Winter Study

Anna Pigeon #14

by Nevada Barr

Soon after Anna Pigeon joins the famed wolf study team of Isle Royale National Park in the middle of Lake Superior, the wolf packs begin to behave in peculiar ways. Giant wolf prints are found, and Anna spies the form of a great wolf from a surveillance plane. When a female member of the team is savaged, Anna is convinced they are being stalked, and what was once a beautiful, idyllic refuge becomes a place of unnatural occurrences and danger beyond the ordinary…

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Suspense, Crime

456 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Nevada Barr is a mystery fiction author, known for her "Anna Pigeon" series of mysteries, set in National Parks in the United States. Barr has won an Agatha Award for best first novel for Track of the Cat.

Barr was named after the state of her birth. She grew up in Johnstonville, California. She finished college at the University of California, Irvine. Originally, Barr started to pursue a career in theatre, but decided to be a park ranger. In 1984 she published her first novel, Bittersweet, a bleak lesbian historical novel set in the days of the Western frontier.

While working in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Barr created the Anna Pigeon series. Pigeon is a law enforcement officer with the United States National Park Service. Each book in the series takes place in a different National Park, where Pigeon solves a murder mystery, often related to natural resource issues. She is a satirical, witty woman whose icy exterior is broken down in each book by a hunky male to whom she is attracted (such as Rogelio).

Currently, Ms. Barr lives in New Orleans, LA.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/nevada...

Reviews

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Park Ranger Anna Pigeon is back at Isle Royale National Park at Lake Superior as part of the Wolf Study Project. This is the fourteenth book in the series and we visited this park previously in I think book two, however it was summer then and winter now, plus, wolves! Anna and her research team are setting traps to get wolf DNA, trying to figure out which groups of wolves are currently in the park and if they are being threatened by newly introduced wolves who could have diseases and shouldn’t be there. However, some of the carcasses of animals they find have been killed in unexpected ways (a super wolf, something else?) and when a member of the research team turns up dead, things get extra scary in this remote national park posting. As always, Nevada Barr does an outstanding job with her descriptions. Loved the way she talked about the park and the wolves in such detail. Admittedly I had to fast forward in a place or two when the characters were dissecting their third or fourth carcass, but I’m not really one for grisly murders, LOL. I enjoyed the locked room mystery aspect. The aspect of the rapes and how graphically they were described got a bit creepy for me.

Trigger Warnings: rape, suicide

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used to really like Nevada Barr's books, but the series is getting old after 14 books. On the plus side, each of the books takes place in a different national park (although this book returns to a park, but in a different time of the year)all across the United States. Also on the plus side, it's refreshing to have a book about a very complex, conflicted woman in her 40s. But given that, I'm a little tired of the gritty, in your face violence of this series. Maybe it's because the books seem to be following a formula. I know that some horrific is going to happen to Anna Pigeon, especially in the last 100 pages so I'm not surprised when the unspeakable happens. It's not only speakable, it's expected. Surprise me with a book that's less violence and more thoughtful. Otherwise I'm going to think that my brother and sister-in-law who both work for the Park Service are just wusses and both need to get out there and mix it up with the bad guys.

[Barbara K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this was in many ways a typical entry in Barr’s series about Anna Pigeon, US National Park Service ranger, it didn’t have quite the same narrative focus as some others I’ve read. Set on isolated Isle Royale in Lake Superior in the heart of winter, it features a limited cast, with a closed circle mystery feel about it.

Anna is spending time in that location, closed to visitors during the winter, to observe the decades long wolf study ongoing there. Also present are several researchers, an observer sent by Homeland Security (Isle Royale is actually closer to Canada than the US and is a potential border threat), and a pilot who ferries them around the island as necessary.

Strange occurrences begin shortly after Anna’s arrival, and the imaginative among them suspect the presence of some sort of hybrid wolf, or perhaps the “windigo”, a Native American mythological creature that pursues and devours humans. At one point Anna and another woman are traveling along a treacherous route back to the ranger station during a night snow storm. After they’ve lost contact with the others in their group they hear ominous noises coming from the nearby woods. I mention this because I found Barr’s descriptions of their fear of this unknown compelling. Well done scary stuff as compared with a ghost story I recently read.

As usual Anna is put into a life threatening situation before the book is over; it was a nice touch to have her compare her aging body with a youthful, high energy woman who is part of their group. Even someone as fit as Anna is subject to the effects of aging on her body. Also typical are Barr’s descriptions of the natural world, which evoked vivid memories of times I’ve spent snowshoeing through the woods in winter.

The plot is complex, and while the resolution may have been a bit tidier than I normally prefer, all in all it was entertaining to read again about this physically and mentally tough women.

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good entry in the Anna Pigeon series. In this one Anna joins a long running wolf study on an island in Lake Superior during the winter when the island is closed to visitors. The members of the study are all just a little off and bad things soon begin to happen. Everytime this book described the storms and the below zero temperatures I got just a little colder. Anna, as always, gets beaten to a pulp, but comes through in the end. Recommended to lovers of Anna Pigeon.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you see the #14 after the title, you know you're wondering the same thing I was:
After 13+ books about the intrepid and caustic park ranger Anna Pigeon, can Nevada Barr still manage to entertain fans of the series?

YES!

Barr delivers a real nail-biter in this installment, as newlywed Anna travels to Isle Royale National Park, located on the upper reaches of Lake Superior, to study the habits and the predator/prey relationship of wolves and moose. Isle Royale had been the setting for another of Barr's National Park mysteries early on, with A Superior Death

...but that was nine years ago, and in the summer. Now it's January; bone chilling, eerie, and desolate. Populated only by the wild inhabitants and 7 scientists involved in the "Winter Study", Barr takes the reader on a journey of discovery and danger as Anna attempts to stay warm, and more importantly, stay alive, after one of the scientists is savaged by a wolf pack.

Or was she?

Nothing is ever like it seems, and Anna knows wolves don't attack and kill humans. There are, however, predators of another species (aka human) on the island, and with the weather conditions making it impossible to get outside help, this book takes on all the aspects of the classic "locked room" mystery.

Barr delivers a gritty, page turning reading adventure. How she manages to still do it after 13 books is the real mystery...

[Jane Kirkpatrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suspense in the snow!

This is one of her best books. Fascinating science, great characters, and up-late-reading-suspense. Now I can get back to work.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mystery series very much. Anna is a US Park Ranger who finds herself assigned to work in the varied National Parks in the US each book. Each book lets you have a view of new areas of the US and at the same time people the stories with interesting characters and thrilling mysteries. In Winter Study, for the first time in the series, Anna returns to a park she's worked at before. This is Isle Royale National Park, an island park located in Lake Superior near Michigan.
As you can guess from the title, the story takes place in mid-winter, as Anna joins a group of scientists who are conducting the annual study of the wolf packs that reside at Isle Royale. At the same time, a representative of Homeland Security is visiting to gauge whether the park should be open year round (it closes in the winter normally), as Canada is such a threat to US security (the last comment is a joke of course, but the park being on the border with another country is a security concern)
So you've got winter conditions, a group of people isolated on a frigid island and a mystery. Call it the 'And then there Were none scenario'. Nevada Barr ramps up the story and tension and creates an excellent story. We have the death of one of the members, people wandering off in the cold, wolves in the vicinity, extreme frigid temperatures and all add up to a tense, interesting story.
There are frustrating thriller scenarios; why do people wander off on their own and why don't the others seem to notice or to care, that sort of thing. Anna gets beaten and frozen but she's a tough lady and always manages to work through these dangerous situations.
All in all, it's an interesting story, with surprising, even if maybe far-fetched results, but even so, in true thriller style, satisfying. I like Anna Pigeon very much. She's a strong-willed, stubborn, interesting woman and I've enjoyed pretty well all of this series so far. (3 stars)

[Jennifer M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was so intense! I dislike winter and cold weather so I was immediately uneasy. And then throw in a bunch of strangers living in a close environment with strange things going on and my heart is in my throat. It was stark and beautiful and chilling and then the evil of man got thrown into the mix. I know some people are getting tired of the series. That’s ok…. There are plenty of other books to read. I personally, still love Anna Pigeon, and learning about different parks, while being entertained with a mystery and fearing for Anna’s life far too often. As long as I space out my reading of the series, I find it very enjoyable.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, the pros. This is an absorbing mystery/thriller. I kept turning the pages, eager to find out what was going to be dunn and whodunnit. The author conveyed well the cold, frozen isolation of Isle Royale National Park, an island in Lake Superior north of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and made me want to go there (maybe in summer, though). There's plenty of action, as well as repeated near-death experiences for the crimesolving protagonist, park ranger Anna Pigeon.

The cons: much of the writing is just a big hot mess, as the author seems to want to mention every movie she's ever seen, and have them running through Anna Pigeon's mind as Anna fights off death. The Shining, Finding Nemo, Bonnie and Clyde, and Oliver Twist among many, many others. We and future casting directors are also told early on that one character "resembled the actor John Goodman." The book is filled with endless bad similes and metaphors, some of the worst I've ever seen. And the most annoying tic of all - I guess Nevada Barr couldn't be both'r'd t'type it all out - "Anna'd" repeatedly for "Anna had."

[Debbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing - great setting, fascinating details on wolves, (more would have been better) but hardly a redeeming character to be found in the human crew. I think it is past time for Anna Pigeon to retire, before one of these horrible, extended struggles with nature and deranged criminals actually kills her. You have to wonder how much pain and trauma one person can withstand. Especially being newly married with a new life to begin! Please, Ms Barr, let Anna leave the Park Service or at least stay in one spot now, and find happiness with Paul. Find another park ranger to torture if you must continue the series; the exploration of America's parks is a great theme, but the formulaic stories have lost their appeal for me. I found myself fast forwarding through so many of the tracks that I realized I just didn't care enough to hear all the details - you know Anna will survive, you just don't know how many broken bones she'll have and where the bruises will be. When you don't care about the characters it's time to stop - and that applies to the writer as much as the reader.

[Kate M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the moment the deformed and dying moose staggers in on page 9, Winter Study builds an atmosphere of dread. Something's rotten on Isle Royale National Park in the dead of winter, and it's not just the weather. Is there something supernatural on the island? Why are the wolves behaving so strangely? What secrets are the researchers on the island and their visitors keeping? How many near-death situations can Ranger Anna Pigeon get into? The book taught me about living in the backcountry in the northern winter without the pain of actually being there. Winter Study is thoughtful and sometimes beautifully written, but it's also a real page-turner. I read the last 200 or so pages in one fell swoop. I recommend it highly.

Finally, I wish I were one tenth as awesome as Anna Pigeon, the ranger who is the protagonist of Barr's mysteries.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My advice—read this book in the summertime! Two different nights I was reading this book during a winter storm with lows in single digits and blowing snow. I was chilled all night long. Barr’s description put me into the bitter cold of Isle Royal on Lake Michigan. There are spooky aspects to the plot and some pretty unbelievable things happen to Anna Pidgen, but as a reader I am willing to overlook because the the plot is gripping. This is Anna’s second visit to this park, and I remember the first one. In this book we learn more about the wolves on the island as they are made the scapegoat for all the bad things that happen. Looking forward to the next adventure and hope it’s in a warmer place!

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read the other in the series but thought I got along well in the story anywho. Liked the setting of this, in a national park in Canada. It was suspenseful enough and I would be interested in reading more in the series.

[Tim Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second Anna Pigeon mystery book I read, the other one being the second installment in the series, _A Superior Death_, which shares the same national park as the setting, Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. That’s about it though, as while _A Superior Death_ was set in basically summertime (I don’t remember the exact month but it certainly wasn’t winter), _Winter Study_ takes places in January. Rather than the island park being a place of wildflowers and tourists and as far as the park goes relatively easy access to the mainland, this time around the park is covered in ice and snow and home to just a tiny number of people, people not easily able to leave the island once there.

Anna is in the park to observe and take part in arguably the most famous scientific study in any national park, the study of the predator-prey relationship between wolves and moose on the island, a project that has been on-going for basically half a century. Anna is there to learn about wolf study and management, relevant to wolves being reintroduced to Rocky Mountain National Park. It sounded cold and remote but still something very interesting to do.

The island is essentially closed to tourists all but the summer months (I think in the book it was said to be closed October to May), partially because of weather and ice conditions out on Lake Superior, but mainly because of the wolf-moose study, which greatly benefits from the park being essentially empty of people for such a large chunk of the year.

In the story, Homeland Security is thinking of ending this, of having the park open all year long in part because of some perceived threat to national security (the book was published in 2008), that without more people on the island (other than the tiny number of moose-wolf researchers present in the winter) terrorists could somehow make use of the island.

When Anna gets to the island, she meets a small group of people. One of them is sent by Homeland Security to evaluate the feasibility of the park being open year-round and if the moose-wolf study should continue or not, the rest are there as part of the study, either researchers or support staff. We have Ridley Murray, the lead researcher and nominally head of everything on the island during the study, Robin Adair, a young woman who is a biotech for the project, Jonah Schumann, the pilot of the small plane on the island that the project occasionally uses weather permitting, Adam Johansen, basically field hand and mechanic, and Kathrine Huff, a researcher on the project specializing in genetics.

And then there is Bob Menechinn. Sent by Homeland Security to evaluate the project, he is very much the outsider. Though apparently an academician (Katherine was or is his graduate student), he isn’t particularly scientific and seems inclined to shut down the project, giving his employer, Homeland Security, what they want.

As bad as Bob’s position is, his personality is so much worse. He is abrasive, crass, arrogant, sexist, condescending, just an all-around objectionable person.

However, Bob isn’t the only problem on the island! Apparently, there is a huge, unknown wolf on the island, possibly a wolf-dog hybrid (which they take to calling a wog). Alien DNA is found (wolf DNA, not extraterrestrial DNA, as the project has the DNA of every wolf on the island and the source of this DNA is unaccounted for, the machine they have able to tell them it doesn’t match any of the DNA on file but unable to tell them what they have). Add sightings of a strange, very large animal on the island, absolutely enormous wolf prints in the snow, and a scary encounter the team has one night, the project has a real mystery. Did it find what it needed to find to avoid Homeland Security giving the project the ax? How did this creature get to the island? What is it? Are they people on the island in danger?

On the surface, it looks like there are two mysteries. Will the project continue and what is the strange animal on the island? As Anna digs deeper into the mysteries at Isle Royale National Park, she finds there are other mysteries too, of strange relationships between the small group of people on the island, that there is an unusual past between Katherine and Bob, that one other person knows another person on the island (unbeknownst to the other), that there are layers of lies and deception present. And that one of them is possibly a murderer. That or there really is a monster on the island, maybe even a windigo! Or maybe both are in play, a monster and a murderer.

Classic Arctic type thriller, with a small band of people, isolated, unable to leave, unable to get help, limited means of communication (no cell phone coverage, extremely limited phone coverage with landlines, internet access very spotty, all this assuming anyone is where they can even use a phone or a computer and not out in the woods), a situation where the environment itself is hostile, with driving snow and temperatures well below zero, with the possibility of frostbite setting in quite fast. The environmental challenges are manageable if things go right, as the team is well-equipped, but it doesn’t take much for anyone to be at the mercy of winter if they are isolated, running out in the wintry night being chased by wolves or a murderer. Help is difficult to get; they have radios, if their battery wasn’t killed by the cold and assuming all the team members have them on or handy (they don’t always do), the mainland through great effort can be reached but can’t always send help immediately owning to ice and winter storms. Throw in the possibility that someone on the island may make what communication there is even more difficult, yeah…the murderer can just let forty below temperatures in a blizzard kill anyone they want dead. “Natural causes.”

I liked it. It was more of a thriller than a mystery, especially at the end. It is not a neat, cozy, tearoom style mystery as there is some graphic violence and people definitely suffer. Though it isn’t any surprise Anna lives, as after all she is the star of the series, she most definitely has a miserable time of it. I think a few of the clues, while there in retrospect, might have been underlined a bit more, but that is just my personal preference.

I only had a few minor quibbles. Wog never really captured my heart; I would rather them just say wolf-dog hybrid. I have never seen wog used in any other context outside this book and I have read about coyote-dog and wolf-dog hybrids before. The book is rough on both men and women; women because they suffer the most in the book, men because at various times absolutely all of them look awful, if not actively committing crimes than somehow complicit (and later it turns out that at least one of the men does suffer a good bit and didn’t deserve that). I don’t remember the author using the word “Anna’d” in _A Superior Death_ but she used it a good number of times in this book. Apparently, a contraction of “Anna had,” but sometimes the use of Anna’d made no sense; “Anna’d had trouble with that.” Is that “Anna had had trouble with that” (page 269 of my hardcover)? I could never figure out why the author used Anna’d sometimes and other times didn’t. Bob is disgustingly sexist and while definitely believable as a character, wasn’t easy to read at times, really fond of the c word as he was. He wasn’t really called on this, but then given his role in the story, that does make some sense.

Overall though I liked it. The description of the cold and being at risk from dying from the cold was very nicely written and visceral. Good use of the one of the core aspects of the park as part of the mystery, this being the wolf-moose study, that it wasn’t incidental to the story but absolutely central to the entire plot. The ending is climatic and action-packed and all the mysteries are solved. Though being on the island in practically Arctic conditions was dangerous, Barr never forgot to relay the beauty of the island to the reader. Pacing was good, there were no infodumps, and it was good to see Anna’s world has advanced some in technology and acknowledged the struggles she had with such things as cell phones (compared to the world in the 1990s’ _A Superior Death_).

[~☆~Autumn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nevada Barr drags this one out a little too long at the end but overall its one of her best ones. Anna as usual is very battered at the end.

[Sabrina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Edit: Nope, nope, nope I am done with this shit! This book was tolerable until the last bit when the bad guy went on a tirade of swearing with the C word mixed in every few swear words. It's beyond crude, offensive, pointless and unnecessary. Never before has anything like this been in ANY of the past 13 books! Shame on you Mrs. Barr.

Sorry but the first part of this is a rant, the review comes after.

Only a couple of chapters in and I think I need a character guide for this one, I'm not tracks so many people so well. Also this book is way more gory then any of the other books in the series so far, blood and guts every few pages, not that I am squeamish it's just repetitive. Speaking of repetitive there is paragraph after paragraph of the same information that Anna is awkward and clumsy in her brand new gear while everyone else, especially Robin is graceful in their gear. We got it the first time no need to keep repeating yourself page after page. Next up I noticed that there are sentences that are word for word from the previous book and others in the series. Last I know that to heighten tension and suspense the main character has to be in some kind of peril or moral quandary but this is getting ridiculous. Anna nearly gets killed in every book now, she is badly beaten, bruised and breaks bones and yet in very few short months is at it again. Given her age and her profession she should be encroaching on retiring from disability. Also the strain of believably has been reached, this does not happen to a normal person or even police as she is part of law enforcement. I could see her getting beat up now and again this is just a bit too far.

I might have to stop reading this series for a while...it's the same book over and over again just in a different park but with an increase in male chauvinistic pigs and misogynist behavior as well as increased more detailed descriptions of assaults upon women. The first should be decreasing and the second makes it sound like besides a few handfuls of women in the parks service (most of them volunteers) that the agency is literally a he-man-women-haters-club. That is all of the men employed there hate and abuse women and if they don't they are the ones getting killed off. This needs to stop. The last is a recent and odd turn to the series that also needs to stop. Last is the language has taken a dive into the deep end. In earlier books Anna and those around her did everything they could not to swear or excused their language for saying shit, now many of the characters, especially the bad guys spew swear words, and rhetoric of hate and bigotry towards non-whites and women. The worst offender here is Bob from homeland security who when scared throws out the C word (not cool) as of this point sounds like he might not be adverse to sexually abusing his assistant. I am tired of reading it.

Anna is back in Royale National Park after a little over a decade but this time it's only for a few weeks for a study of wolves and elk. She chose to go because there will soon be wolves (they are pups at the moment) in her home park and she wants as much knowledge as possible when the other rangers and the public find out. She's right in the middle of it as soon as she arrives when a diseased moose walks into camp to die and wolves arrive that night to eat it. The next day or two she see's a pack kill a moose and a dead wolf is found. With the dead wolf and the discovery of huge, to big wolf prints the head of the study thinks there may be a hybrid on the island. By now she and the others in the group have gotten on each others nerves with homeland security agent Bob who could shut down the study being the worst offender. However Anna, Bob, Robin and Bob's assistant have to go out to catch the hybrid before it can do anymore damage. (Here we see the worst of Bob who borders on violent, uses the C word, which is not acceptable, and the hints he drops makes it sound like he dopes and possibly sexually abuses his assistant!!!! There are 3 women here, one in law enforcement and another a strong ex-pro athlete and none of them call him on this? I get that his abused assistant might not, but really? Anna's internal monologue shows her suspicion and disgust for Bob and she won't say or do anything Even when her fellow companions are/might be at risk?)

The story devolves as Anna nearly dies, Bob's assistant does die, Anna nearly dies again, Robin goes missing, and Anna nearly dies confronting the bad guy. By a little past halfway through this book I just want to chuck it aside. But I make it to the end screaming internally at the stupidity of Anna and the others.

There was however a few surprise twists at the end that you don't see coming but even that can't make up for Bob or the latter half of the story.

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

It has taken me a long time to articulate what bothered me so much about this book. Like other reviews, I was annoyed by the relentless cliff hangers and near-death experiences. Come on, real life can't have such uninterrupted suspense going chapter after chapter. But now onto my big beef with this book. The female author has given a predator male sex offender much too much air time. Sure the heroine prevails in the end. But I reject the need to describe in graphic detail his offenses as well as his misogynist (women-hating) language and behavior. As a final complaint, I picked up the book because of family-connections to the Isle Royale area. I picked up very little sense of place from the author. Lest I be really mean, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books did a much better job in establishing a sense of place and cliff-hangers with a purpose. I won't be picking up another Barr book - even the one set in the Lake Superior area. Perhaps a more worthy author will highlight this gorgeous part of the world without glamorizing predators and the, sometimes, inhumanity of the human condition.

[Carolyn F. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reminds me of geologist David Marchant and what he put female students through although this book was written about 10 years earlier than the accusations against him were made. I saw some of the reviewers mentioning how this book is so dark but this was actually happening at the time to female students and there was nothing they could do and no one to turn to. Maybe this was Nevada's way of trying to help. It's so sad when you eventually find out and there's nothing you can do or say to help because it's already exploded. That's where my imagination takes over with scenarios of frontier justice.

This book did have an element of long awaited justice, however, it would have been easier on everyone if she didn't stop it. I don't know why, but the ending felt abrupt and not satisfying.

[Nelson Pahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I've only read three Nevada Barr books to date, I found Winter Study to be another strong effort on her part. Great imagery, savory villains, and a plausible outcome. Definitely recommend to any nature-loving mystery enthusiast.

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to getting into some Nevada Barr because she sets her stories in national parks, which is pretty awesome.

She is creative with her analogies. While out in the woods and feeling nervous, one character "looked around like a virgin in a haunted house." I'm not really sure what that means, but it's an interesting image.

But then she takes it a little too far: "She wondered what he would look like with a plastic bag tied tightly around his neck." This from our heroine, Anna Pigeon herself.

At one point, she makes an unfortunate abbreviation. She decides a wolf-dog hybrid should be called a "wog". She obviously has never visited Australia.

And oh, the misogyny!

"Much of her life, Anna had worked in a male-dominated world. She would defend the right of any woman to do the same. But she was realist enough to admit women made things more complicated, more volatile. Not because women were stupid or incompetent, but because their presence often made men stupid and incompetent." This is the rationalization behind requiring women to wear a burqa.

But the ultimate is a series of rape photos included in the plot. The existence of the photos makes sense, but not the gratuitous detailed description of each. I felt sick after that. Yuck.

[Andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a thoroughly unpleasant book! I had high hopes when I learned about this series - what's not to like about a NPS ranger solving mysteries in different parks - but the 2 I've read have convinced me that this is *not* the series for me. Way too much blood and graphic gore, not to mention deviant sexual crime. All tied up with cardboard characters - really, do we need to be told umpteen million times that Robin was graceful and beautiful and Bob was ginorous; I get it, already! - or superhumans - no way anyone could survive the things Anna did over the course of a couple of days. And the ending was just amoral claptrap. Ugh! I wish I could get back the hours of my life I wasted on this nonsense!

[Dhfan4life]

Finished this book today. And although I love cozy mystery series and even books about wolves, werewolves, winter-y sort of stuff. And although I know this was a suspense/who-dun-it story and nothing like a cozy read at all...And was recommended to me by a friend/co-worker. However, I just was not really feeling this book at all. A whole lot of nothing that made sense happened and the "accidents" were so loosely pieced together and the "mystery" of things just didn't seem to work either.

I guess it would have been better if things were more fleshed out both character wise, bad guy wise, heroine wise. And to be honest, even motive wise.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Pasquina Santina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok um…. Truthfully, I only picked up this book because of the wolf on the front, and the summary on the back claiming the book was about these scientists studying wolf patterns on an island. Turns out 3/4 of the way into the book there’s explicit rape talk… not a fan. And then book in its entirety is not as much about wolf research as it is finding a rapist among them, and them braving the cold weather. Trigger warnings should be in place. Was meant to be a wholesome book about researching wolves… then I read about photos of cucumbers in holes they shouldn’t be in…. Not a fan at all🤬

[C. McKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one made the journey from boring, to macabre, to heart-palpitating. I gave it four stars because in the end, the complexity of the plot was brilliant. It reflected the complexity of we humans who are driven by so many unexpected and convoluted motivations.

The spice of Anna Pigeon's humor and allusions was a times jarring, especially when everything was about broken bones, blood, gore and dismemberment. There were times when Monty Python came to mind.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great novel by Nevada Barr, an intense nail-biter for sure. The setting alone gives you the chills, a frigid island located in the middle of Lake Superior in winter. Kept me entertained from beginning to end.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s been a long time since I’ve read one of her books. Picked this one up at a library sale. It’s a good book for what it is. Love the setting of a national park and the perspectives of park rangers, etc. But … while the plot is creative, it’s also implausible / overly contrived. She is a master of suspense and creepy people. Don’t love the main character of Anna … but respect her. Her interactions and reactions are often odd or off but that is also partly why I like (not love) her and her books. Happy to have read it and learned more about this park and wolves. It also gave me some bad / semi scary dreams!

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Soon after Anna Pigeon joins the famed wolf study team of Isle Royale National Park in the middle of Lake Superior, the wolf packs begin to behave in peculiar ways. Giant wolf prints are found, and Anna spies the form of a great wolf from a surveillance plane. When a female member of the team is savaged, Anna is convinced they are being stalked, and what was once a beautiful, idyllic refuge becomes a place of unnatural occurrences and danger beyond the ordinary ..."
~~back cover

Another ghastly book. Nastiness and hatred over old crimes ... and once again members of the team are embroiled in the plot. And once again Anna is seriously mauled but manages to hold out and overcome her stronger, bigger male opponent, even in subzero weather.

I don't read to be transported to the seamy, dangerous parts of our world. They're there, I know they are ... but I get to see them on the nightly news, and read about them in the paper. When I read, I want to read about nicer places, nicer people -- the optimistic side of things. Mysteries are fine, but they need to be pretty bloodless. And certainly less formulaic!

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series, reading a volume every now and then, sinking into a distinct natural setting in a distinct National Park. Anna is a great heroine, whose wry internal monologues and calm good sense are irresistible. But this book--well.

First, it was set on Isle Royal, in my home state, and in the dead of an icy Michigan winter--a thing I know well. And the plot was flawless, with small, carefully planted clues and an obvious bad guy, plus plenty of twists and turns, perfectly narrated by Anna's deadpan voice. There were wolves and moose and it was one of those Agatha Christie-type scenarios: three women and four men in a tiny cabin, and at least one is a stone killer (and not necessarily the obvious bad guy). Nevada Barr's writing is a thing of beauty. And she completely understands how a strong and self-reliant woman can outsmart a large, ego-bound man. Four and three-fourths stars.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know whether I've changed, or whether the Anna Pigeon series has changed. Maybe I'm just too squeamish, but I didn't enjoy this book. Too graphic. I'm cursed with a weak stomach and a strong imagination and I avoid reading stuff that sticks with me for days, giving me nightmares, or weird daytime thoughts. There's a reason I write children's books and not for adults! In any case, I've read the first twelve Nevada Barr (love that name!) books and enjoyed them. I started number 13 (Hard Country) but abandoned it when Barr introduced traumatized children. I read this book, Winter Study, because I thought it was about wolves. It was. Sort of. I won't spoil the ending, but it was too much for me. I won't be looking for her new ones. If I want to read about Ranger Anna, I will just reread her earlier books.