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A review by lisavegan
Borderline by Nevada Barr
4.0
Nevada Barr’s mysteries have a wonderful sense of melancholy that makes them particularly interesting compared to many other mystery series. It’s one of the few series that I’m not behind on and that I’ve now read all the published so far books.
I’ve learned so much about various national parks (the main character is a national park ranger and each story takes place in a different national park) and this particular (Big Bend) park hadn’t been written about before and it’s a park I found especially fascinating. It’s in Texas with a river that has the country of Mexico on the other side.
I really love maps and the national park maps that are in this book and all the books in this series are interesting and educational, but for the first time I noticed the story didn’t follow the map. At one point it said they were headed to the east but their destination was to the west. As someone who frequently peruses maps as I read books containing them, this was disappointing.
Except for that relatively minor distraction, this was one of my very favorite books in the series. Nothing can quite match the first unique book Track of the Cat, but Anna Pigeon has grown and changed and I’ve liked her more and more as these books progress, so overall I actually enjoy the later books more than the earlier ones.
It is very important to read these in order and of course, as usual, I think they should all be read. It’s worth it to read the other 14 books to get to this one, and I’m looking forward to book # 16 in the series.
I read a lot of mysteries and I’m used to the formulas, especially of those authors I know well, so it says quite a bit that I was probably 5/6 into this book before I figured out the crux of this mystery, and I did still enjoy the whole book. It had a lovely and worthwhile ending.
I’ve learned so much about various national parks (the main character is a national park ranger and each story takes place in a different national park) and this particular (Big Bend) park hadn’t been written about before and it’s a park I found especially fascinating. It’s in Texas with a river that has the country of Mexico on the other side.
I really love maps and the national park maps that are in this book and all the books in this series are interesting and educational, but for the first time I noticed the story didn’t follow the map. At one point it said they were headed to the east but their destination was to the west. As someone who frequently peruses maps as I read books containing them, this was disappointing.
Except for that relatively minor distraction, this was one of my very favorite books in the series. Nothing can quite match the first unique book Track of the Cat, but Anna Pigeon has grown and changed and I’ve liked her more and more as these books progress, so overall I actually enjoy the later books more than the earlier ones.
It is very important to read these in order and of course, as usual, I think they should all be read. It’s worth it to read the other 14 books to get to this one, and I’m looking forward to book # 16 in the series.
I read a lot of mysteries and I’m used to the formulas, especially of those authors I know well, so it says quite a bit that I was probably 5/6 into this book before I figured out the crux of this mystery, and I did still enjoy the whole book. It had a lovely and worthwhile ending.