Nevada Barr

• Born: March 1, 1952
• Place of Birth: Yerington, Nevada

TYPES OF PLOT: Amateur sleuth; police procedural; hard-boiled

PRINCIPAL SERIES: Anna Pigeon, 1993-

Contribution

Nevada Barr provides a unique perspective within the canon of mystery and detective fiction written by women. By making her detective park ranger Anna Pigeon, Barr can successfully traverse diverse terrain. As a woman in a mostly male world, Anna can explore and indict the National Park Service’s often patriarchal rules and policies. In addition, because of the nature of National Park Service appointments, Anna can describe and delight in natural habitats across the United States without this movement from place to place becoming arbitrary or forced. Thus, Barr’s novels offer readers impressions of some of the most interesting natural habitats in the United States. Though Anna’s approach to crime seems amateurish because the National Park Service does not expect its employees to deal with crimes, her organized and analytic nature makes her a natural investigator. Barr’s detective novels not only contain crime and detection but also comment on ecological concerns in various picturesque natural habitats and inequality in the workplace, even as her works maintain a humanistic interest in the narrator and her concerns. Her Anna Pigeon series spans decades and includes many national park settings, including Hunting Season (2002), Winter Study (2008), The Rope (2012), and Boar Island (2016). She also published a stand-alone thriller in 2019 entitled What Rose Forgot.

Biography

Nevada Barr was born in Yerington, Nevada, on March 1, 1952, to both Dave Barr and Mary Barr; her sister Molly also became a pilot. Though born in her namesake state, Nevada, she spent her early years in Susanville, California, at a small mountain airport where her parents worked. She received a bachelor’s degree in speech and drama from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo in 1974 and a master of fine arts in acting from the University of California, Irvine. After graduate school, Barr gravitated toward New York City, where she spent five years serving as a member of the Classic Stage Company and performing in several off-Broadway productions. Later, she moved to Minneapolis and spent several years in the theater. She also worked in advertising in various capacities, appearing in commercials and industrial films. Her writing career began in 1978, though her first published novel, Bittersweet, a historical Western novel about two women, was published in 1984.

Because of her first husband’s interest in conservation and wildlife, Barr began working as a seasonal employee for the National Park Service in 1989. These seasonal jobs allowed her to work in the parks during the summer months while pursuing her acting and writing during the rest of the year. Her first appointment was at Isle Royale National Park in Michigan in 1989, her second at Guadalupe National Park in Texas in 1990, and her third, for two seasons in 1991-1992, at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. To gain full-time status within the National Park Service, Nevada transferred to Natchez Trace National Park in 1993, where she worked for two years before leaving the park service to work full-time on writing.

In 1993, Barr published her first mystery novel, Track of the Cat, set in Guadalupe National Park, where she had previously worked. This novel won the 1994 Agatha Award for Best First Novel and the 1994 Anthony Award for Best Novel. Subsequent novels also have garnered several nominations and awards. Firestorm (1996) was nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Novel and was awarded France’s Prix du Roman d’Aventure. Blind Descent (1998) was nominated for an Anthony Award and a Macavity Award. Deep South (2000) also received an Anthony Award nomination. In 2011, Barr received the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks from the National Parks Conservation Association. Barr and her second husband, former National Park Service ranger Richard Jones, live in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Analysis

Nevada Barr’s mystery series featuring National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon is unusual among series featuring a female sleuth, and the novels do not fit into any one genre of mystery or detective fiction. Anna is a kind of private investigator, hard-boiled in her self-imposed isolation from others and independent, mostly from family and romantic liaisons that limit her ability to move from park to park without consequence. Though she maintains connections with her psychologist sister Molly, her sister lives in New York City while Anna traipses from park to park across the United States. Indeed, the nature of the park service, as outlined in Barr’s Track of the Cat, suggests that most park workers do not stay in one park indefinitely so as not to become too invested in one area. Though Anna goes to New York when Molly becomes gravely ill in the seventh novel in the series, Liberty Falling (1999), neither Molly’s illness in this novel nor Anna’s marriage to local sheriff and minister Paul Davidson in Hard Truth (2005) limit Anna’s involvement in solving crimes nor the necessary traveling. Even when Anna falls in love—twice during the series, first with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Frederick Stanton, who will eventually pair with her sister Molly, and second with Davidson—she resists putting herself in any emotionally needy situation. Furthermore, with Anna’s general cynicism, she can maintain objectivity, which serves her well when investigating crimes. Like her hard-boiled predecessors, Anna regularly gets shot, beat up, pushed down mountains, and kidnapped without deterring her from resuming the investigation the next day.

Although she has the personality and many other qualities of a hard-boiled private investigator, Anna’s job actually involves her in quasi-police work. Though she often has to concede to local police authorities or FBI operatives while investigating a case, her position in the park allows her to carry weapons and enforce the laws of the parks. In this regard, Barr’s novels suggest the police procedural. Anna must follow the protocol of her job regarding the gathering of evidence and the interrogation of suspects. Though her authority is sometimes undermined by those higher in command in the park service, Anna, unlike private investigators, is a central character at a crime scene.

Despite her tough demeanor and her savvy police skills, Anna Pigeon often approaches crime as would an amateur sleuth. Although no one pays her to discover the truth behind a crime, Anna goes beyond her park ranger responsibilities to solve mysteries. These explorations put her into extraordinarily dangerous situations without much forethought or management on her part. For example, she might be walking late at night when she discovers a clue that might lead to a killer. Instead of calling for backup or pursuing the lead in the morning, Anna might walk into a trap. Furthermore, she often seems ill-equipped to handle these emergencies even though she inevitably triumphs by the novel's end.

Barr’s use of national parks as settings for her works allows a level of integrity that is often missing from series that involve an amateur detective. Though private investigators and police officers might have a never-ending caseload that could be the basis for multiple novels, park rangers typically do not see crime on such a scale. The very nature of the itinerant park ranger, however, allows Barr to transport Anna Pigeon to a variety of new settings with new possibilities for crimes. Because the crimes occur at different parks, Anna’s repeated investigation of so much murderous activity does not strain credulity.

The national park settings also add a further dimension to Barr’s tightly woven, often psychological mysteries. Anna Pigeon revels in the unique surroundings of each park where she works. Whether exploring the lush, humid swamps of lower Mississippi or the deep, icy waters of Lake Superior in Michigan, Anna describes, experiences, and appreciates the places where she works. Barr’s descriptions of park ranger work—its tedium and surprises—connect with these natural surroundings to create an engulfing perception of place and an admiration for each park. The place is so critical to the plot that Barr typically provides a map of the park area in each book. In each park, Anna must learn new skills such as fire suppression, caving techniques, and even waitressing to survive. Thus, Barr’s novels become windows into multiple environments but from a distinctive, insider perspective.

Thematically, Barr’s mysteries often revolve around ecological concerns. Frequently, murders occur because people get greedy and infringe on parkland to make money or curry favors. For example, in Blind Descent, a caver dies because she realizes an oil company has drilled into a federally-owned cave. In Deep South, a young girl is murdered because she stumbles on a Civil War reenactor’s nefarious scheme to make money. Though the crimes in these novels sometimes seem unrelated to the park's environment, the plot will inevitably unfold to show how the murders or murders often directly involve an infringement on park lands.

In addition to expressing environmental concerns, Barr’s novels also often have a decidedly feminist agenda. Anna Pigeon must dodge male insults and insinuations as she moves up the National Park Service’s bureaucratic ladder. Especially after she achieves leadership roles, Anna undergoes intense scrutiny by the men who must serve beneath her. Barr’s presentation of Anna as a strong-willed but political member of a labyrinthine political network showcases the inherent biases of the organization, even as it shows Anna’s ability to play by the rules. Despite efforts from others to keep her from her job, Anna believes in the sanctity of the park, the importance of due process, and the integrity of personal experience. Barr’s novels enhance female-centered justice, even as they extol the virtues of natural habitats and a kind of vigilante honesty. Anna might take matters into her own hands, but she does not shirk from the consequences of those actions.

Track of the Cat

Track of the Cat, which introduces Anna Pigeon, incorporates many of the themes of subsequent novels in the series. Anna, an emotionally isolated woman in a mostly male environment, must deal with patronizing bureaucrats with gender biases and capitalistic agendas. Furthermore, the alluring descriptions of the landscape and the flora and fauna of Guadalupe National Park give the text an open quality that invites readers to share in the exploration of the terrain and the murder. Other elements of the novel make it unusual for the genre. Track of the Cat showcases Barr’s interest in gender roles and the environment. During the novel, Anna questions her sexuality when she becomes enchanted by a lesbian worker at the park. She also fights her first battle against a mostly male and capitalist enemy in favor of environmental concern, in this case, the preservation of the innocent mountain lion who is falsely accused of committing the murder that precipitates the initial investigation. In later novels, Anna’s vigilance in protecting a park’s habitat becomes a recurring theme.

Blind Descent

Blind Descent, like Barr’s earlier Firestorm, accentuates her interest in the locked-room mystery. The setting for this novel is the uninhabited, largely fictionalized Lechuguilla Cave, located adjacent to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, an extreme area that only a few people ever explore. This mystery's who, how, and why are intertwined and enigmatic. Barr augments the narrowly defined plot with two related elements. First, the author enhances this mystery with the particulars of rock climbing, rappelling, spelunking, and cave investigation. The crime situation requires the investigator to understand the mechanics of these activities, as well as the ecological issues at stake when investigating pristine wilderness, whether it be above or, as in this case, below ground. Second, Barr focuses on Anna’s near paralyzing claustrophobia when faced with the challenge and necessity of underground exploration, further defining Anna’s character even as this fear also assists in provoking a similar fear in the reader. Barr uses the cave's restrictions to highlight the characters' internal restrictions, thus creating a cleaner narrative structure to resolve the mystery's complexities.

Deep South

Set against the backdrop of the Natchez Trace Parkway National Park in Mississippi, Deep South marks a transformation in Barr’s depiction of Anna Pigeon. Though Anna had been depicted as a nomadic and independent character in the first seven novels, Barr shows Anna taking on more traditional roles, particularly in her relationships with characters and, more importantly, with place. Though Barr depicts a place with keen detail in all of the Pigeon books, as she moves into the South, the detail becomes less objectively observed and more intimately involved. When the reader learns Anna has taken a permanent position at the Natchez Trace Parkway National Park, the concept of “permanent” sets the tone for the rest of the novel. The relationships Anna forms seem more important because of their potential engagement in her future, though Anna maintains a wariness about settling down. A second novel about Natchez Trace Parkway, Hunting Season (2002), allowed her to investigate this territory again as it deepened their characterization and sense of place.

Principal Series Character:

• Anna Pigeon works for the National Park Service as a law enforcement agent in numerous parks. Small and middle-aged, Anna often finds herself fighting discrimination against women and championing ecological concerns even as she deciphers the clues to a variety of murders in a range of scenic locations.

Bibliograph

Cava, Francis. Sleuths in Skirts: A Bibliography and Analysis of Serialized Female Sleuths. Routledge, 2002.

Line, Less. “Guadalupe Gumshoe.” Audubon 105 (Sept. 2003): 22-23.

"Nevada Barr." Mississippi Writers Project, www.mswritersandmusicians.com/mississippi-writers/nevada-barr. Accessed 20 July 2024.

Nolan, Tom. “For a Clue, Look Up.” The Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2003, p. W19.

Rancourt, Linda. “Murder She Writes.” National Parks Magazine 69 (Sept./Oct. 1995): 30-35.

Reynolds, Moira Davison, ed. Women Authors of Detective Series: Twenty-One American and British Authors, 1900-2000. McFarland, 2001.

Shindler, Dorman T. “Taking on History’s Mysteries.” Review of Flashback, by Nevada Barr. Publishers Weekly 250, no. 4 (Jan. 27, 2003): 230.

"The Books." Nevada Barr, nevadabarr.com/thebooks.html. Accessed 20 July 2024.