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Summary: Loved learning more about Liberty Island but...
Review: lately Barr's mysteries leave me cold. I enjoyed her earlier books and their descriptions of our National Parks. Her musings are humorous and entertaining. However, the mysteries too often lead to her fellow rangers. Even so, I will probably read "Deep South" and give Anna Pigeon one more try.
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Summary: Fascinating
Review: Liberty Falling is the first Anna Pigeon mystery I have read and I will definitely check into the others! Being a native NYer I was intrigued by the setting of Liberty Island. Then, I was spellbound as Nevada Barr wove the story and history of the island like I had never heard before. Going with her through the abandoned hospitals on the island at night was totally eerie. There were enough twists and turns in the story to keep any mystery buff guessing. Although other reviewers have said they didn't think she did a good job with the setting, I have to disagree wholeheartedly. I've been to Liberty Island and Ellis Island but while reading Liberty Falling, I felt like a tourist. Great read!
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Summary: What a letdown!
Review: Like many other Nevada Barr fans, I'm eager to read each new book. This one was a serious disappointment. The writing is stilted, packed with florid adjectives and mixed metaphors. What happened to the lean, mean prose Barr used to write?? In the novel, Anna is reading a Wilkie Collins novel, which made me wonder if Barr has immersed herself in that genre to the point where she is emulating it. Whatever the case, it doesn't work. I've read Collins' books several times and never feel I was wading through dense prose and tortured clauses -- which is how I've felt slogging through this book. (Which makes me wonder why professional reviewers don't mention these things and spare readers the cost of the hardback...)
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Summary: Author Rising
Review: More intensely personal than her earlier adventures, this story opens with an already distraught Anna Pigeon, Park Ranger, attending on her deathly sick confidant and sister in the urban jungle of NYC, while bunking with a friend on Liberty Statue Island. This story has greater philosophical, or morose, depth to the character, full of ruminations, and glorying in the decay of once urban splendor. I don't recall such a passionate dislike of cities on Anna's part. The scenes shift between New York harbor and the uptown hospital, islands of familiarity connected by the subway. She effectively communicates feeling very alone in a crowded city, her sister dying, a lover wandering, a roommate hostile. Barr employs the current ghost fad, but to her own ends to create a creepy and vaguely sinister Ellis Island. Many clues to the subtly developing mysteries are dropped, but I wrote most off as just part of a coincidental ghost story given for atmosphere. There's even one amazing point where Anna actually lists all the clues flat out, as the eureka moment flashes into her bruised head, although much remained unclear in mine. Very effective. Barr's writing has improved steadily, abetted by the fact each story is different and appropriate to wildly different National Park settings: mountain, lake, cliff, forest, beach, cavern, and now historical statue. She gives us some of the local insider lore in Anna's conversations, but skillfully avoids potted "ranger lectures." Hmm, what's left to do...river, military, museum, scenic, volcanic.... Anywhere I look forward to the next.
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Summary: Another winner
Review: My friends and I eagerly await each new Anna Pigeon book. Liberty Falling is an excellent new book in the series. I missed the wide open spaces, the scenery and Piedmont, but I also enjoy the feel of New York. I recommend this and all Ms Barr's books to those who enjoy a good mystery.
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Summary: A great work in a great series
Review: National Park Service Ranger Anna Pigeon would never feel lonely even if she were the only person in Yosemite national Park. On the other hand, place her in a teeming metropolis like Manhattan and she feels both claustrophobic and lonely. However, when her sister is in a Big Apple intensive care unit, fighting for her life, Anna visits her, residing at a friend's home on Liberty Island. Anna explores the ruins of Ellis Island, the locale where millions of immigrants entered this country. However, strange happenings occur on both isles. A teen tumbles from the statue with a witness screaming that a security person pushed the victim. In turn, the accused seemingly commits suicide. Anna has doubts and begins to snoop. For her troubles, someone breaks the crumbling stairwell from under her feet, an incident that could have led to Anna's death. At a subway station, an unknown assailant tries to push her in front of an oncoming train. The attacks on her person continue, but nothing deters Anna from trying to ferret out the truth. Looking at New York City, and Liberty and Ellis Islands from the perspective of a person who enjoys the vast outdoors is an interesting treat. LIBERTY FALLING succeeds because of the attitude of Anna, who is not just tourist, towards the large metropolis. Nevada Barr has the uncanny ability of hiding her clues in plain sight, leaving the reader to struggle with determining who is the perpetrator. The historical research on the two smaller islands adds depth that leaves the audience feeling like they made a recent visit to the Gateways National Park that includes Liberty and Ellis Island. Any Anna Pigeon novel is a treat, but LIBERTY FALLING is a special delight in a top series. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: Nevada Barr turns in another winner!
Review: Nevada Barr is one of the most exciting mystery writers today, and Liberty Falling is another winner featuring Anna Pigeon, park ranger and sleuth. The writing is exquisite, observations unique, the protagonist one of the most interesting and real around. Although the New York setting is a divergence from Barr's previous outdoor venues, it works well, and takes Anna back to some painful memories of her previous life in the city. The relationship with her sister is also well done and believable, as is the mystery which centers on the Statue of Liberty. A great summer read, leaving us wanting more and more.
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Summary: Liberty Flunked
Review: Nevada Barr needs to return to settings that enable her to describe nature, animals and peoples' reactions to them. New York is too sterile, too controlled and too contrived a setting. After finding this author, I have read and enjoyed all of her books but this one. Her earlier works were very refreshing because they offered the reader wonderful insights into our nation's parks while allowing us to revel in Anna Pigeon's character. Please go back to the country, Nevada!
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Summary: Nevada Barr does it again with a tight, quirky read.
Review: Nevada Barr's "Anna Pigeon" brings us to Ellis Island in NYC. Like the skillful ranger she is, she introduces us to the park in a way that we can appreciate its history without feeling we are on a packaged tour. It is also the perfect setting for the mystery of suspicious deaths and strange occurrences. The quirkiness of her characters, especially Anna, is a welcome change from so many mysteries. Let's hope Ms. Barr brings us to many, many more National Parks in the future. A most enjoyable, satisfying read !
Rating: 
Summary: A major disappointment from a writer who can do better.
Review: Nevada Barr's earlier books were fun to read. However, I gave up on "Blind Descent" half-way through. I thought this one would be better but, if anything, it is worse. The writing is turgid and leads nowhere. For example: "The timelessness of a summer evening was the only tase of immortality most humans ever got, and as Anna cherished the soft golden forever, she wished she could capture it, carry it across the harbor to Molly's windowless world." After suffering through dozens of such phrases, I just gave up. She should get back to the kind of writing she demonstrated in "Track of the Cat", "A Superior Death", et al. What could have been a good read turned out (as did "Blind Descent") to be a great big bore. I recommend she re-read Strunk's "Elements of Style."
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