Liberty Falling

Nevada Barr has been consistently praised for her enormously popular Anna Pigeon mysteries: “Exceptional” (Denver Post); “stunning” (The Seattle Times); “superb” (The New York Times Book Review); “a constant source of pleasure” (San Francisco Chronicle); “the writing and plotting talents of a master” (Publishers Weekly). With Liberty Failing, she gives us her most exciting and ambitious novel to date.

When Anna’s beloved sister Molly becomes gravely ill, Anna rushes to her bedside at New York’s Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. What began as pneumonia has turned horrifyingly more complicated, and Anna, helpless, can do nothing except sit and watch.

To clear her mind, Anna bunks with friends on Liberty Island and finds solitude across the harbor in the majestically decayed remains of hospitals, medical wards, and staff quarters of Ellis Island. Unlike the magnificently restored Registry Hall, these buildings are slowly being reclaimed by nature, where brick, glass, and iron are wrapped with delicate green tendrils and walls disappear behind leafy curtains. When a tumble through a crumbling staircase temporarily halts her ramblings, she’s willing to write off the episode as an accident, until a young girl falls — or is pushed — to her death while exploring the Statue of Liberty. Park administrators are quick to point fingers, until one of their own meets a fate similar to the unidentified girl’s.

Though she’s warned against it, Anna plunges into the investigation, sure that the deaths are not accidental. While party boats raucously cruise the harbor and danger and casualties mount, Anna is determined to solve Liberty’s problems and uncover the deadly secrets of her treasured island.