The Rope

An Anna Pigeon Mystery, Book 17

By: Nevada Barr

Narrated by: Joyce Bean

Length: 12 hrs

Publisher's summary

Anna Pigeon has been a ranger with the National Park Service for many years, but she had a very different life before tragedy sent her west seeking something new. Now Nevada Barr finally tells the previously untold story of Anna’s first foray into the wild, and the case that helped shape her into the ranger she became.

Thirty-five years old, fresh off the bus from New York City, and nursing a shattered heart, Anna Pigeon takes a decidedly unglamorous job as a seasonal employee of the Glen Canyon National Recreational Area. On her day off, she goes hiking into the park never to return. Her co-workers think she’s simply moved on - her cabin is cleaned out and her things gone. Anna herself wakes up, trapped at the bottom of a dry natural well, naked, without supplies and no clear memory of how she got into this situation.

As she slowly pieces together her memory, it soon becomes clear that someone has trapped her there, in an inescapable prison, and that no one knows that she is even missing. Plunged into a landscape and a plot she is unfit and untrained to handle, Anna Pigeon must muster the courage, strength, and will to live that she didn’t even know she still possessed in order to survive, outwit, and triumph.

Investigate more mysterious doings with Anna Pigeon.

©2012 Nevada Barr (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Great Ranger Pigeon Thriller!

I really love reading Nevada Barr's Ranger Pigeon thrillers. The Rope, like all the other Ranger Pigeon series is set in one of the US National Parks, so not only do you get have suspense you get to live the great outdoors with Anna Pigeon, Barr, keeps you guessing all the way to the end as to who the murderer is, and you would never guess the right answer! The way the novel is written you can just see the scenery and Anna Pigeon is so practical and down to earth that you cannot help but to like her and champion her all the way through. A really great read!

wow!

I have not read/listened to these books in order and it appears that does not matter. each so far, has been able to stand tall on its own. This one blew me out of the water at the end. Found myself thinking I had it all figured out but, nope. I sure didn't! If you are a Nevada B arrive other Anna Pigeon fan, this is a MUST read!

Good Backstory

I love this series but was a little thrown by this book being the back story of Anna. I was not expecting to go back in time and was a little confused at first. However, the book was a good listen as always.

“The Rope”

Will keep you swinging until the very end! Great book. I have reading A.Pigeon for years..

Great book, no question. But....

The Rope is everything you expect from the best of Nevada Barr -- and then some. Lots of white-knuckle moments, when you have to stop whatever you're doing and just listen, afraid to even move lest you miss a word. Lots of interesting stuff about the outdoor life, hiking, 'canyoneering', about Lake Powell and 'Dangling Rope'.

I had some trepidation: first, not hearing the voice of Barbara Rosenblat took a little getting used to. Rosenblat's wry, little-bit-hoarse voice, tinged with good humored, self-deprecating sarcasm, has come to mean 'Anna Pigeon' to me, and I thought I'd miss that. But no, Joyce Bean does a very credible job -- in fact, it might have been smart to have someone else read this 'prequel' to the rest of the books, when Anna was young and foolish.

Foolish? Indeed. Anna as a young woman proves herself not to have been any different from any number of other young protagonists -- an older and wiser Anna would never have gone off -- twice! -- on dangerous hiking/canyoneering trips with questionable people, when she knew very well that someone out there had tried to kill her several times. Okay, okay, so sweet young protagonists have to do those kinds of things, because if they didn't, there wouldn't be much of a story. Still, for the canny Anna we've come to know through the other books, it took some adjustment to think she'd be dumb enough, naive enough, to do such a fool thing.

So it's a great book. I enjoyed it. That said, I'm starting to see why it is that I'm liking the more sophisticated quasi-cozies these days than the kind of hard-boiled stories like this one. Why? There's too much animal torture involved. Authors can't seem to stay away from it. Look: humans are fair game in these books. They fight, they die, we know it's just a story. Most of us probably have never met someone who actually murdered someone else. But to include too much animal torture gives me the willies -- I have a feeling that this is giving too many sick people out there ideas. I don't like it. Leave the animals alone. And as I've said before, to find detailed descriptions in a paper book is one thing -- you can flip the pages. Much harder to duck it in an audio book -- I take my ear buds out, then check in periodically to see if they're done yet, but that doesn't leave me with good feelings about the book, in general.

So I'm gravitating to other authors -- Susan Rogers Cooper, Julia Spencer-Flemming, Deborah Crombie -- any of the British authors, actually -- Alafair Burke, Carol Lea Benjamin, all of the books by the late Phillip Craig, all of these writers turn out great mysteries, great reading. And none of them doom innocent animals to death by sick sadists.... much better, for me, at least.

Highly recommend this book

I am quite familiar with the Anna Pigeon series, and am an avid fan. But this one stood out among the lot. First, it is, like most, just a very well-written book, based on a character I like, all crafted by a very talented author. Based on that alone, I would still rate this book as the best in the series. But I found something else in this book that surprised me. Without giving away the story, I must explain that early in this book, Anna experiences a woman's worst nightmare, as a captive with some seriously sexual undertones (don't worry, it is more psychological than physical.) However, the way Nevada Barr handled Anna's responses to the trauma afterward is remarkable. As a woman, I was stunned by the author's insight, and as a fortunate woman, having never experienced such trauma, I gained an insight that I would never have imagined. I came away feeling like I understood far more of the shame, confusion, and anger that comes with such an event. Moreover, I feel like I can understand more clearly why some people behave in ways that seem to be strange. Once I saw it so clearly through Anna's (Nevada Barr's) eyes, it began to make perfect sense. I also realized that I, as a woman, would get a totally different insight than a male reader, and that it might prove far more helpful to the male audience than to the female readers. I would recommend it to all, male and female, based solely on this feature, but I am quite confident that anyone and everyone will enjoy the story on its own merit. It is not until the very end that all is revealed, for throughout the story, I vacillated between my chosen villians, never quite sure. YES, this is a very good read/listen, and for several reasons. If you don't know Anna Pigeon, this is a great introduction. If you do, you'll find you never really knew her until now.

Anna Pigeon 1.0

It was a treat to see another slice of Anna Pigeon; seen from a slightly angled perspective she is more fragile and damaged than she appears in the other books in the series by Nevada Barr. I did love this balancing act, although I didn't think the bullying, which takes up most of the book, was necessary. Is this what really goes on with public service employees? If one person is a bit off, a little "different", then the gang piles on the abuse? If this is the original version of the perambulating National Park ranger, I do wonder how she could have stayed with the job for so long.

I love the Anna Pigeon series, for the geography and sense of place just as much as, if not more than, the stories. However, this book, while delving deeper into Anna's history and that's a plus, goes way too far with the macho adventure maneuvers, and the passages drag on and on, way beyond what's necessary to create the scene.

Joyce Bean does a terrific job, and in combination with Barr's writing, creates brilliantly executed characters, one of whom is hovering in the margins of mental illness. It's a tough call to try and set a believable tone for this and the scenes could easily become maudlin and exaggerated, but Bean handles the character perfectly.

An exciting read, with lots of twists and "mini-endings" - you know, something seems resolved but not really because there are four more hours to go! Now I want all the other books to have sequels starring the "real" Anna Pigeon.

GREAT story a must read

The story is griping and suspenseful. I went along for the ride and loved it. I had no idea of the villain until almost the very end which is something I enjoy in a story. Anna Pigeon is one of my favorite characters and the narrator brings her and her terror to life in a convincing way.

Essential for Anna Pigeon fans.

Before Anna was a kick-ass ranger and talented investigator, she was a low ranking seasonal assistant to park interpreters. This book is essential to understanding how she began her transition.
As with most books in the series, this also provides a pleasant insight into the natural setting of the park.

NOT Up to Barr's Normal - according to my wife.

Would you try another book from Nevada Barr and/or Joyce Bean?

My wife talked me into trying Nevada Barr on Audio because she has a dozen or more Barr paperbacks I can dive into if I like the author. I did NOT like the author.

What was most disappointing about Nevada Barr’s story?

The story was not credible. It dragged on and on without tying threads together and, in the end, never produced a satisfactory conclusion. It was as if Ms. Barr didn't really know who the antagonist was. Even my wife doesn't like THIS Barr novel!!

Have you listened to any of Joyce Bean’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

My first exposure. The reader was "OK" but couldn't overcome the pap she had to work with.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

NO!! (But we need not worry about that prospect. NO ONE would EVER consider turning this one into a movie!!)

Any additional comments?

I'll try another Barr novel - - - sometime.