Borderline

By: Nevada Barr

Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat

Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Agatha and Anthony Award winner Nevada Barr, New York Times best-selling author of Winter Study, enthralls millions with the exploits of roving park ranger Anna Pigeon.

The killings on Isle Royale have left Anna drained and haunted, her memories of her time with the wolf study group forever marred by the carnage on the island. Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, she is on administrative leave, per her superintendent's urging. Anna wonders if the leave might not be permanent, either by her own choice or that of the National Park Service.

The one bright spot in Anna's life is Paul, her husband of less than a year. Hoping the warmth and the adventure of a raft trip in Big Bend National Park will lift her spirits, Paul takes Anna to southwest Texas, where the sun is hot and the Rio Grande is running high.

The sheer beauty of the Chihuahuan Desert and the power of the river work their magic-until the raft is lost in the rapids and a young college student falls overboard, resulting in an even more grisly discovery. Caught in a strainer between two boulders and more dead than alive, is a pregnant woman, hair and arms tangled in the downed branches. Instead of the soul-soothing experience they'd longed for, Anna and Paul find themselves sucked into a labyrinth of intrigue that leads from the Mexican desert to the steps of the governor's Mansion in Austin, Texas.

©2009 Nevada Barr (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

This was ridiculous

Would you try another book from Nevada Barr and/or Barbara Rosenblat?

No probably not

Any additional comments?

The plot became really implausible really quickly, and just became ridiculous. No one is going to attack state employees with a knife. OMG. I couldn't even.

Barr has lost it

There were two reasons I used to love reading Barr's Anna Pigeon books: the protagonist was a strong, independent female, making it on her own; the national parks were characters in the narratives, and the books were filled with carefully rendered details that made each park come to life in their unique ecologies. In this book, Barr has truly and finally given up what make her Anna Pigeon books special. Anna is the helpless, dependent female who has become a passive participant in events, just drifting from one situation to the next clinging to her "adopted" baby like some kind of security blanket; she saves the baby, but she does nothing at all to solve the crimes. Big Bend park is similarly just a passive backdrop for the opening events. Blah.

When You Want the Author's Poltical Opinion

When I purchase novels, I'm purchasing them for a story line. I do not purchase a novel to hear the author bleat over their political opinion - for that I would purchase a political opinion book.

The story itself is all over the place. First a pregnant woman trying to get into the USA to have her baby and turned back by the border patrol. Next a border agent who is suffering from having killed someone but in denial about her feelings. Then suddenly we are all on a rafting trip with absolutely unbelievable events, including the rescue of a cow. Give me a break!

I'd encourage you to use your credit on something that actually is entertaining and well written without being subjected to someone else's bias.