Destroyer Angel: An Anna Pigeon Novel
When her friend Heath (Hard Truth, 2005), a paraplegic, agrees to road test a wheelchair poised to revolutionize the sports-gear market, park-ranger Anna Pigeon guides Heath; her daughter, Elizabeth; the chair’s designer, Leah; and Leah’s daughter on a trek in Minnesota’s Iron Mountains. It’s all fresh air and fireside chats until four armed men suddenly appear and abduct the hikers. Anna returns from a canoe jaunt to discover her friends held at gunpoint and stays hidden so that she can track them, seizing every opportunity to help her friends. Meanwhile, Heath struggles to survive the off-trail hike and protect the girls. With no cellular reception, Anna’s cunning strikes are the only hope for rescue, and she ferociously, sometimes savagely, harnesses the rules of the wild to even the odds. Anna Pigeon’s eighteenth adventure is equal parts psychological thriller and wilderness-survival tale sure to please series followers with a darker, no-holds-barred look at the emotional impact of Anna’s survival instinct, while beckoning newcomers with top-tier white-knuckle suspense.      HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: When publishers use the phrase “National One-Day Laydown,” they are not calling for universal nap time. The term is reserved for all-out sales blitzes (á la Harry Potter) in which a new book is made available simultaneously throughout the country. It’s a testament to Barr’s popularity that her new novel will be getting the one-day laydown treatment. Move your blankie, Rowling; Barr wants a nap, too. --Christine Tran