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BURN
by Nevada Barr
Minotaur Books, August 2010
384 pages
$25.95
ISBN: 031261456X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

After years of being a ranger for the National Park Service and getting her share of bumps, bruises, and major injuries along the way, Anna Pigeon is now working as a ranger in a New Orleans National Park where life would be a little slower and easier, or so she had thought. Her new husband is in another state and they miss each other but every night they share a long phone call hoping that they will be together very soon.

Things are going fine. Anna works as a ranger during the day and during the evening she goes to the New Orleans Jazz National Park where Geneva, the blind woman with whom she is staying, works as a singer. One day as Anna is patrolling the park she meets an unsavory man named Jordan who also happens to be a tenant of Geneva's. Immediately, Anna takes an immediate dislike to him, an opinion that seems justified as Jordan may be dabbling in black magic and, much worse, child pornography.

But Jordan is linked to Claire, a woman evading the police because they suspect her of having started the fired that killed both her daughters. Claire has come to New Orleans because she suspects that her girls are not in fact dead but are being trafficked in child pornography and prostitution.

Before too long, Anna is pulled into the mystery of the missing girls along with Jordan and the mother.

BURN by Nevada Barr is much different from the previous fifteen Anna Pigeon novels. It's far more violent and deals with the very terrible topic of child pornography and prostitution. Because of this I think many of her fans might put the book down before giving it the time it deserves to be read. I was put off at first but as I read on I discovered that Barr is still the incredible writer that I remember .

The two separate stories of Jordan and the mother in Seattle intertwine perfectly and turn into a marvellous murder mystery. There are many twists and turns throughout the novel with plenty of surprises along the way. By the time we learn how the stories combine the reader is hooked and will have trouble putting the book down.

While the story itself is very good, after years of reading about Anna I think Barr might be getting tired of the character. Anna, though still spunky and in love with working in national parks, seems to be losing her edginess. Maybe Barr is trying to age Anna a little by giving her a second husband and showing the reader that all of her past injuries are starting to get to her. I liked Anna a lot more when she was without a husband and the only personal things we knew about her was her relationship with her sister, Molly and her immediate family.

On the whole though, BURN is a wonderful novel and readers should not be put off because of its graphic nature and the issue of child pornography.

§ Sharon Katz has been reviewing books for RTE for many years. She lives in Brooklyn.

Reviewed by Sharon Katz, October 2010

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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