Name: Blood Lure
ISBN: 9780425183755

Nevada Barr

While studying grizzly bears in Waterton/Glacier National Peace Park on the border of Montana and Canada, ranger Anna Pigeon finds herself in the midst of a series of deadly bear attacks that leave her struggling to re-evaluate her own view of nature. By the author of Deep South. Reprint.

Blood Lure

Sarah Sammis

Blood Lure by Nevada Barr is the 9th Anna Pigeon mystery but all the books stand by themselves as each one is set in a different location.

In this installment Anna is stationed at Glacier National Park where she is helping with a grizzly bear DNA project. On their first night out their camp is attacked by a grizzly and their youngest member, Rory Van Slyke. The next morning Rory's stepmother is found dead on a trail. Was it a bear or was it murder?

Actually it was a little bit of both and it takes Anna many false starts to get to the heart of the matter. She wants to clear Rory whom she is sure wasn't involved even though it appears he had plenty of motive. Given how poorly Rory treats Anna, I'm surprised she was so driven to do the right thing.

For the astute reader, all the clues are there. They're early on in the book. If you pay attention you can solve the mystery well before Anna does. I got close, although I didn't have the why of Mrs. Van Slyke's death sorted out.