Reviews - High Country | The StoryGraph

65 reviews for:

Park Ranger Anna Pigeon is assigned to Yosemite National Park for HIGH COUNTRY, the 12th book in the series and is working undercover as a waitress in one of the park’s restaurants, trying to dig up information about four young employees who have mysteriously vanished. This is one of my favorite mystery series and most of the books have been a solid 4 or 5-star rating, but I struggled with this one. Anna was undercover as a waitress the entire time so rather than see her in her strong female lead, park ranger awesomeness, leading the investigation and talking about the interesting features of the park we are visiting in this book, she served a lot of food, got yelled at by her supervisor for being a bad waitress, and sort of stumbled around while on breaks from waitressing hoping to happen upon a crime being committed.

Spoiler

I realize this was written nearly 20 years ago, but the plot device of someone taping a needle with HIV positive blood inside Anna’s coat so she would get stuck and infected and having that blood come from the one gay character in the novel felt poorly thought out. The way that character’s final scene played out was even worse in terms of perpetuating harmful stereotypes. I also did not care for the scene at the end where Anna, despite being engaged, decides she’s going to have a one-night stand with another man. I still really love this series overall but this book was a miss for me.

3/5 stars.

marilynsaul's review against another edition

3.0

Sometimes Barr makes Anna so stupid. It's so out of character. It's annoying.

stephrenaud's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

larahopereads's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

britomarte's review against another edition

2.0

I love Nevada Barr's work, but this one doesn't seem to fit with the rest. The plot was identical, the characters were mostly flat, and the action started WAY too early.

aprater's review against another edition

3.0

This book was slow to start but a few chapters in, it got my attention. I liked the detailed language and the chosen venue.

lizjane's review against another edition

3.0

Read this to prepare for a trip to Yosemite. It made me wary of killers in the national park.

allyexa's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Oh, 🤮 barf emoji

That weird “her heart remembered who she was” ending was just the cherry on top of a plot I had already been scowling at.

I love this series, this character, this author- usually. Barr writes edge-of-your-seat plots, Anna is both capable and perceptive, and the park setting was sufficiently snowy and survivalist. But the “it’s the 90s” excuse wand I’ve been waving for the earlier books is getting heavier to lift.

like marijuana as a reason to die/ murder/ torture? And did Barr do all the AIDS research for this book by watching one made-for-tv movie from 1986?

So many of Anna’s folksy “well, that’s just how I see it” observations about the world are just coming off as a grumpy old lady not really understanding anything at all.

Still, I liked the snowy survival fight parts of the book.

1/4/23