Back into the Dark of Lechuguilla Cave, New Mexico, for Nevada Barr's Blind Descent Finale!

 Anna could see her own exhaustion and elation mirrored in the faces of the others; a dance, a symphony, a poem of human effort and mind. The first hint that something had gone wrong was the call “Rock!” carried down the black canyon on a gust of fear.

Did you know that each touch from a human hand on the cave's interior will be a problem? Pieces may be totally destroyed by humans who are visiting with no thought but of their pleasure in seeing these beautiful examples of God's creations...In Barr's book we all learn that each move to be made must be in consideration of the place in which they are rather than just...living...as best as you can... In this case, the book was very informative re spelunking... Remember, they were moving into areas which had never been explored before, but the videos do illustrate the equipment needed to be worn to provide light in the Dark as you will be reading...

The search was intensive to get there, where Frieda was, but now, Anna, with the mind of a police office, albeit in the Rangers, had to be immediately aware that one or more of the people in Frieda's group had caused the fall of her friend... She began to gather info just by introducing herself to the few there... There was a doctor and his wife--a woman who was clearly a problem. She didn't want to be there, was disgusted that her husband had to be doctoring--well, he wasn't a true general practitioner, but at least he knew enough to provide medication, medical supplies. But it was clear his wife could care less about anything but getting out of there... It should be mentioned at this point that she actually disappeared and could not be found once outside... Anna could not let that go, as the book goes on... The wife had been asked to backup Anna "as a caretaker" and clearly that wasn't going to  happen... This begins the mystery part of the book... 

Anna found herself depending on one of her initial guides, who was now the onsite director of planning for the rescue... Somehow, she felt safer with him around... He was efficient and soon had everybody working to move out... They were waiting for the medical team who had the necessary equipment to carry Frieda out... People were beginning to look happy, excited, ready to leave this Dark that had kept them longer than originally planned...

And, Anna was right there by Frieda's side when the crew had arrived, prepared her for traveling in a secured manner and went through details with the Site Director... They were ready to go!

They were moving quickly and efficiently, when out of the surrounding darkness: Rock!

When Anna heard the call of a rock coming, she didn't know how fast it would become a slide that would overtake the entire group carrying Freida... After the slide settled, Anna tried to reconnect with Freida... She had fallen deeper into a hole...Anna could not reach her, but could touch her, checking her neck to find a pulse... feeling something wet, she thought it was blood and Freida was bleeding. She pulled her hand out and discovered it was her tears...

The rescue had become a recovery...

But Anna would not leave the site... She began searching, to learn where the Rock had come from. She began her search there, looking for anything that would help to document just how a slide had begun... finally, she found it--a place where somebody had sat on a rock, as if resting...or waiting...

Anna was now conducting a murder investigation...

It didn't take me long to determine the "whodunit." It seems I can recognize the character personalities that are created to reveal those who are power hungry... But there was another that I would not have picked. This, too, reflects what we are experiencing more and more... Who could Anna trust?

The ending surprised me, because there was so little to lead up to the actual crimes taking place. Readers will need to step back from the rescue efforts and its failure and move into investigation mode along with Anna, who became relentless. Even to the extent of talking one of the men in the original group into returning to the cave to find as much of actually what happened as possible. In the book, and I hope, not in reality, there is a major loss of a section of the cave that could not be reclaimed... And they found a lost member of the team...

One of the most fantastic, informative books about spelunking that perhaps has been written wrapped up in fiction. It is the only one I've read and who better than Nevada Barr to take on creating a thrilling story of a place where no man had ever been before... And, just how destructive people can become when riches beckon to those who place money over humanity... A Must-Read for many reasons, most of all to allow readers to experience some place where they really have a right to be afraid and be thankful there are others who will attempt to ensure you live through that experience! More people need to rely on their neighbors and find love and help from nearly all of them...

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