A review by book_concierge
Firestorm by Nevada Barr

3.0

In this 4th book of a series, U.S. Park Ranger Anna Pigeon is on temporary duty as the security officer and EMT with a group fighting the Jacknife fire in Northern California’s Lassen Volcanic National Park. A weather system promises some rain or snow to quench what is left of the fire, so the crew is dismantling the camp and pulling out. But one man is injured in an accident and Anna and a few others trek to his position to help evacuate the big guy down the mountain. Before they can get to safety, the storm front pushes high winds into the small remaining fires and a firestorm results, trapping them with only their individual safety shelters to protect them. When they emerge two men are dead – but one of them didn’t die in the fire; he’s been stabbed. With few resources, and a several days wait for rescue crews, Anna is alone in trying to figure out who among them is the murderer.

Nevada Barr writes good, suspenseful and intricately plotted mysteries, and this is a good one. I like Anna as a lead character; she’s intelligent, tenacious, strong (in body and mind) and resourceful. Barr includes a little romantic tension with Anna’s long-distance relationship with FBI agent Frederick Stanton, but that’s okay. There are several stereotypical characters – school-bully-turned-cop, weak-indecisive-bureaucrat, good-time-girl-camp-follower – but most of the team are reasonably complicated with strengths and weaknesses that come out under the stress of their predicament.

All told it’s a solid mystery with fast action that kept me interested from beginning to end