by Nevada Barr
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Product Description
A would-be killer is drawing Anna Pigeon deep into the darkness-and closer to hell than she's ever gone before."Anna Pigeon, the intrepid National Park Service ranger in Nevada Barr's superb wilderness mysteries, has had some perilous experiences in the five novels that preceded Blind Descent, but none compares with this thrilling subterranean adventure in the underground caverns of Lechuguilla, 'a monster man-eating cave' in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns. When a fellow ranger is injured in a caving accident, Anna chokes back the willies of claustrophobia and joins the rescue team. Burrowing 800 feet below ground, she negotiates airless tunnells, gaping pits, vaulting caverns and silently flowing rivers, each hazard with a daunting name like Razor Blade Run or the Wormhole. At the end of the dangerous descent, she reaches her friend and hears her say, 'It wasn't an accident.' A would-be killer is drawing Anna Pigeon deep into the darkness-and closer to hell than she's ever gone before.
Amazon.com Review
Feisty, resourceful forest ranger Anna Pigeon faced everything from raging fires to deep-water dives with cool aplomb in her first five adventures. Very early in Blind Descent her courage is put to an even greater test when she learns that a woman seriously injured while exploring a cave next door to New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns is a friend who has requested Pigeon's help in getting her out. "A chilling image filled Anna's mind: herself crouched and whimpering, fear pouring like poison through her limbs, shutting down her brain as the cave closed in around her." Pushing aside her fears, Pigeon takes the plunge, leading readers through a truly harrowing series of tight squeezes. Nevada Barr is so good at involving us in Anna's terror that when she finally resurfaces, we share her "unadulterated joy. Even the dirt smelled alive... When she saw her first stars, she croaked out her delight from tired lungs." Above ground, Anna quickly gets involved in two possibly linked murders and becomes a rifleman's target. As we share the progress of her investigation, a sneaky suspicion starts to grow of possible suspects within the small community of spelunkers and National Park Service bureaucrats. Barr couldn't possibly ask Anna to go back underground again, could she? When it happens, of course, it seems inevitable--and just as frightening as the first time.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Great Mystery, Humor & Imagery, Fascinating Material, 2008-10-05
This is my 3rd, and my favorite Nevada Barr novel. Track Of the Cat was very good, Deep South was OK, but Blind Descent was great. Ms. Barr is top notch with her imagery, but I found early on I had to be more of an active reader, keeping up with the technical jargon to stay on top of it. There's lots of caving and climbing equipment and techniques mentioned, and lots of trekking through caves describing each move; if my mind wandered the slightest, I'd lose my mental image and get lost, having to backtrack to refresh myself with just how an ascender worked or where she was in the cave relative to the other person. She makes her subject material fascinating...I found myself googling Lechuguilla Cave, and discovered it's an actual cave just as she describes in the book. I learned a lot, and appreciate being educated while I'm enjoying a book. I love her writing: her humor, her wonderful similes and metaphors, the unpredictability of her plot. In the book the protaganist Anna is hiding in a cave, slips out of her hole and manages to grab a supply pack & return to her hiding place unseen. Ms Barr's description: "Scuttling backward with her prize, like an alligator with a Pekinese, Anna vanished into the trough." Danger sprinked with humor, I love it! Describing Anna's sighting of a rope she desperately needs to escape: "Daring one flick of her lamp, she sighted the ascension rope on the far side of the pit. Between the looming crusted tables, a red snakey tongue licked dead white stone". Tension loaded with vivid imagery; Ms. Barr does it so well.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Deep Subject, 2008-03-20
Nevada Barr's BLIND DESCENT, the 6th Anna Pigeon mystery is not for the claustrophobic. New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns is one of the most beautiful and mysterious of the National Park System. I'm not a spelunker, but have managed to find myself in several along with my camera. Tight spaces don't particularly bother me, but I've watched people freeze even in a mock up of a cave in a natural history museum. If you're one of those ease back in your best chair and let Nevada's vivid prose give you a vicarious experience. BLIND DESCENT is well worth the trip and her masterful plotting, red herrings, and convoluted paths to the exciting conclusion might cure your fear of closed places.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Let me out of here!, 2008-01-07
Blind Descent is my introduction to the Anna Pigeon series, and a very satisfactory one it has turned out to be. My first impression of author Barr as a writer is a favorable one. She's literate (I know, all published authors are supposed to be literate, but that's not the case), intelligent, and excels at description, dialogue, and creating palpable ambience. Anna is an attractive heroine, but while her personality is finely drawn, other characters aren't as deep. As for plot, Blind comes across as an adventure that requires courage, with a mystery thrown in to stimulate curiosity. Having visited other caves (as a tourist), I was struck by the immediacy and precision of Barr's ability to capture the qualities of utter darkness, other-worldliness, and isolation.
I haven't granted Blind Descent with a fifth star because Anna comes across as dogged and determined but makes some stupid decisions and choices. Her bravery and daring I can buy, but it's too hard to accept that someone with her training and knowledge would not be willing to seek out the proper parties for professional assistance in uncovering crimes.
That aside, Blind Darkness is a well-written, original, and most enjoyable novel.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Claustrophobic, 2007-08-23
I always enjoy Nevada Barr's novels. Once again Anna Pigeon finds herself in another dangerous situation, this one inside a vast underground cavern with some very tight spots. Great suspense!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
High quality mystery from a gifted author, 2007-08-21
Though I have read and enjoyed every Anna Pigeon mystery that preceded this book, this was by far my favorite. This is because Barr's skills grow with each novel and with each new mystery, her gifts as a writer begin to flower more and more.
One of the great rewards of serial fiction is watching a character grow and develop over the course of several novels. This leads to a depth that's not possible with stand-alone novels. It also presents a greater challenge to an author, a test that Barr is passing with flying colors. I've always found Anna to be a likable character but the more I get to know her, the more I like her. I have a vested interest in her and when she does something stupid, when she's in danger, I truly care what happens to her.
An enormous part of the appeal of this novel has to do with its setting. Anyone who has ever visited a cave and been treated to even a minute stretch of time in its absolute darkness will feel the same willies I felt while reading the cave passages. Even those who have never visited will be able to feel it and will relate to Anna's claustrophobia. The cold, calculating villain of the novel has nothing on the setting, on the cave that seems equal parts source of wonder and nightmare.
My only gripe with this novel was its end and that is what kept me from rating this one five stars. The ending was too abrupt for me and left me feeling like perhaps some of my pages were missing. Still, this is a pretty minor fault in a novel that is well worth reading, especially for those who enjoy a taut, well-written mystery with a cast of interesting, well-drawn characters.
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