Destroyer Angel: An Anna Pigeon Novel (Anna Pigeon Mysteries) Hardcover – April 1, 2014

This was her most spelling binding story yet. It involves two women, their daughters and a service dog (as well as Anna). One of the women is in a wheel chair and all of them are heading into the north country for a several day canoe trip far from roads and civilisation. One of the women is a top notch outdoor gear designer and they are testing prototypes for outdoor gear for the disabled. Along comes a group of men hell bent on kidnapping the designer and her young daughter. All hell breaks loose and Anna’s missing. It just keeps getting worse.... and worse.It’s a dark story.My one criticism of Barr’s books is the lack of a good proofreader. She drops a lot of names without a clear connection with her storyline. She also makes errors about things like tool usage or what basic items someone who is skilled in backcountry camping would always have with them on trip like the one Anna was going to take. For example, why would a qualified, skilled Nation Parks Law Enforcement Ranger, trained EMT go on a backcountry canoe trip and not carry a knife? Excuse given that she lost too many pocket knives going through TSA screenings at airports?!? What about checked bags? Or pick one up at your destination before going into the woods? Granted Anna was going through issues from killing a man up in the wilderness during a winter wolf study. But, basic survival gear is something no person should be without when entering backcountry, even if it’s only for a one hour hike. Search and Rescue groups spend countless hours, days and weeks trying to find hikers and boaters that headed out unprepared for the worst. The worst happens too often. A real “Anna” would never have been as unprepared as the “Anna” of this story. That being said, Anna made up for it and kicked butt.

Generally speaking, Nevada Barr's novels about Anna Pigeon are a mixture of terrifying moments and periods of time when things are relatively peaceful. Not this time. The entire cast of innocent people is in continued deadly peril throughout the book. While the book had many interesting details, I found some of the situations and how people handled them to stretch credulity a bit. The other disturbing thing was the increase casual attitude that underlies the dispatch of the villains by the heroines, and how Barr plays down the horror of some of the ways in which this was done. Not that I want a more vivid description of what is already unthinkably horrible, but just a showing that it IS horrible, and that it DOES have an impact on the people who were forced to defend themselves in this way. The final dispatch was downright cold blooded.It seems to me that Barr hit a peak awhile back, and her novels have been drifting in this direction for some time. They're not as satisfying as her middle novels. So far I have read all that I am aware of except the last, concerning a location in Carlsbad Caverns, and I just started that one. So I think I have a bit of a basis for my opinion.

I haven't read a Nevada Barr book in a while, and although this wasn't a horrible story, it was definitely not a compelling one either. Most of the people involved in this story were annoying or unlikeable and the whole plot seemed to revolve around what is definitely the worst of human foibles and behavior by all that went far enough beyond weird as to be ridiculous.The bad guys didn't seem to make much sense, the purpose of their illegal activities wasn't particularly believable, and they seemed amazing stupid for the kidnapping they undertook.This story might have been a little better if the women, including Anna Pigeon, had been a more cohesive group. Instead they were whiny, self-centered and essentially helpless. In fact, in thinking about how much this annoyed me, maybe it was a horrible story. It was essentially an endless story of this horrible thing happened, then this horrible thing happened - meanwhile, the "heroines" were whining - and then this horrible thing happened.If you love Nevada Barr, maybe you'll like this book - but I'd advise borrowing it from the library instead of buying it. It's just not worth the money.

As a big fan of the Anna Pigeon series, I couldn't have been more disappointed. I kept reading, in the hope that I would learn something about the Iron Range, and the story would get better. NOT. Did I learn a few "tricks" for surviving in the wilderness - sure. Was I rooting for the ladies - sure. But, the story was way longer than it needed to be. My biggest problem is that Ms. Barr must have had a thesaurus at her side while writing this. I consider myself to be a dot above average with words, but I don't think the average reader should have had to look up: creel, Ersatz Burnoose, swale, treacle, crepitus, basilisk, triptych, ersatz, lagniappe, stygian, hoarfrost, ordure, and the term "gangs agley." Just to name a few :) Seriously, the only character I liked was Wily, the dog.

Anna Pigeon is having a bit of a holiday with her friends and while she is floating on the river in a wild national park up in Minnesota, her friends are kidnapped. by four rather nasty men. The want to ransom one woman and her daughter and have little interest in the others. Anna is free and lose in the forest to try to scupper their plans. The general tone is cruel and nasty and the poor friends of Anna suffer badly as the gang make a forced march to their pick up point. Anna also suffers badly as usual and tries to rescue her friends. The charcters are well described and the friends of Anna include a semi-paralysed cripple, her daughter, a lady scientist (great inventor) , her daughter, plus the faithful dog Wily (coyote). I had a few shivers but enjoyed it.

Four women including one disabled woman are kidnapped while camping and forced on a long trek through rough country. Anna Pigeon is following and it develops from there. All the men are horrible while the women are heroic. A great read which I found difficult to put down.

It is a while since I had read any in this series by Nevada Barr but I found myself really not engaging with any of the characters in this storyline. No more Anna Pigeon for me!

Nevada Barr always writes entertaining stories. In this book, she takes on a slightly different role... good read!

Love this series. Had preordered the book. Was not disappointed. Anna Pigeon is the"Destroyer Angel".Loved the reintroduction of prior characters, reversion to wildlife with Anna & Wily, growth of the kidnapped "victims". Horrific, evil kidnappers.