The reader, on the other hand, was overblown and regularly ignored cues from the author as to how dialogue should be delivered. My love for Anna Pigeon continues and the book gets 5 stars. And, also as usual, the author kept me guessing the identity of the villian until Anna figured it out. The writing was top notch with believable dialogue and well drawn characters. Anna, as usual, takes a licking but solves the mystery and brings the villian to justice. Nevada Barr is at the top of her game with this book, set this time in Rocky Mountain National Park. If these matters are not of concern to the reader, then Hard Truth is as sterling a read(or listen, as the case may be) as the previous Anna Pigeon books.Īh, but I do love a truly diabolical villian. It was just a shame that the aforementioned flaws of violence and vulgarity have caused me to drop Barr as one of my favorite authors. The narration was, as always, superb, Barr's writing style, as always, faultless with exception of that seemingly needless dragging out of the story toward the end.

Sitting on a plane, I finally got so disgusted I tore off my headphones and snarled out loud (startling the ConAgra executive next to me), 'Just shoot the and get it over with!' and never did finish listening to the book.

However, as the series progressed, there seemed to be an inordinate increase in the amount of gratuitous vulgarity and violence. I enjoyed listening as I sewed or worked around the house, always posting on the wall a map of the area of the book's setting so I could follow along with Anna's travels. I have been an avid fan of Nevada Barr since I picked up the first Anna Pigeon book.

Hard truth by nevada barr