by Nevada Barr
Part of Anna Pigeon, book 17
First published 2012
Anna Pigeon arrives at Glen Canyon National Recreational Area in 1995, a 35-year-old refugee from New York City nursing a broken heart. She takes an unglamorous seasonal job at the park, hoping for a fresh start. On her day off, Anna heads out for a hike and never returns. Her coworkers assume she simply moved on when they find her cabin cleaned out and her belongings gone. But Anna wakes up trapped at the bottom of a dry natural well, naked and without supplies. She has no clear memory of how she ended up in this inescapable prison. As fragments of memory slowly return, Anna realizes someone deliberately trapped her there. No one knows she's missing. No rescue is coming. Unprepared for this brutal test of survival, Anna must dig deep to find reserves of courage and determination she didn't know she still possessed. She faces not just the physical challenge of escape but the psychological battle to overcome despair and find the will to live.
Genres: survival, adventure, mystery, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Glen Canyon National Recreational Area
Period: 1995
357 pages · Hardcover · Minotaur Books
Content warnings: violence