by Nevada Barr
Part of Anna Pigeon, book 15
First published 2009
Anna Pigeon struggles with PTSD after violent deaths during her wolf study work on Isle Royale. The National Park Service has placed her on administrative leave while she battles trauma that may end her career permanently. Her new husband Paul believes a rafting adventure through Big Bend National Park might help her heal. They travel to southwest Texas, where the Chihuahuan Desert's beauty and the Rio Grande's power seem to offer the peace Anna desperately needs. The trip goes wrong when their raft capsizes in dangerous rapids and a college student disappears overboard. Anna and Paul make a horrific discovery while searching for the missing student. They find a pregnant woman trapped between boulders, barely alive, her body caught in fallen branches beneath the water. What should have been Anna's path to recovery becomes something far more sinister. The rescue pulls Anna and Paul into a complex web of secrets that stretches from the Mexican border to the highest levels of Texas government in Austin.
Genres: adventure, mystery, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: recovery, secrets
Setting: Big Bend National Park, Chihuahuan Desert, Isle Royale, Mexico, Rio Grande, Texas
Period: Contemporary
399 pages · Hardcover · G.P. Putnam's Sons
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness