–a stalling in the air.  Nonetheless, I caught up with my challenge, but didn’t exactly write my thoughts on each book fast enough.  That could very well be because I’ve shifted my focus toward making more videos. 

Now I know many people look at such “frustration” as something that isn’t serious.  Something which doesn’t really require pressure.  And that’s true.  And I’m aware of that within myself.  However, the thing is I love what I do here!  I love reading.  So when I feel a lack in my reading I want to correct it.  I love writing about what I’ve read.  So when I haven’t written anything I’m slightly troubled by the lack of productivity.  Then again, I may be straight-up racking myself with ADD about the situation.  Only God knows.  And let's be real, I’m too tired to ask him for anymore direction in my life.

But no.  After a period of time, I think I don’t have much to say about a particular book I’ve read.  Forcing myself to siphon up my thoughts months later kind of gets in the way of me managing to post anything.  And that’s what happened with my two October readings of Nevada Barr’s A Superior Death and Ill Wind.  With hands up high like Sophie Petrillo, I’ve got nothing.  Except some cool pictures of the books that you can check out here.

A SUPERIOR DEATH (Anna Pigeon #2)

If you frequent this blog, you know that I read the first book in Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series this summer.  Get all your information in the LABELS [See Nevada Barr] below.  It took a minute or two, but I decided to move forward with the series with its second book, A Superior Death.  This time, park ranger Anna Pigeon stations out of Lake Superior.  She’s in Isle Royale National Park.  And finds herself solving the murder of a colleague found floating in a sunken freighter called the Kamloops.  The freighter sunk into Lake Superior back in December of 1927.  So imagine the sight of this fresh corpse drifting in the engine room of this rotted, sunken monstrosity.  Oh, a rotted sunken monstrosity containing the bodies of decades decayed crew members.  So the underline question is how did Anna’s colleague get down there and for what reason was he murdered?

I gave the book three stars.  One, it was a slower read than the previous book.  Normally I don’t complain, but it seemed to take a touch too long to warm up with the murder and overall sleuthing.  I felt the beginning was slow and thick with Barr introducing the secondary characters.  It also grew thick with exposition tours of Anna’s role and procedures.  Much got muddled to me, having to keep up with quirky characters and their individual idiosyncrasies.  Along with the general stack of which indiscernible station, boat, port, cabin, or tent belonged to whom.  Eventually, I got the hang of who was who, and had no choice as Anna bounced from island to station cycling conversations with them all.  Oh, and constantly consuming alcohol out on a deck where evidently anyone can sneak up on her in the dark. (Another area I grew tired of.)

The remaining good news is I still find Anna to be strong, resourceful, and smart.  And Barr put her through some thrilling circumstances.  Such as diving into the Kamloops wreckage–twice.  So if anything, that venture delivered in accordance with the book’s premise.  And I did find myself wide-eyed at the process.

ILL WIND (Anna Pigeon #3)

Ill Wind has Anna trading Lake Superior for Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.  This time the mystery surrounds a series of deaths attributed to a disease of some sort.  A disease local to the park for whatever reason.  Anyway, it's killing tourist.  And when one of Anna’s colleges (forever the case) ends up found murdered, it’s up to her to find out the connection.

Unfortunately, I found the closure behind this to be somewhat of a stretch on the believability factor.  Anna still played her usual over-drinking, pessimistic, and noisy role.  So she’s still anything but stale or a sour protagonist.  Frankly, her attitude and the construction of the actual murders always draw me in.  It's the idea behind the murders that had me rolling my eyes.  

__________

And that, unfortunately, is all I have for now.  Sad, but true.  Had I got to catching up on my writing about these immediately after I'd finished, I most definitely would've had more to share.  But let me pass on this one.  Please!

Nevada Barr's Pigeon Bar

I’m officially in Nevada Barr’s bar. What a corny way to open this post, right? But please excuse me as I lament my new found enthusiasm for this author.  I recently finished Nevada Barr’s Track of the Cat, and found myself covered with giddiness for more. It's book one in Barr’s park ranger, Anna Pigeon, series. It’s also a first for me–concerning Barr. Nonetheless, the park ranger business is Barr’s hook, so her female sleuth is essentially catching killers in national parks (apparently different parks across the country, per series entry). Sounds pretty interesting and unique, right?  Well, I would say yes.

So let me quickly set up Track of the Cat for you. Written in the third, Track of the Cat opens with Anna Pigeon semi-fresh out of her internship and officially a park ranger out on business. And it’s hot business. It's Texas back country. It's the Guadalupe Mountain National Park where Anna is following a routine patrol tracking local mountain lion activity. After giving up the hustle and bustle of New York City, Anna’s at peace monitoring wildlife populations over the unpredictable urban life. Unfortunately, her patrol uncovers the body of a fellow park ranger.  Examining the body, it appears Anna’s colleague’s death was caused by a mountain lion mauling. But there’s something off. Something wrong. What was the victim doing out in the park alone, with no visible water canteen attached to her pack? 

As more clues mount, and news spread how a mountain lion is dangerously on the loose, Anna quickly has to piece together the murder.  Especially because rangers are rounding up to find the mountain lion deemed responsible.  It's an injustice Anna is determined to block.  Naturally, the more Anna uncovers, the further she becomes prey to the victim’s killer.

Now let's just get into what sold me the most!  There's two things: Setting & Anna.