Imagine Nevada Barr's delight in discovering that there is actually a
national park right smack in the middle of New York City--Gateways
Park, which encompasses Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. She
could continue her splendid series about park ranger Anna Pigeon and
still do some serious shopping at Bendel's and Berghdorf's, the kind of
stores you don't find in the New Mexico cave setting of Blind Descent
(her last adventure). The ploy works: Barr is probably the only
mystery writer who could see a natural environment under New York's
slick and sleazy skin.
Anna is in Manhattan to look after her sister Molly, seriously ill with
pneumonia and a kidney infection. Pigeon moves in with a ranger friend
who has a place on Ellis Island. There's not much natural wildlife
unless you count her feathered namesakes, but she still manages to find
a lot to contemplate--especially the suspicious suicide of a teenage
girl who leaps from Liberty's ledge, followed not long after by the
security guard who tried to stop her. But Anna's snooping puts her own
life in jeopardy. She survives several attacks and a near
drowning--events as frightening as any of the fires, floods, and
hurricanes from her past adventures. Barr neatly ties up her
plot--ending with a brilliant chase scene across the waters from
Manhattan to Liberty Island. What next for Anna? Is there a national
park in Las Vegas?