High Country

by Nevada Barr

Putnam, February, 2004.
Hardcover, 323 pages.
ISBN: 0399151443

High Country by Nevada Barr

National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon takes on the high snow country of Yosemite in this gripping 12th novel in the series. Sent to work undercover as a waitress in the famous Ahwahnee Hotel, Anna quickly finds more troubled than she bargained for. Her job is to find four young employees who disappeared, so she must bunk in the employee quarters with a bunch of very messy 20-somethings. And her waitressing skills aren't exactly up to par, which leads to some vicious confrontations with the head waitress and the borderline psychotic chef. As Anna begins to investigate, she discovers some very nasty characters camping in the park and a downed plane in a nearby lake in the mountains. But when she gets too close, the bad guys decide that Anna needs to be silenced, which sets off an incredibly violent sequence of cat and mouse as Anna fights for her life in the snow-covered mountains.

Nevada Barr sets the story in the beautiful Yosemite park in winter, when the mountains are covered in snow and the hiking is treacherous. Her descriptions of Yosemite are vivid, and Ms. Barr excels at writing action sequences. Anna's confrontation with criminals in the High Sierras is absolutely breathtakingly suspenseful. Anna Pigeon shows no sign of slowing down; this series is just as fresh and entertaining as ever.

High Country is available for purchase on Amazon.com

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This review was published in the March-April, 2004 of The Internet Writing Journal.