After having finished the voluminous Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, I needed something a little lighter, and I was lucky enough to find a copy of Nevada Barr's Track of the Cat (oddly enough, another debut novel). I was pretty impressed. For those of you not familiar with her, Ms. Barr is a National Parks ranger, and she takes the advice to "write what you know" and sets her mysteries in National Parks. Anyway, if you like your mysteries on the introspective side, this is a good one - lots of character development, lots of sitting around and talking about non-murder-related stuff. The ending is not 100% satisfying, but oh well. Maybe I liked this one better than I would have otherwise because it's set in West Texas, and the terrain of the park reminds me a lot of my time spent hiking around the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.
*** SPOILER ***
One thing near the end kind of bugged me, even though it was minor - in a way because it was minor. Jerimiah D. Paulsen seems to be quite the hunter and outdoorsman, and his rifle is described as a Sako, and Barr makes a fuss over its quality. Cool, I thought, she knows a good rifle. But then in the climactic fight scene
a) it's loaded when taken out of the crate? Paulsen, master hunter, transports his rifle loaded in the crate?
b) Harland Roberts picks it up with one hand and threatens her with it - OK, maybe, since it's loaded, maybe the safety is off as well...but then it goes off several times during the struggle! All Sakos are bolt-action, and I don't think they're going to be working the bolt while they're wrestling! It's just frustrating, since if you're going to name a specific product, you might as well take care to get the details right...
Re: Track of the Cat, by Nevada Barr
My high school was featured in her book "Deep South."
I didn't do it though.