A Superior Death (An Anna Pigeon Novel)

Park ranger Anna Pigeon returns, in a mystery that unfolds in and around Lake Superior, in whose chilling depths sunken treasure comes with a deadly price. In her latest mystery, Nevada Barr sends Ranger Pigeon to a new post amid the cold, deserted, and isolated beauty of Isle Royale National Park, a remote island off the coast of Michigan known for fantastic deep-water dives of wrecked sailing vessels. Leaving behind memories of the Texas high desert and the environmental scam she helped uncover, Anna is adjusting to the cool damp of Lake Superior and the spirits and lore of the northern Midwest. But when a routine application for a diving permit reveals a grisly underwater murder, Anna finds herself 260 feet below the forbidding surface of the lake, searching for the connection between a drowned man and an age-old cargo ship. Written with a naturalist's feel for the wilderness and a keen understanding of characters who thrive in extreme conditions, A Superior Death is a passionate, atmospheric page-turner.

Customer Reviews:

A Unique Page-Turner

By Wendy Kaplan - June 6, 2002

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... read more

Freezing fear

By Victoria Tarrani "writer, editor, artist, des... - June 24, 2000

Anna Pigeon is a Park Ranger who has been transferred from the hot Texas desert (read Track of the Cat) to the cold reaches of Lake Superior where her skills as a diver are tested by ghostly images from a sunken ship to the very real danger of a murderer.Nevada Barr does not simply tell the story, but she reveals it through details that give the reader insight into both the world of the Park Rangers and underwater spectacles that delight the imagination. As she learns about this cold world, so do we. As Anna solves the mystery, we feel the fear building because we know that she is in danger and that she didn't get into that danger by ignoring her common sense, but by following her basic intelligence to logical conclusions. Logic can sometimes take too long, which always adds to great suspense.