As a long-time fan of Nevada Barr and Ranger Anna Pigeon, I was disappointed with this one. Barr seems to be bored with her main character, as Anna felt like a side character. Now Barr just seems to relish new things that villains can do to her to make her suffer. Anna has become a shell, with no character growth. The new recurring characters just don't interest me as much.

One of the things I loved most about this series is the detail and care Barr took in describing the parks, their history and the nature surrounding them. Acadia is barely described - to the extent that it made me wonder if Barr has even visited the park or if she just looked on a map to pull in some details. I was especially disappointed as this is a park I have visited numerous times.

Maybe I will reread the early books in the series instead of the next installment. ( )

I continue to enjoy these mysteries, not least because they keep up with the times -- they feel very realistic, and they tackle current themes. Anna, bless her, keeps getting realistically older and more cantankerous, too. ( )

Synopsis: A cyberstalker/bully is after Elizabeth, to the point that E nearly commits suicide. Her next door neighbor, and father of E's best friend, attempts to rape her. Heath, Gwen, and Anna take E to an island off the coast of Acadia National Park so that she'll be safe. And of course, she's not. It becomes apparent that the stalker knows where they are and continues to bully E. Meanwhile in the community one of Gwen's friends is dying of heart disease and looking for her twin daughters she gave up at birth; two lobstermen are murdered. Anna is at Acadia National Park as a visiting ranger and gets only peripherally involved in the murders. However, someone thinks she is investigating and wants her out of the way.
Review: Much of the book is interesting, well written, and quite interwoven. The actual ending is flat. And why is Paul left out of another adventure? ( )

The last in the Anna Pigeon series, to this point. In fact, this has been the Year of the Pigeon for me. I first discovered Nevada Barr and started reading this series this year, and now I have come as far as I can until she writes the next episode.

Anna is Acting Chief Ranger at Acadia National Park in Maine, a short-term post. But she arrives there already burdened with a mystery to solve. Her god-daughter Elizabeth (adopted daughter of friend Heath Jarrod) has been the target of a cyber-bully. The posts are vicious and relentless, and have descended into the "why don't you kill yourself" phase. Thus Heath, her aunt Gwen, and Elizabeth take a holiday on Boar Island while Anna is stationed nearby. The three are able to stay in a former lighthouse that has been expanded oddly, owned by a longtime friend of Gwen's who is in the hospital.

The four are intent on finding the cyberbully. While they are trying to track the attacks a murder occurs. The murder scene is under the jurisdiction of several organizations, and Anna is happy to escape the yoke. She does visit the scene with one of her rangers, Denise Castle, and finds Denise's disinterest peculiar. Usually rangers want to be involved in the more sensational cases.

Denise, however, is operating on another track. The book alternates between Anna's and Denise's stories, until they come together. In Denise we seem to have a hard person, a loner looking for love and family and who feels cheated. Her personality, in fact, starts to seem like that of a psychopath. Or at least an obsessed person.

While we follow the cyberattacks with Anna's gang, we alternately follow Denise's discoveries and plans.

There is a lot of water in this one. There are lobstermen and their grievances against each other. There are boat rides in the middle of the night. And there are bodies thrown into the Atlantic. We get some idea of Boar Island and its lighthouse as well as a hint of nearby small towns. I did go online to look at some of the islands in the area to get an idea.

Then the cyberbully is nearby. He or she is sending texts, wanting to meet Elizabeth alone. What could go wrong? So much.

And what could go wrong for Denise when Anna picks up on some clues that could throw Denise's plans out the window? And what happens when Elizabeth goes missing?

There are many suspenseful times, although none that take up half or more of the book, which has happened in other books in the series. It was always enough to keep me reading.

I have to admit that I tired of Denise. She seemed a rather typical literary psychopath, tearing blindly down her obsessive path. Not really an interesting character. Her sister holds a bit more promise but doesn't get much opportunity to express it.

The quartet of women is as close as ever and as responsive to each other as ever. I breathe a sigh of relief when Anna eschews the hugs that so easily come to others. We aren't all made that way. ( )

Anna is still getting it done ( )