1999 mystery, seventh in Barr's Anna Pigeon series, murder mysteries
in US National Parks. With her sister hospitalised in New York, Anna
stays on Liberty Island (where the statue is) and explores Ellis
Island outside hospital visiting hours. Then a young girl falls to her
death from the statue.
Clearly this is something of a departure for the series: not only
is Anna a guest rather than a worker in this park, it's one that deals
with a built environment rather than wilderness, albeit a built
environment that's largely fallen into decay. It pushes both Anna and
the reader out of their comfort zones for these books, which is
probably a good thing in a long-running series.
The thread with Anna's sister never quite coheres with the rest of the
book: it's much more than just visiting a relative in distress, since
not only has Molly been a background presence throughout the series,
and not only does an old friend turn up, but there's another emotional
plot to be resolved there too. It ends up taking time away from the
primary mystery, which is an intriguing combination of grand and
tawdry, and involves false accusations and multiple deaths – but
doesn't get as developed as it might have been.
That built environment is effectively used, though, with some
excellent descriptive passages even if there's nothing to match the
big tense scenes in some of the other books.
The grand and the tawdry are effectively combined in multiple ways,
and if some of the characters are drawn from stock (particularly Mandy
the generic bitchy young woman) they still get their jobs done.
Followed by Deep South.
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