Liberty Falling: 09/13/12

Liberty Falling by Nevada Barr is the seventh in the Anna Pigeon mystery series. It is set in New York City, Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Anna is there because her sister is in intensive care. When she's not working as a park ranger, she's sitting at her sister's bedside in the hospital.

Anna, though, is preoccupied at work by two very similar deaths at the Statue of Liberty. Her anger over both of them, combined with her sister's ill health put her in a very poor and self destructive mood all the way through.

She spends her late nights exploring the ruins of Ellis Island, often putting herself in danger from the poor repair of the structures. While I normally love following along as a character explores old, crumbling buildings, I felt a disconnect here that just pulled me out of the story. Part of that disconnect was the realization that fictional Anna was there at the same time my family and I were there. The other part, stemmed from Anna's own recklessness — going at night without a partner, no ropes or other safety equipment.

Finally, there's the mystery itself. Once all of Anna's anger and self destruction is pushed aside, the actual who done it and why is pretty basic. I think for this volume of the series, too much time was spent on character development at the cost of the mystery.

Three stars

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