Deep South is the eighth book in Nevada Barr’s series centered on National Park Ranger Anna Pigeon. Each book takes place in a different National Park in the United States. This one focuses on the Natchez Trace in Mississippi.

After her heroics in the previous book, Liberty Falling, Anna Pigeon can’t escape being promoted to District Park Ranger, and she’s sent to manage the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. The locals there resent her presence from the very beginning. They are used to doing things their way, and don’t like outsiders being forced on them by the government. This should come as a surprise to no one who has paid attention to anything over the past couple of decades.

Anna discovers a drunk girl in the park being taken advantage of by a group of boys. She rescues her, but soon the body of another girl is found nearby with a sheet over her head and a noose around her neck. Anna must fight the misogyny of the “good ol’ boy network” to try to secure justice for the dead girl, as well as the racism prevalent in the area..

Even for the early 2000s, the way Anna is treated by her subordinates is ridiculous. I could get a prank or two as a way of initiating a new boss, but the hostility to her and the lack of respect for her authority go beyond that. I can understand being new on the job and not wanting to start off on a sour note, but there was no way these men were going to respect her unless she laid down the law. Her only source of support is a local sheriff, who is also new to the job,

Anna was haunted by the South. Things were out of whack. The land refused to show you its skeleton. Sheriffs prayed openly for the souls of the departed. Children frolicked in cemeteries. Used-car salesmen captained armies of ghosts. In the South, it seemed, the dead, like the poor, were always with you.

In Deep South, Anna is not quite as isolated as she usually seems to be when she’s working. Her personality is somewhat off-putting to her fellow rangers, even as she has tried in the past to cultivate friendships. Anna is just not a naturally gregarious person, and that was fine for the position she was in. Now she’s a District Ranger and can’t be as stand-offish as she’s used to. At the same time, it’s clear from the very beginning that the staff resents the new female boss from the North. There is a bit of culture shock for Anna, but I thought she would have been a bit stronger in asserting herself as a leader than she was here. She’s not comfortable in this role, and it shows.

The mystery was a good one with plenty of suspects. How much of what was happening was just resentment of Anna, period, versus what someone might be doing to try to dissuade her from investigating the murder, was hard to figure out. Her encounter with an alligator could have gone either way, but it adds a sense of suspense that someone might be willing to go that far to prevent her from learning the truth.

The audiobook was once again narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. I hadn’t noticed it in earlier books, but here she made lots of mouth noises that could be distracting at times. I don’t think she’s a great narrator, as I’ve had complaints about her in the past, too. I’d deduct a star from four if you factor that into your enjoyment of a book.

I liked the sense of Anna being in a different world in Deep South. It really worked having her be in such an alien situation for her first position since her promotion. She’s not comfortable with it at all. I do think she should have been more knowledgeable about some aspects of living in the South since she did spend time at Cumberland Islands in the fifth book of the series. I have had conversations with people, though, about how some of the southern states are so different from anywhere else. This is what she falls into, and Barr does a terrific job detailing this setting. Every book makes me want to visit the area, and this is no exception. I think it will be interesting to see where she goes from her, both personally and professionally.

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