Nevada Barr's Burn Called Outstanding by Publishers Weekly!

Cover via Amazon
"Anna noticed he didn't bother to tell the other cop hat he had a gun on one of the "newspaper people..."
"He narrowed his eyes. He'd swallowed the newspaper bit as far as it went, but this was too much even for his big gut. Leaning forward, he ground his foot into the back of the little girl's head. She squealed; her twin echoed the cry...
"Has he got one of those goddamned iPod things that can send his pictures to the Internet as soon as he takes them?" the chief asked and pressed harder on the little neck beneath his foot. This time the child did not scream. Anna hoped her neck hadn't snapped under the pressure..."
~~~

Burn:
An Anna Pigeon Novel


By Nevada Barr


Outstanding, Powerful, and Astonishingly Real may all be used to "try" to describe and share about this Nevada Barr novel and it still would not tell you how amazing this book is... From the first novel by Barr, Track of the Cat, Anna Pigeon has been one of my most favorite characters--and, of course, Nevada Barr, a favorite author. I had missed the last few because of my schedule, but will soon remedy that!

But this book, and Barr's fairly new character, Claire, has moved her into one of the best writers dealing with one of today's major criminal issues. Barr not only deals with those criminals involved, but takes you directly into the reality of it all. This book is not for the squeamish or those who do not face what is happening in today's world--would you believe it? Kudos to author for Speaking out Against Child Sexual Abuse through her characters!

Claire was back from getting the cough syrup and ran to check her girls...they were not in bed. She searched everywhere and then ran to the neighbors. In the meantime, there was an explosion and their house was on fire.

When they carried out two small bodies and a man, assumed to be her husband, Claire was shocked and ran toward the house. They had not
been there! But she did find their dog and a neighbor with a small girl gave her a stuffed toy, saying "Alive" in her home language.

Of course, the police believed that Claire had killed them all. But Claire didn't believe the girls were dead. She had heard one other clue about New Orleans...and began her own search while she was wanted nationally for murder...

Anna, was already in Louisiana, having come on a vacation after having been hurt and needing rest...

But Anna was not that type and when she first noticed Jordan with a bunch of kids, she immediately wondered why he was hanging out with them. Then she discovered he was a neighbor, renting off of the woman with whom she was staying. One night he had furtively left his apartment and Anna followed long enough to watch him put something in the garbage and then return. Of course, Anna pulled it out--it was a dead pigeon and there were voodoo markings on the paper that held the bird... After trying to find out more about him, she decided to break into his apartment...there were pictures of little girls on the walls. Anna was upset but before she could decided what to do, Jordan came home!

This novel is about child theft and trafficking. Two women, one a public cop/ranger--the other a mother who will do anything to find her children. And when they get close enough, but have nobody they can trust, believing the police are involved...well, they go in anyway...

I consider this a must-read for those who wish to fight these issues in any way they can! Anna Pigeon is a woman who does just what should be done! If you haven't met her for awhile, be prepared for quite a few changes! I loved it!


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Note: I didn't realize that all of these would come when embedded...The one about Anna and God was the one I was going to share...I can just see Anna saying, "Well...God, what are you doing about this?!!!"

Biography

Nevada was born in the small western town of Yerington, Nevada and raised on a mountain airport in the Sierras. Both her parents were pilots and mechanics and her sister, Molly, continued the tradition by becoming a pilot for USAir.
Pushed out of the nest, Nevada fell into the theatre, receiving her BA in speech and drama and her MFA in Acting before making the pilgrimage to New York City, then Minneapolis, MN. For eighteen years she worked on stage, in commercials, industrial training films and did voice-overs for radio. During this time she became interested in the environmental movement and began working in the National Parks during the summers -- Isle Royale in Michigan, Guadalupe Mountains in Texas, Mesa Verde in Colorado, and then on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi.
Woven throughout these seemingly disparate careers was the written word. Nevada wrote and presented campfire stories, taught storytelling and was a travel writer and restaurant critic. Her first novel, Bitterweet was published in 1983. The Anna Pigeon series, featuring a female park ranger as the protagonist, started when she married her love of writing with her love of the wilderness, the summer she worked in west Texas. The first book, Track of the Cat, was brought to light in 1993 and won both the Agatha and Anthony awards for best first mystery. The series was well received and A Superior Death, loosely based on Nevada's experiences as a boat patrol ranger on Isle Royale in Lake Superior, was published in 1994. In 1995 Ill Wind came out. It was set in Mesa Verde, Colorado where Nevada worked as a law enforcement ranger for two seasons.
The rest is, shall we say, HISTORY! Nevada's books and accomplishments have become numerous and the presses continue to roll, so in the interest of NOT having to update this page, books, awards, status on the New York Times Best Seller List -- and more -- will be enumerated with the relevant books else where on this website.

This Story's Waiting to be Made into Movie!

Image via WikipediaThe Lonely Mile


By Allan Leverone




Bill Ferguson is my kind of hero...no matter how many stories I may read with a somewhat similar plot, I immediately think of Charles Bronson to play the lead character... He has been the intense, protective parent and has the skills to back up his activities... There are others who could play the part as well, but Bronson is always the first one to come to mind for me...this book almost reads/plays as a movie and I am sure you will easily visualize the dramatic scenes!


But this time, it is both the father and daughter who are the heroes! Cool!


There was a serial killer plaguing the area who had been dubbed the I-90 Killer by the news people. He would abduct young teenage girls, normally blond and slender athletic types, seemingly with no problem or interference. He was invisible in our invisible world where nobody pays attention to anybody else. He knew this and took advantage of it, sitting, drinking coffee among all the other travelers until he spotted...her! His next companion... Martin Krall had actually killed his first few victims after he finished with them, but then he found a deal that resulted in his being paid--and there were no bodies to be found.


Instead he spent a week with his latest, and then he passed her on to be sold overseas, never to see the United States, her parents ever again.


But Bill Ferguson happened to be traveling I-90 at the same time that Martin Krall was out looking. They stopped at the same rest stop. Things might have proceeded normally, if Bill had been a different type of man. For one, he was armed. He owned two hardware stores and often traveled with money to make bank deposits, so he was fully licensed to carry...


Most of all, however, he paid attention to his instincts... and when Krall went into action, Ferguson had actually stopped, turned around, and seen the gun being placed near the young girl who was being guided out of the rest stop. He went into action immediately, but the place was so crowded that he had trouble getting to where he could safely act to save the girl--by that time, Krall knew Ferguson was behind him. When Bill finally had to yell "freeze!" all hell broke out, but he did manage to back the kidnapper to the door and reach the girl, only to have her shoved into him, both hitting the floor. Krall escaped, but the girl was safe...


Ferguson followed as soon as he could, but it had seemed too long...but then Krall drove right past, looking him directly in the eyes...the truck was old, poorly painted and oil smoked up, preventing Bill from seeing the licence plate...

Still, he was declared a hero...and, of course, that meant television interviews... and Krall soon learned Bill Ferguson's full name, that he owned two hardware stores, and from the internet found he was divorced...but had a daughter...

And, as soon as Bill could get away from all that happened after this event, he wanted nothing more than to go hug his daughter Carli...

But Krall had missed having his new companion and he blamed Ferguson... So Krall soon found a picture of Carli and, in his twisted mind, felt that Carli was truly who he was to have and that fate had arranged him losing the other girl so that he could find Carli... But he was still angry enough that he wrote a letter to Bill, using Carli as the unknowing messenger, and taunted Ferguson of what was to happen next!

I mentioned earlier that Carli was also a hero--and you'll see why! Readers will ride that Lonely Mile with Carli after Krall does indeed manage to kidnap her...but she believes only one thing. Her father will find and come get her! The action and suspense keeps you closely reading. I must admit I didn't pick up on the clues for the real monster of the story, so I'll only predict that the final climactic ending will set you rocking!

A final note: Leverone includes the appalling statistics of kidnapping into sex trade here in the U.S. We must all be on the alert against this horrific crime that now surpasses any other happening, in many ways, in my opinion! I applaud the author for effectively bringing this important issue once again into the forefront by his book...Read and enjoy, but, understand clearly...this fiction is based upon true crimes happening today, right now, somewhere near YOU! I consider this a must-read, a learning tool if you will...to become more alert and concerned!

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BlondGirls.jpg

...According to our own statistics compiled by the U.S. State Department, between six and eight hundred thousand people are trafficked against their will each year across international borders. Of that number, seventy percent are female and as many as half are children. And the majority of these victims are forced into the commercial sex trade.”
Bill stared at the young FBI agent in horror. “That’s unbelievable.”
“Believe it,” Miller said simply. “Worldwide, human trafficking is the third most profitable criminal activity, behind only the drug trade and arms trafficking, with an estimated seven billion dollars in profits earned annually.”
“But right here? In the United States?”
“Oh, yes,” Miller answered. “We’re not unaffected. Much of the trafficking occurs in developing nations, where little if any barriers to the practice exist. But American girls are prized in certain parts of the world, particularly blonde, fair-skinned ones. (p. 250)




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