Set in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, the novel follows ranger Anna Pigeon as a routine patrol turns into a hunt — first for a mountain lion, then for something far more human.

Barr writes the park as an active force: isolating, beautiful, lethal. The mystery unfolds and is dictated by weather, terrain, solitude, and the slow creeping feeling of being watched.

What makes this book stick isn’t the crime mechanics but the tone. Barr writes in a restrained, grounded style, which when applied to nature, make it feel as big as it really should seem. A confident first novel, and the clean starting point of a long-running series that never loses sight of place.