About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

BORDERLINE
by Nevada Barr, read by Joyce Bean
Brilliance Audio, April 2009
Abridged pages
$26.99
ISBN: 1423325702


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Ranger Anna Pigeon is forced to take a leave of absence from the National Park Service after killing a man during an assignment. Hoping to wash the memories of that event from her mind, Anna embarks on a white water rafting trip down the Rio Grande River with her husband Paul. Accompanying them is a river guide named Carmen and four college-aged friends vacationing together in Texas.

The trip goes well until one of the young tourists insists on trying to save a cow stranded on a rocky outcropping by rising waters. The river is running fast, and the raft overturns during the attempted rescue, spilling everyone into the river. While scrambling for shore, Anna discovers an unconscious pregnant woman caught in the flotsam near the riverbank. The woman dies soon after being dragged to safety, but Anna saves her baby by performing an emergency C-section.

Anna and the others are eventually rescued, but not before someone in the nearby hills shoots at them with a high-powered rifle. Keeping the newborn with them, Anna and Paul take refuge in the home of a National Park Service ranger. The ranger thinks the pregnant woman was a Mexican national trying to cross the border to give birth in the US. Judith Pierson, the mayor of Houston who is currently a guest at the Chisos Mountain Lodge in Big Bend National Park, shares the ranger's opinion.

Judith is about to announce her candidacy for governor of Texas. Campaigning on a promise to stop illegal immigration, she uses the death of the pregnant woman to prove her point that Mexicans continue to slip by the border patrols. Unconvinced that the dead woman was Mexican, Anna resists Judith's attempts to use the baby as a propaganda ploy. She then begins her own investigation when it becomes apparent that someone wants to kill the infant.

Anna enlists the help of a local newspaper reporter to look into the pasts of several people who show an inordinate amount of interest in the dead woman's child. With little to go on, Anna follows her instincts, but makes a deadly mistake that leads to a confrontation with a killer.

Nevada Barr shows us another side of her protagonist in this excellent addition to the Anna Pigeon series. Anna's motherly instincts surface slowly but surely after she performs the C-section that saves the baby's life. Barr deftly portrays the bonding process between Anna and the infant, with Anna becoming increasing attached to and protective of her young charge. Her feelings towards the child make her unsure of whom to trust and even interfere with her ability to decipher the clues in the case. In a powerful ending, Barr explores new ground with Anna as the protagonist prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice – that of her own life – to save the infant she's come to love.

Joyce Bean's narrative skills didn't disappoint this listener. Bean had numerous characters to portray, many of them males who required distinctly different voices. She managed it all with a finesse I found quite satisfying. I would recommend this abridged version of BORDERLINE to anyone who enjoys listening to mysteries in audio format.

Reviewed by Mary V. Welk, April 2009

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]