Nevada Barr: Hunting Season (USA 2003)

From the Publisher:
Park Ranger Anna Pigeon returns to face her most duplicitous foe - human nature - in Nevada Barr's New York Times bestseller, Hunting Season.
The quiet beauty of autumn on Mississippi's Natchez Trace is swiftly shattered when Anna answers a call to Mt. Locust, once a working plantation and inn, now a tourist spot. But the man Anna finds in an old bedroom is no tourist in distress. He's nearly naked, and very dead - his body bearing marks consistent with sex games gone awry. On a writing table nearby is an open Bible with ominous passages circled in red.

There are secrets that prominent men in this God-fearing country wish to keep under wraps - and Anna has stumbled into a nest of them.

Nevada Barr: Hunting Season. An Anna Pigeon Novel. Berkley Books, ISBN: 0425188787 (February, 2003), 339 p., $6.99.

Nevada Barr: Hunting Season (USA 2002)

From the Publisher:
Human nature proves Park Ranger Anna Pigeons most duplicitous foe in the latest entry in the bestselling, award-winning series.
"Readers familiar with Barr's entertaining national park mystery series know that Anna rarely finds tranquility in God's country... Readers can take pleasure in Barr's descriptions of the natural setting and the working lives of park rangers. Her fans can only be grateful that there are still plenty of national parks left for Anna Pigeon to visit." - People

It's fall on Mississippis Natchez Trace: brown leaves scattered on springtime-green grass, winter-bare branches of sweetgum and sassafras etched against a summer-bright sky, the soft blue of chicory and delicate yellow of tickweed shimmering in the hollows alongside the high-way. And as Anna answers a call to Mt. Locust, once a working plantation and inn chat served travelers between Natchez and Nashville, now a tourist spot, she breaches in the scent of a forest readying itself for slcep, the very essence of autumn. Despite the bare branches above and the brown leaf litter below, the sky is blue, and murder is far from her mind.

But the man Anna finds in Mt. Locust's old bedroom is not tourist in distress. He's nearly naked, and very dead, his body hearing marks consistent with sex games gone awry. On a writing table nearby is an open Bible, ominous passages circled in red.

The deceased is the brother of Raymond Barnette, local undertaker and candidate for sheriff, who for obvious reasons in this particularly God-fearing country wishes to keep any hint of kinkiness under wraps. It seems Ray may be hiding a whole houseful of secrets in the old family homestead. And when hidden agendas and old allegiances are revealed, it's suddenly Anna's life that's on the line.

Tightly plotted, brilliandy suspenseful, and beautifully written, Hunting Season offers solid evidence that mankind can be as unpredictable and dangerous as the great outdoors.

Award-winning NEVADA BARR is the auchor of nine previous Anna Pigeon mysteries, including the New York Times bestsellers Blood Lure and Deep South. She lives in Mississippi, where she was most recently a ranger on the Natchez Trace Parkway.

Nevada Barr: Hunting Season. Putnam's, ISBN: 0399148469 (February, 2002), 322 p., $24.95.