A National Parks Mystery

!!!NOTE: I had a hard time writing this blog - not because I did not enjoy the book - because I did. I wanted to write this blog / review in a different way but just could not come up with the proper way. It has also been hard since when it comes to reading a book and writing my review in the blog, I do not start another book until I am finished with the review. FYI: I enjoyed the book (and character) and intend to continue with other books in the series!!!

I have finished reading Nevada Barr’s “Track of The Cat”. It is the first in the Anna Pigeon mystery series. Who is Anna Pigeon? She is a Law Enforcement ranger at a national park of the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas. The author Nevada Barr also worked for the national park services at one time and was stationed in the Guadalupe Mountains. This contributes to her knowledge of the area where this story takes place. I can only assume she also has a first hand knowledge of some of the characters in the story as well. Does her Anna Pigeon character share some characteristics with her?

Among Anna’s duties are protecting the wildlife, making sure people are safe inside the national parks, and when necessary enforcing the rules within the national parks area. She left city life in New York about two years and she prefers the solitude she gets with her job out here.

She has been out looking for signs of cats when she runs across the body of another ranger. It appears the ranger was killed by a cat. Anna realizes there are problems with the clues that point to the ranger being killed by a cat. She also realizes there is a problem with where she found the body. Her suspicious mind considers several possible suspects. Those suspicions grow after she is involved in an accident on the trail and after another ranger is found dead – apparently as a result of his interest in collecting snakes.

After carefully considering all the evidence and following up on clues, she learns the motive behind the deaths and her “accident”. This motive involves the cats she is keeping track of and the money that is paid by hunters to bag these cats in the National Park where she works. She catches the person responsible in the act – a rich rancher. But his justice is not to come in the courts – his justice is to come in the wild – maybe even at the “hands” (paws) of those cats he was making the money off of.