Blind descent : an Anna Pigeon mystery

SUMMARY: Murder goes underground when park ranger Anna Pigeon heads to New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns on a subterranean rescue mission. A would-be killer is drawing Anna Pigeon deep into the darkness-and closer to hell than she's ever gone before. "Anna Pigeon, the intrepid National Park Service ranger in Nevada Barr's superb wilderness mysteries, has had some perilous experiences in the five novels that preceded Blind Descent, but none compares with this thrilling subterranean adventure in the underground caverns of Lechuguilla, 'a monster man-eating cave' in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns. When a fellow ranger is injured in a caving accident, Anna chokes back the willies of claustrophobia and joins the rescue team. Burrowing 800 feet below ground, she negotiates airless tunnells, gaping pits, vaulting caverns and silently flowing rivers, each hazard with a daunting name like Razor Blade Run or the Wormhole. At the end of the dangerous descent, she reaches her friend and hears her say, 'It wasn't an accident.'" "Barr's descriptions of this Stygian underworld -- so beautiful, so mysterious and so treacherous -- have a stunning visceral quality, largely because of her heroine's affinity with the natural world. Strong, independent and proud of it, Anna is less appreciative of nature's higher orders. (If she had a tail, she says of her edgy encounter with another caver, it would have been lashing.) Her abrasiveness may blind Anna to the subtler signals of human behavior, but alone in the darkness, she can see clear to the heart of the matter." Park ranger Anna Pigeon is enjoying the open spaces of Colorado when she receives an urgent call. A young woman has been injured while exploring a cave in New Mexico's Carlsbad Cavern Park. Before she can be pulled to safety, she sends for her friend Anna. Only one problem: a crushing fear of confined spaces has kept Anna out in the open her whole life. A Woman Park Ranger Has An Accident During A Survey Of New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns, A 300-mile Labyrinth Of Caves And Tunnels 800 Feet Underground. Fellow Park Ranger Anna Pigeon Braves Her Claustrophobia To Mount A Rescue And Discovers It Was No Accident. By The Author Of Endangered Species. Nevada Barr. Map Of The Lechuguilla Cavern On Endpapers. Forced to cope with her claustrophobia and to use all the skills she has developed above ground, park ranger Anna Pigeon enters the dangerous Lechuguilla Cavern in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns National Park to attempt a rescue and learns who she can trust and who can be saved. 50,000 first printing. Tour. Forced to cope with her claustrophobia and to use all the skills she has developed above ground, park ranger Anna Pigeon enters the dangerous Lechuguilla Cavern in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns National Park to attempt a rescue and learns who she can trust and who can be saved. -- Amazon.com When park ranger Anna Pigeon embarks on a thrilling subterranean rescue mission, she confronts personal demons & a multitude of life-threatening dangers, not all of them from the hostile terrain With deep appreciation of the staff of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, particularly Dale Pate, Paula Bauer, Harry Burgess, and Frank Deckert.